Tag: Notices

Awards
12/07/12 4:53pm

The Swampies Need Your Help

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All 7 categories in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have now been announced. Voting begins next week. Terrific nominations have already come in for many of the categories, but we still need your help to make sure that all the candidates are the right ones, and that each is presented in the best possible light.

So if you find anything missing from any award category, please add your nomination now! Or if you think you can improve on any of the explanations submitted with a nomination you like, feel free to write in with your own better presentation. If you see a nomination without an explanation, please add a good one! Got photos of any of the nominees? Please send them!

This Sunday at midnight, nominations will close for the first 2 award categories: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition. For the next 2 categories we’ll close nominations Monday night, then continue through the week with the rest of the categories. On Monday, we’ll announce the official slate of nominees for the first award category and open it for voting. We’ll do the same for another category each day — until we’ve made our way through them all.

There’s still plenty of time to contribute. Add your nominations to the comments section below the post that announces each category. Or send them to us in an email. Who are the contenders in Houston real estate this year? What deserves recognition?

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Awards
12/06/12 1:32pm

And Now, the Final Category in This Year’s Swampies: What Was the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate in 2012?

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We’ve announced 6 categories so far in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic, the “It’s Alive!” Award, Most Overlooked Neighborhood, and Neighborhood of the Year. That’s a lot of ground to cover. What’s left?

Here it is, the 7th and final category. And probably the biggest of them all: What was the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2012?

Covering great moments in Houston real estate is the whole point of Swamplot; it’s why we’re here. Browse through the site if it’ll help you to draw up a list of contenders; or raid your own memory banks. (Did we miss a few big happenings this year?) Tell us what moment deserves this recognition — and why.

A great moment is lost if there’s no one there to chronicle it or cherish it. Which is why we need your help. Add your comments or send us an email describing the moments you’d like to nominate. (If you’ve got questions about how to make a nomination, you’ll likely find the answers here.)

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Awards
12/05/12 3:00pm

Nominations Are Now Open for 2012 Neighborhood of the Year

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We’ve almost reached the end of the 7 categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. So far, we’ve opened nominations for Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic, the “It’s Alive!” Award, and Most Overlooked Neighborhood. If you haven’t added your own suggestions for each of these, please do.

The next (and next-to-last) category is Neighborhood of the Year. What qualifications does a neighborhood need to meet in order to be declared Houston Neighborhood of the Year? You tell us — as you make your nomination! Of course, a neighborhood might be considered as a contender for Swamplot’s Neighborhood of the Year award for vastly different reasons than another one might be considered for an award of the same name from, say, a professional association of homebuilders.

Please note that entrants in this category — as well as all the others — need not be located strictly inside Houston’s municipal boundaries. Swamplot tries to track the idea of Houston as it regularly travels outside the city limits. (In fact, the 2009 winner of the Houston Neighborhood of the Year award was . . . yes, Galveston.)

We’re ready to receive your nominations — and convincing explanations — in the comments below, or in an email. If you’re new to this Swamplot-Award-nominating thing, please consult the official rules. This year, who are the contenders for this award?

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Awards
12/05/12 12:08pm

What Was the Houston Area’s Most Overlooked Neighborhood in 2012?

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Yesterday we added a couple more categories to this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. That means 4 of them have now been opened for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic, and the “It’s Alive!” Award. We’ve received a number of terrific nominations for each category so far. Keep those great entries coming for all of them!

Today we introduce the fifth and sixth categories in the 2012 Swampies. And we’ll call this Neighborhood Day. Up first, then, is the award for Most Overlooked Neighborhood.

Some prominent sections of the Houston-area real estate market are now attracting flurries of activity — while in some other areas of the country there’s not much doing. So certain neighborhoods in our region are being looked over carefully by potential residents and investors. What neighborhood in the greater Houston area (yes, we’ll include The Woodlands, other parts far and wide, and even throw in Galveston) rightfully deserves the title of “most overlooked” — and why?

You know the drill by now. We need your smart nominations to make the award in this category valuable. Tell us, in a comment below or in a private message, what neighborhood deserves to win this award. What are you seeing?

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Awards
12/04/12 3:15pm

Another New Category for the Swampies This Year: The “It’s Alive!” Award

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So far, 3 categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been been opened up for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, and the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic. Up next: another brand-new category, specially selected for this year’s competition: the “It’s Alive!” Award.

In a dynamic, ever-changing city, 2 opposing themes dominate: extinction and renewal. What better way to celebrate this little circle of life in Houston than with an award for things that you thought were dead and gone — but that have somehow come back. Here, we hope to recognize Houston’s living dead, its undead, and its back-from-the-dead. What, in this lively city this past year, deserves the “It’s Alive!” Award?

Send us your nominations! As usual, your spin will make the difference between a plain ol’ suggestion and a compelling choice for the award. You’ll find all the rules for the nominating process here.

You have until midnight next Monday, December 10, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today. Dig into the comments section below (or the Swamplot inbox) to submit your choices.

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Awards
12/04/12 1:20pm

Announcing the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic

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Yesterday we introduced the first 2 nominating categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Nominations will remain open until midnight Sunday, December 9, for both awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition.

Today, there are 2 more award categories to introduce. And they’re both new to the Swampies. The first of these we’re calling the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic.

Traffic means popularity. Sure, we all like to complain about it when it gets in our way, but is traffic always such a bad thing? Is there anyone or anything that might stand to gain from it? And if a neighborhood, or a new development, or some sort of construction project were to deserve this sort of award, would it be for causing traffic, for lessening it, or for something else entirely? You tell us: What, in the Houston of 2012, deserves to be recognized for its unique relationship with traffic?

As usual, the Swampies are open to the sharp and clever formulations of readers. If you use your nomination to give this category a twist, sell your vision!

More complete instructions covering the nominating process can be found on this page. In the meantime, drive right on ahead to the comments section below to add your nomination. One at a time, please. If it gets too crowded down there, there’s an alternate route: Send your suggestions directly to Swamplot HQ, via our email inbox.

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Awards
12/03/12 4:14pm

Second Category in the Swampies: Best Demolition of 2012

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Earlier today, we introduced the first category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, celebrating the best and most this city has to offer. And now nominations are open in a second category: Best Demolition.

Sure, demolitions are raw, physical acts, but emotional, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, sonic, and ecological aspects are often hard at work too. What property would you honor as Houston’s Best Demo of 2012 — and why?

If you’re like most people and have a little trouble remembering buildings once they’re gone, you can scroll through Swamplot’s archive of demolition stories to refresh your memory. Then add your thoughtful and well-argued nominations for this coveted award to the comments section below — or send them in a private message to Swamplot HQ. For a more thorough description of the nominating process, see these instructions.

Nominations for both award categories announced today will remain open until midnight this Sunday, December 9. But why wait until the last minute to submit your nominations? Couldn’t you knock a few out now?

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Notices
12/03/12 2:17pm

First Category: Your Nominations for Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Please

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This is how it begins. We now kick off the nominating process for the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate with a category that’s been included in every edition of the Swampies since 2008: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. The winner has been different every year. Last year’s winner was “Lick ’n’ stick” fake-rock siding. (The runner-up: The New Charlestorleans Style.) In previous years we’ve had Lone Stars, “Lakes of” Subdivisions, and “Tuscanization” receive the award. What Houston building, shopping center, streetscape, home, interior, neighborhood, or yard cliché deserves recognition this year? Your suggestions for this award may be inspired from stories on Swamplot or from your own keen eye for overused detail.

Nominations for this category are now open to your brilliant, clever, or possibly hackneyed suggestions! Enter your choice in a comment to this post only or — more privately — in an email to the Swamplot tip line, with the subject line “Nomination: Favorite Houston Design Cliche.” Nominations will be accepted for one full week, after which the best-presented choices will be opened for voting.

You can submit as many nominations as you like in this category, but your choices will have a better chance of succeeding if you use the opportunity to make your point in a clever and convincing way. When the actual awards are open for voting — next week! — each selected nomination will be introduced with some edited bastardization of the arguments made by the readers who submitted them. So be eloquent and persuasive! If you can send your own photos in support of a nomination, that will help a lot — and it’ll likely help you make your case to voters. Send images to the Swamplot tip line, but be sure to identify them and indicate what they’re for.

