If we can sneak these out one at a time, maybe no one will notice.
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Tag: Demolitions
The owner of this 1930-ish former gas station and duplex bungalow at 3500 White Oak Dr. in the Houston Heights Historic District South plans to tear down the 2 structures and build a single-family home on the 8,800-sq.-ft. site — likely facing the side street, Cortlandt. Last week by a vote of 12 to 6 Houston’s planning commission reversed the decision of the archaeological and historic commission, allowing the demo to go through. The HAHC had denied the owner’s demolition request in November, insisting that the structures could be rehabbed. But experts hired by the owner indicated that the underground gas tank beneath the station couldn’t be removed without demolishing that structure, and that redevelopment of the duplex would be “cost prohibitive.”
They’re History
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
If we can get these down quietly, no one will notice.
From the Swamplot reader known as Googlemaster comes this parting photo of jewelry store Fly High Little Bunny at 3120 S. Shepherd Dr., featuring — in the view from Sul Ross St. — a new mural. The building stands in the way of a new drive-thru building meant to add heft and balance to a new CVS Pharmacy going in at the corner of Shepherd and West Alabama St. Sunday was the last day of business at the shop.
- Fly High Little Bunny [Facebook]
- Previously on Swamplot: Sprawl Vortex at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama Will Turn Roeder’s Pub into Drive-Thru, Cat Clinic Houses into CVS; The Last Hours of That Shopping Center at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama, Where The New CVS Is Going In
Photo: Googlemaster
Resistance Is Futile
Another section of the former Shell Tech Center on Bellaire Blvd. in Southside Place is hitting the dirt this week, this time for a townhome community proposed by builders Rohe & Wright, whose previous developments include 30 Sunset, Winfield Gate, and Cáceres. The company is planning to build a townhome development on the site at 3747 Bellaire Blvd. called Crain Square — for which, the company’s website declares (without much more detail), “the classic American townhouse featuring southern traditional architecture is the muse.” (E.L. Crain was the founder of Southside Place.) The Village News provides more info, reporting that the company plans to fit 62 townhomes on the 5.5-acre center section of the former research complex — which occupied 3 properties totaling 9.7 acres.
Actual Zoning
The end comes for the former Shamrock Hotel ballroom, now known as the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center. And a few more holdovers:
We’re still awaiting photos of the scene — both to confirm and to allow everyone to revel in the destruction — but a regular tipster informs Swamplot that the building backing up to Buffalo Bayou on the south side of I-10 near Voss Rd. that until mid-2009 housed the Las Alamedas Restaurant is being demolished. The back side of the building has been ripped open, the reader reports;, but as of a visit yesterday the front of the building remained intact.
Now It’s Never Coming Back
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday permit offices were open.
The best way to start the new year is by getting rid of the old.
Reader Sean McManus was on the spot for yesterday’s demolition proceedings at the southwest corner of W. Alabama St. and S. Shepherd Dr., where Roeder’s Pub, Ruchi’s taqueria, Fly High Little Bunny jewelry store and the River Oaks Dry Cleaners are being swept away in favor of a CVS pharmacy.
“As I was taking [the pictures], one of the deconstruction workers asked if he could help me,” McManus writes. “I told him that I was just taking a couple of quick photos. His response: ‘Pfft… Memories.’”
More hot demo porn after the jump:
Fly High, Little Ruchi and Roeder
Whaddya say we knock back a couple Karbachs, then go out for a bit of the Fifth? You game?
