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Tag: Demolitions
The top-down demo of the 10-story building at 3400 Montrose has reached its moment of smooth-jazzy truth. Having taken care of the parking garage in back, demo crews are now hard at work dismantling the 10th-floor portion of the building, which formerly housed Scott Gertner’s Skybar — and before that, Cody’s. These views from across Montrose Blvd. and Hawthorne St. taken yesterday by a Swamplot reader show the south and west portions of the top floor are already gone, and come-aparts are headed for the corner. Hanover is planning to build a significantly taller apartment tower on the site once the 1953 stone-clad structure is gone.
- Previously on Swamplot: A Deck Pool, but No ‘Skybar,’ for the new 3400 Montrose; New 30-Story 3400 Montrose Tower Will Face Kroger, Show Montrose Blvd. Its Garage and Drive-Thru; Apartment Developer Buying Montrose Blvd. ‘Skybar’ Building; What 3400 Montrose Looks Like Inside; Redo Plans for the Office Building at 3400 Montrose Blvd.; Will 3400 Montrose Rise from the Dead?; Stone Panel Leaps to Montrose Blvd. Sidewalk from Former Skybar Balcony; Everybody Out: The Ghost Town at 3400 Montrose; Comment of the Day: A 3400 Montrose Blvd. Inspection Report; Why Scott Gertner’s Skybar Is Leaving the Montrose Sky; Scott Gertner’s Skybar Closing, May Take the Whole Building with It
Photo: polyester
The Cody’s, Scott Gertner Liftoff
Here’s where we break with the old ways, and break the old things. Every day.
Whatever the original plans were for the partial demolition of the gray-painted 1940 bungalow that sat across the street from the Menil Collection and across the footpath to the West Alabama St. parking lot from the Menil Bookstore, they appear to have been exceeded. A reader sends in these photos of the construction site at 1512 Sul Ross St.; they show that the woodframe structure intended for “adaptive reuse” into a new Bistro Menil according to a design by Stern and Bucek Architects has been removed entirely.
The Menil had announced plans for the bungalow-to-bistro conversion at that spot last October, in concert with an upgrade of the parking-lot path into a “new campus gateway” designed by landscape firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. “In keeping with the emphasis on sustainability that is a keynote of the landscape design,” read a Menil press release, “the Menil’s café is designed by Stern and Bucek through the adaptive reuse of one of the bungalows that define the character of the Menil’s campus.” The press release also noted that the Menil’s architect, Renzo Piano, had originally proposed putting a café in this exact location. Since named (via a contest) Bistro Menil, the arts institution’s first eating spot is set to be run by Café Annie, Taco Milagro, and Café Express alum Greg Martin.
Leaving Only Footprints
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Clearing out Hotel 31 on the West Loop, and other city checkouts:
There may not be much to do here, but let’s at least try to make every smash count.
Spotted on a reader’s drive to Champ Burger: the newly vacant almost-an-acre lot at the corner of York and Sherman streets east of East Downtown, where the New Era Nursing and Rehab facility at 3510 Sherman St. was recently demolished. An entity controlled by Lovett Homes developer Frank Liu purchased the property last October.
Lovett Gotta
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
If we can get these ones out, we can make room for others.
If you could line all of them up, mowing them down would go so much faster. But you have to take your demolitions as they come.
