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Tag: Demolitions
Let’s put an end to these:
“There’s a lot that’s recently been cleared immediately behind the Asia Society,” reports a reader. You know the one, at the corner of Oakdale and Caroline St.? The one whose owners refused to sell, forcing Asia Society architect Yoshio Taniguchi to design around it? Where there was that 1930s vine-covered home being used as a doctor’s office that was supposed to be sold and renovated into a restaurant, but never was?
Well, in February, 5219 Caroline appeared in the Daily Demolition Report. And this photo taken from the median shows what the site looks like now. The reader continues:
All of the neighbors have questioned who owns the property and what is to happen to it. According to HCAD it appeared to be owned by Balcor, the company behind the rather unpopular Parc Binz. . . . We’re wondering if the Asia Society is trying to buy the land . . . [T]he neighbors who live in the town homes across from Asia Society have complained that the social events held on site tend to be quite loud, quite late. Overall, the neighborhood couldn’t be happier to have this organization in its bounds. And, if they were to own that land, if only they’d open a little gourmet coffee shop. That would please hundreds of people. . . . I’ve heard from Asia Society . . . that they’re trying to purchase the land. I think there is something more going on there — but no one is talking at this point.
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Palace Out, Passing on a Museum District Restaurant Reno, A Museum District Restaurant Conversion Cut Short, Inside Views of Yoshio Taniguchi’s Asia Society Texas Center, Houston’s Next Big Museum District Thing, Whoosh!! What the Bootsie’s Crew Has Been Cooking Up
Photo: Allyn West
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Let’s kick off the week by kicking these off:
A HEIGHTS RETAIL RESURRECTION 
The Leader is reporting that the Baptist Temple Church on Rutland and 20th St. in the Heights has sold 2 of its oldest buildings to Braun Enterprises, which says it will tear them down and replace them with less sacred spaces — that is, retail or a restaurant. If the almighty dollar has triumphed, there’s still a silver lining — or so Charlotte Aguilar suggests, reporting that the sale of the buildings — the church’s original sanctuary, built in 1912, and a larger one built in 1940 — will fund a $3 million renovation to its remaining 65,000-sq.-ft. T.C. Jester Building on 20th; a new 300-seat sanctuary will be added and classrooms and offices updated. [The Leader] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar via The Leader
HOUSTON CLUB TUNNEL TENANTS MAKING THEIR ESCAPE 
The last 2 restaurants in the tunnels underneath the 18-story former Houston Club Building on Rusk St. are preparing to get up and out of there, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff: The below-ground Skyline Deli and KoKoro Sushi will have sold their last lunches by the end of May, in advance of what a rep from new building owner Skanska says will be “selective interior demolition and abatement.” And that demolition is about to become much less selective, adds Sarnoff, since Skanska says it’s designing an office tower for this Downtown lot bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis, and Milam. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties
And now, a few brief acts to celebrate our appreciation of open space:
Houston has a knack for knocking things down, and painter and Glassell School instructor Ken Mazzu has been showing up at a good number of those demo sites during the past 10 years, snapping the photos he then works from to render the bent rebar and crumbled concrete on canvas. The somewhat abstract painting shown here comes from the wreckage of the Kenneth Franzheim-designed Prudential Building that used to stand on Holcombe Blvd. in the Med Center until it fell a little more than a year ago.
Oh, and are there more:
And now we shall gather these carefully carved pieces and deposit them into landfills:
In which the Heights Fiesta earns approval for removal. Plus, the end of a Tanglewood bomb shelter — and the site of many a peacock-perused dinner.
This map from what a reader says is a “recent” Cushman & Wakefield flyer shows a couple of interesting things that might be in store for Southside Place: Not only is the land underneath the smallest of the 3 buildings of the vacated Shell Bellaire Tech Center described as “under contract for future bank,” the 5.5 acres next to it, underneath the company’s original 1936 geoprocessing center at 3737 Bellaire Blvd., appears to be the subject of residential or retail development.
There sure have been some conflicting reports coming in lately about Gramercy Place. Since the old apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. behind the Museum Tower were sold last month to an LLC controlled by Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro owner Fred Sharifi, we first heard that they’d be torn down and replaced by 2 midrise residential towers. Around that same time, it seems, a real estate agent was sending a letter to Gramercy Place tenants claiming something similar and offering to help everyone find a new place to live.
