What better way to kick off a whole new decade of destruction — than with the very last demos approved last year?
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Tag: Demolitions
Goodbye, aughts! Here’s some of what we’ll be leaving behind:
Oh, thought they’d make it through the year, huh? Fat chance for these suckahs!
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
No demo permits were reported by the city for last Thursday, which means there are no demolitions to report today. It wasn’t just demos: The city apparently didn’t issue any permits at all on Christmas Eve. Still, it’s kinda special, isn’t it?
Here’s what we’ve got going down. Can we finish the cleanup before Christmas?
Demolition artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck — sculptors of the storied Inversion project on Montrose Blvd. and last year’s householing Give and Take — are back at work hacking old houses again. Their next victim will be a cottage house they’re rescuing from the lot behind the Fifth Ward’s DeLuxe Theater at 3300 Lyons Ave. (The cat-like facade of that theater — pictured above — will be used to front a new music-history library and performing arts center for the Fifth Ward, but the rest of the building and the small farm of cottages behind it are being torn down to make way for the new building and a parking lot.)
Havel reports Drake House Moving is scheduled to tote the rescued house today 3 blocks east along Lyons Ave., to an empty lot on Capron St. That’s where Havel and Ruck will get to work building and carving a temporary sculpture out of it that’s due to debut in May.
And they have a special request for Swamplot readers: Got any used 117 siding you could contribute to the project?
The problem is that we are in dire need of old siding from any tear down houses out there. Just don’t know how to find ’em. Tear downs are all over the Fifth, but it’s hard to find the O.K. to go in and salvage without owner’s consent. Don’t want to get shot…
What do they want the siding for? Well, take a look at what they’re planning to do:
Immanuel Lutheran Church has a signed contract to demolish its original sanctuary structure at the corner of 15th St. and Cortlandt in the Heights this summer. But art gallery owner and structural engineer Gus Kopriva wants to turn the 1932 building into an art museum instead.
Kopriva, who was involved in the recent renovation of the Heights Theater and owns Redbud Gallery on 11th St., is scheduled to present his concept to the church today. It would involve a long-term lease and a new nonprofit organization to raise money for the renovation, writes Allan Turner in the Chronicle:
“It’s been my long-term dream to create a Texas arts mecca,†Kopriva said. The museum, which he would call the Heights Arts Museum (HAM), would also house art archives, he said.
Backing Kopriva’s proposal are the Houston Heights Association and the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, both of which have struggled to save the church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- Museum idea could save threatened Heights church [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?, This Week in Old Movie Theater Rehab
Photo of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1448 Cortlandt St.: Flickr user dey37
Have you considered a demolition for that special someone on your shopping list? These sites are available:
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Well, well — what do we not have here anymore?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THAT GARDEN ON SUL ROSS SEEMS SO PEACEFUL NOW “bye bye 1749 sul ross. my home for 9 years. to be torn down to expand the neighbors garden. 9 year totals:
- “4 roomates
- 7 noise complaints ‘weve been called out here before sir’
- 1 night of fun with boxes of fake movie snow
- 2 car break-ins
- 1 front yard fistfight with real blood on the movie snow ..best comment “wow, looks…looks like a movieâ€
- 1 fugitive running through the property to be nabbed by the HPD
- 1 ‘electrical event’ when a falling tree slowly ripped out the power and fried a ton of appliances”
It’s holiday destruction madness! Will you be able to get your building demo’ed in time?
Today we have demos! What’ll it be tomorrow?