07/26/13 10:00am

Yeah, this old one is a goner: A rep from the city says that a variance application to reduce the building setback has been approved for this corner in Museum Park, making just enough room on the 8,100-sq.-ft. lot at Jackson and Blodgett so 4 townhomes can squeeze on in. The peach-trimmed, converted-into-apartments building at 1702 Blodgett St., catty-corner from the art gallery that opened in the strip center, was in the Daily Demolition Report this morning. County records show that the doomed 4,220-sq.-ft. building dates to 1935.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/25/13 2:30pm

A reader sends a photo of what still remains of this 1930 home at 1813 Arbor St. MLS data show that the 2,004-sq.-ft. house on this 8,000-sq.-ft. Museum Park lot was sold in May for $285,000. Reports the reader: “I thought that they were going to rehab this house but now it looks like they are dismantling it and salvaging bricks and materials.” You can find these ruins a block west of Almeda, directly across the street from those Intexure homes that were reviewed here when featured on the Art Institute of Houston’s 2011 Modern Home Tour.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

07/24/13 5:00pm

Here’s a photo of the little rubble pile forming outside the former Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk, a presage of the bigger rubble to come. Skanska, which bought the 18-story building standing on the block bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis, and Milam, has said it plans to replace it with a 34-story, 700,000-sq.-ft. office tower that’s being designed by Gensler.

Photos: HAIF user Nate99

07/24/13 1:00pm

TEARING DOWN TOWNHOMES TO BUILD ANOTHER PEARL Prime Property reports that Houston developer Morgan Group will demolish a bunch of townhomes and a small office building on S. Gessner Rd. to make way for another of its Pearl-brand apartment complexes; the Briar Forest property was recently purchased, explains Nancy Sarnoff, and the demo of the 131-unit Quadrangle Townhomes at 2021 and the Tanney School building at 2055 S. Gessner might go down before the new year. The Morgan Group complex pictured here, Pearl Greenway at 3788 Richmond Ave., opened recently; another like complex is under construction in Midtown. Adds Sarnoff: “Morgan said it will work with . . . residents to help them find new apartments nearby before the building is demolished.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Morgan Group

07/19/13 12:00pm

Once the scrap pile is cleared, Hanover will begin building a 12-story residential tower on this site near Rice Village. The demolition started yesterday to get rid of the aging Village Apartments facing Tangley and the Garden Gate facing Morningside; these properties share the block bound as well by Dunstan and Kelvin with the Village Commons restaurants. And that might be why — unlike its shorter predecessor on the other side of Dunstan, which you can see looming in the background in the photo above — this proposed tower isn’t planned to have any street-level retail. A notice sent earlier this year to Southampton residents suggests that it will have about 200 units.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/16/13 3:00pm

Seems the end is coming at the end of the summer for this 1955 12-plex just inside the Loop on Oakshire Dr.: A rep from the city says that the planning commission has approved a subdivision of the 0.4-acre property underneath it into 7 skinny single-family slots. And the Swamplot reader who has been keeping us updated now and again about the building located just south of W. Alabama near Afton Oaks writes in with what might be the last word: “I just heard from a resident who is still there that they are planning on starting the tear-down August 1st.”

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY