DESOLATE FEEDER ROAD CAR LOT LANDSCAPES What’s become of the 20-some Houston-area car lots dealers have shut down over the last year or two? Here’s a sampling: “‘My mother lived here 27 years, and we never had any trouble with Landmark Chevrolet,’ said Rhys Everett, who was cleaning out his mother’s former residence in the Hidden Valley neighborhood behind the defunct dealership. ‘But now it is filled with vagrants who have taken everything that wasn’t nailed down, and it’s a jumping-off point for crime in our neighborhood.’ The dealership, one of 13 outlets nationwide that Bill Heard Enterprises closed in September 2008, sprawls for blocks near the intersection of Gulf Bank and the North Freeway. It looks as if it had been hit by a cyclone. The main showroom’s exterior and interior windows are shattered. Ceiling tiles are torn away, exposing duct work that dangles like limp straws. Awnings hang in tatters. . . . The ravaged Chevrolet dealership’s antithesis can be found on Interstate 10 in Baytown, where the defunct Baytown Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealership is preserved in near-pristine condition.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
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Tag: Landscape
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NO RESPECT FOR THE LAND “I was so infuriated when developers planted these oak saplings on what was once a lovely, open prairie!” [Unsid, commenting on Tying White Ribbons ’Round the Doomed Oak Trees: Is H-E-B Coming to Wilshire Village?]
The trees remaining on the site of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy are sporting some colorful new tags as of late last week, reports a nearby resident:
All the trees have ribbons around them. Trees along Alabama have green ribbons. All the other trees (on about 3/4 of the property) have white ribbons. Exception: green ribbons for 2 live oak trees that flank the old property entrance at Sul Ross. If white ribbons mean TEAR DOWN, then the property will be virtually denuded.
Of course white ribbons don’t mean TEAR DOWN. They mean SURRENDER.
And then there’s the new rumor our informant just heard and is passing along:
MORE OF THE STORY OF THOSE DISAPPEARING OAK FOREST OAKS 
“My neighbor lived in what you would consider a ‘tear down.’ For several years she struggled with selling and moving or rebuilding on the lot. A big factor in the decision was finding a builder that would keep the integrity of the lot and not cut down the gem – a 100 year old tree that is 4′ in diameter. She thought that she found the builder that respected the tree and had the same vision while simultaneous[ly] she found her dream home over in Garden Oaks. . . . Shortly after the transition, a family bought the lot and are ready to build . . . I have 2 neighbors including myself that would take this tree. I have till Friday to find an association that would underwrite this project and be interested in saving this tree.” [Kat Alan Madison + Austin; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR
COMMENT OF THE DAY: OAK FOREST OAK SEEKS HELP WITH MOVE “A neighbor of the Woodcrest demo is seeking help relocating a 100-year old red oak that is scheduled to be part of that demo. If anyone has the resources and/or machinery to do so email me or post here and I will put you in touch with her. mmatt_chew at h0tmail d0t c0m.” [mek ju, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Memorial Plaza]
Architect and Swamplot reader Jeromy Murphy sends in a construction update on the house he and his wife — also an architect — are building for themselves at 502 Archer St. in Brookesmith, “not too far from the container house.” How’s the family project going?
Lori and I designed it together, proving that a husband/wife architecture team can succeed (as long as the husband just agrees to everything his architect wife wants).
One of those design decisions that came so easily: the 8-ft. Isis Big Ass Fan that’ll hang from exposed rafters on a porch overlooking a new retaining wall. The fan isn’t installed yet, but you can see the rafters in this photo:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN SWAMP LIFE GIVES YOU SWAMP LEMONS “I guess it’s a ‘turning lemons into lemonade’ thing. When you live in a swamp, you may as well excavate enough fill to raise the houses above sea level, then turn the excavated surrounding lands into moats around your McCastles.” [J.V., commenting on Favorite Houston Design Cliché: Vote for One of These Official Nominees]
CROWDING THE HOUSTON DINNER PLATE “According to USDA maps, we still have about 3.2 million acres of prime farmland within 100 miles of Houston. We can’t produce everything we like and want to eat. No cacao trees for chocolate here, for example. A more relevant question is whether we could supply most if not all of our basic needs from soils within a hundred miles or so. I think the answer is yes. The amount of land to support one person varies in the scientific literature from less than an acre to 20 or so acres. With 4 million people, we would likely need at least 2-4 million acres of farmland. But we are expecting 3.5 million more people by 2035. So not only will there be more people to feed, there will be less land to feed them from, locally. If current density and development practices continue, we can expect to lose at least 1,000 square miles of prime farmland, prairie, and forest habitat to development.” [OffCite]
Just what was going on at this property just a quarter-mile south of the South Main Super Target over the holiday weekend? A bit of land clearing, reports a reader, who says the machines are gone now — but so are a fair number of trees: There’s now a pile of logs at the back of the lot.
Its the Northernmost never-developed lot on South Main . . . For-Sale signs have been up forever, so its interesting to see bulldozers hard at work. . . . This combined with the demolition of the Speedway Inn at 10000 South Main is starting a trend for new development.
The L-shaped, 3.36-acre lot wraps behind the car wash to the north. Across the street is the westernmost Reliant Park parking lot. Here’s an aerial view from the listing:
CONTINUE READING THIS STORY
Sprouted in the patio behind the Art League Houston building at 1953 Montrose, home of the Inversion Coffee House: 3 giant mushrooms, built out of rebar, soil, and moss by artists Nicola Parente and Divya Murthy.
And how are they doing? Not so well, reports the Chronicle‘s Molly Glentzer:
One is planted with herbs; one is planted with Texas natives; and the third is planted with non-native ornamentals. They’ve pretty much been left to survive or thrive on their own through next year, and the artists are perhaps expecting that only the native-planted mushroom will survive.
Just one catch. When we looked on Saturday, they all needed water.
Nothing lives in a black plastic pot for long without a little help from the gardener. And biodegradable brown pots would’ve been more environmentally friendly — not to mention better-looking.
Inside the Art League building: the second part of the installation, which Parente and Murthy put together from debris they collected from the surrounding eight-block area.
- Artists in the Garden [Arts in Houston]
- n.p. news brief November 2009 [Everyday Has Its Meaning]
Photos: Nicola Parente (top); Aaron Courtland (bottom)
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LANDING THE BRUCKER SURVIVOR CAPSULE “My grandfather, Milton Brucker – designer of the capsule, passed away in 2007 at the age of 94. He would have been delighted to see your innovative use for it!” [Michael Brucker, commenting on CLUI in Houston: Attack of the Pod People]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S EXTENSIVE PARK SYSTEM “Look at all of those parking lots! I always get so depressed when I look at views of Houston from above…..” [Merrie, commenting on Four New Houston Metro Rail Routes, As Seen from Above]
How heavy are those pieces in Plodes Studio’s new collection of outdoor furniture? At least light enough to tote down to White Oak Bayou off Studewood for this photo shoot. Houston designer John Paul Plauché — who often evokes aspects of the local landscape in his interior furnishings — calls this new line “Float.”
And it looks like each piece just might. The extruded lounge, couch, chaise, and side table are made of foam coated with hard rubber, and are available in 6 colors.
The line’s official launch takes place this Thursday night at Montrose’s Peel Gallery.
- Plodes Studio
- About John Paul Plauché [Peel Gallery]
- Previously in Swamplot: Refined Interior Design: Home Decorating with a Houston Flare, Mudbug Candles: Bringing the Houston Landscape Indoors
Photos: Plodes Studio
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE THE TOWNHOMES AIN’T “One of the things I love about this city is how much of it is downright rural, just a few miles from downtown. Huge lots with little houses, people keeping horses and riding them along the bayous.” [Miz Brooke Smith, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: All’s Well on That Tidwell]
“Looks like someone’s getting ready to build,” reports a Swamplot reader about this lot on the corner of Westheimer and Helena, at the very lowest end of Lower Westheimer:
All of the brown earth you see in the photo was formerly a tree or bush of some type. See the steel gate I’m taking the picture through? Just on the other side of it (about 3 yards from the steel gate), there was a chain link fence that provided shade, shelter and ‘hideability’ to local bums. If I had taken that photo the day before, you would have seen a lot of brush, bums and beer cans.
Even the bushes in the ‘sidewalk’ area (the sidewalk stops at this lot) were removed.
It could just be a beautification or bum-preventative project, but due to the midtown/downtown/Montrose location, I’m guessing that someone plans to construct a business there.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