Comments to this post will be counted as nominations only. Nominations may be seconded, expanded, or improved. Even simple “me too” posts could help an entry find a place on the actual ballot, but they won’t be counted as votes for the winner. The actual voting in this category will begin next week. Are you ready? Send us your favorite clichés!

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Awards
12/03/12 10:22am

The 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate Begin Now

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Yes, it is that time of the year. Swamplot’s annual end-of-the-year review of the best, most, and much too much of Houston’s local real-estate scene begins this week. Are you ready to help select the winners?

All this month we’ll be hosting the fifth annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies. This year there will be 7 categories, honoring the designs, developments, neighborhoods, personalities, dreams, and absurdities that continue to make Houston real estate so entertaining. Today we’ll announce 2 of them; we’ll continue with the remaining categories over the rest of this week.

To make the Swampies work — and more important, to make them fun — we need your help. It’s always been our readers’ discerning vision, clever coinages, and careful consideration that have made the awards into a great local attraction. This year is no different. For each category, we need your help to come up with the right slate of official nominees. You be the judge: What was notable in 2012? What caught your eye and wouldn’t let go? What valiant efforts deserve recognition? And what brilliant comments can you add to encapsulate the story?

The Swampies belong to you. All nominations and votes will come from Swamplot readers. We hope you’ll join in the fun!

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Notices
11/21/12 3:04pm

Where Space Is Chilly and Tight

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WHERE SPACE IS CHILLY AND TIGHT From Swamplot’s (stuffed) inbox: “It’s not just housing that’s a tight real estate market. Take a look inside the average refrigerator about this time of holiday preparations as we all play another round of Turkey Day Tetris, jockeying ingredients and containers onto already full shelves. I don’t know about you, but I always forget to factor in a place for the bird to thaw! Am calling the work day done, heading to the grocery store, and wishing I were a guest instead of the host.” How about we all take another day off to recover, clean out more room in the fridge, or maybe shop for a few extra kitchen appliances? Swamplot will be back on the beat on Monday. A happy Thanksgiving holiday to you all. Photo: Debora Smail

Notices
10/10/12 3:52pm

Now Hiring at Swamplot

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Are you passionate about Houston’s peculiarities? Do you enjoy delving into the city’s neighborhoods, its architecture, its strip-mall secrets? Would you like a blogging gig that puts you in prime position to sift through, spill, and ’splain the latest local real estate happenings? Good news, then: Swamplot is looking for a reporter-writer.

We want to hire someone who can research, report, and write quickly and well; who’s attentive to detail, careful with facts, and has a good sense of humor; who can work independently and communicate well; and who can spit out accurate and entertaining posts faster than this site’s large and highly engaged audience can spit back. We’re looking for someone who understands Swamplot and how it works, and who will bring ideas and energy to make it better.

Here’s how to apply for this full-time position:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Awards
06/27/12 5:40pm

Swamplot Astrodome Photographer Comes Clean, Picks Up Web Award

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Congratulations to tipster Russell Hancock, who won for Swamplot and himself the Photo of the Year award in the Houston Press‘s second annual Houston Web Awards, announced today. Hancock’s mini photo essay about wandering off-course at this year’s Rodeo into a forlorn and mussed-up Astrodome focused attention on the empty sports venue’s state of neglect. Writes the Press‘s Craig Hlavaty: “The resulting photos revealed moldy and torn Astroturf and a litter-strewn building that looked more like a storage facility than the Eighth Wonder of the World. The covert pics also set off a media frenzy, leading first to KHOU’s sanctioned peek at the stadium and, ultimately, a 20-strong public tour for local reporters and talking heads.” Back in March, when Swamplot ran the story, Hancock didn’t want us to use his name, but he tells Swamplot he’s got no problem identifying himself as the photographer now. For taking those photos, sending them to Swamplot, and sparking an important public conversation about Houston’s best-known piece of real estate, he certainly deserves an award.

Photo: Russell Hancock

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Notices
05/25/12 10:40pm

Remembering Something

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REMEMBERING SOMETHING Oh, yeah — Swamplot will be off for the Monday holiday. Best wishes to all of you for a restful and meaningful Memorial Day, however you choose to commemorate it. We’ll be back in usual form on Tuesday, but if you’ve got something you urgently need to share, no problem: our tips line will stay open all weekend. Photo of Gus Wortham fountain, Buffalo Bayou Park: lc_db via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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