Austin, Detroit, England: in today’s list, a tour of soon-to-be far-flung local scenery:
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Tag: Demolitions
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DEMOLISHINGS AND CLOSINGS 
HISD plans to begin demolishing the old Bastian Elementary School on Calhoun Rd. just south of the South Loop within the next few weeks, in an effort to make the 6-acre property more appealing to possible buyers. The South Park campus has been vacant since 2007, when a new Bastian Elementary was built a mile south on Bellfort. At one point, Lynn Walsh reports, “the property was listed for sale for $825,000, according to an online multiple listings service search, or slightly more than a third of the county’s appraised value for it.” Meanwhile, the HISD board voted this evening to close Grimes, Rhoads, McDade, and Stevenson elementary schools. Some students from Stevenson Elementary will begin classes next year at Love Elementary in the Heights, which had previously been threatened with closure. [Texas Watchdog] Photo of Bastian Elementary: Dikombi Gite
On today’s roster: a pool garden adjustment at a private little gathering spot near Memorial Park that’s home to a 1940 John Staub clubhouse.
A little bit of healthcare reform over by the Willowbrook Mall, plus other destructive delights.
The demo-photo tag team of Joe Lex and Kerwin McKenzie have more pics to share of the ongoing destruction at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. But there’s more to their latest images than your run-of-the-mill demolition porn. Hidden behind the racquetball courts already pulled down on the southwest end of the former YMCA building, they claim: What looks to be the building’s original brick facade, before the courts were added. You can see what sure looks like an original exterior wall on the far left side of the image above, which shows the view from along Pease St.: Look for the lighter-colored brick structure with the engaged arches.
A pioneer tin house prototype in Rice Military gets turned into scrap. And an Allwood structure too.
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Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Only a few houses to take off your hands. You’re welcome.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE $1 MILLION PROBLEM WITH RIVER OAKS MID-CENTURY MODERNS “River Oaks MCMs *always* go for lot value and get torn down. Sentimental owners think they should get a premium for the good architecture but it never happens. If they really care about the building they should price it at 900k and put a no teardown easement on it. Instead, they will lower the price by 100k every 3 months and 3 years from now it will be a Tuscan villa. (As a point of comparison, 59 Tiel Way, a Kamrath beauty which had a much larger, insanely off the hook lot, bigger, nicer, renovated house, was similarly priced – for 3 years he lowered the price slowly, and eventually was offering it on Ebay for 950 minus commission. No one bit and now, sadly, it is a clay lot that will likely sell in the mid 800s). Another comparitor is the MCM on North BLvd, also priced like this, slowly reduced for 3 years, now at 899k until the listing expired again. People like to admire MCM architecture but they don’t like to pay $1M for it. In Houston, at least.” [CAHBF, commenting on 1960 Preserved: River Oaks Mod Box Jumps into the Market]
From reader Josh Burdick come these graphic images from this morning’s speedy takedown of the Buffalo Grille — the last remaining portion of the shopping center that stood at the corner of Bissonnet and Buffalo Speedway before the H-E-B Buffalo Market took it over. Can H-E-B chew up this breakfast spot and spit out a few more parking spots for grocery shoppers fast enough? A bit more of Burdick’s bite-by-bite coverage:
Do you think if these buildings come back its going to be okay by magic? What’s going to change? What’s going to be different?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE ARE THE MODS, WHERE ARE THE MODS, WHERE ARE, WHERE ARE, WHERE ARE THE MODS? “I think this house might survive because of the neighborhood. It’s like the one neighborhood in Houston where they tear down houses in order to build modern replacements. On Colquitt, for example, I only recall one non-modern house… And it was for sale, last I looked.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Behind Those Pink Walls in Ferndale]
While thousands of ExxonMobil employees wait patiently to hear confirmation from the oil giant’s tight-lipped management about their rumored “possible” consolidation in a brand-new enormous office campus just south of The Woodlands, aerial photos that show work proceeding on the site have shown up in an update to Google Maps. The photo update appears to be relatively recent; it shows a level of clear-cutting similar to what was evident in the images leaked to Swamplot last month, which dated from March 12:
Culling just a couple pieces of the city today.
After weeks of prep work, the bricks have at last begun coming down from the old YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. From his vantage point on the 18th floor of the office tower at 1600 Smith St., reader Joe Lex reports that major demolition started this morning — on the walls of the racquetball courts on the south-southwest side of the building.
- Previously on Swamplot: Starting Now: Downtown YMCA Is Coming Down, Early Exit: The Fire at the Downtown Y, Downtown YMCA To Self-Destruct, Finally
Photos: Joe Lex (from above) and Kerwin McKenzie
