Tag: Public Art

12/14/18 11:30am

The Art Guys’ Walking Building by the Pierce Elevated Isn’t Going Anywhere

Midtown, Public Art, Renovations

12 Comments

Last year, Boxer Property told reporters it wanted to do something “iconic” with the St. Joseph’s Professional Building along the Pierce Elevated. Well, how about this idea: bringing the 18-story Midtown office building to life by attaching 2 massive, swinging arms to its east and west sides. Boxer engaged The Art Guys (Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth) shortly after purchasing the building in September 2017 to make it happen. They worked on the project in secret, dubbing it The Walking Building. It had an estimated budget of $2.8 million.

Alas, the vision of a giant robotic pedestrian attempting to cross a busy section of I-45 into Downtown was not to be. Boxer informed The Art Guys 2 months ago that it would no longer pursue the project.

The arms would have swung back and forward roughly once a minute, making for a somewhat leisurely gait:

St. Joseph’s Professional Building, Reimagined

77002, Midtown, Office Buildings, Pierce Elevated, Proposed Developments, Public Art, Renovations

09/06/18 11:15am

Inside That Unauthorized McDonald’s Interior Redo Down in Shadow Creek Ranch

Pearland, Restaurants

9 Comments

Make that 55 days that the prank poster installed by UH student Jevh Maravilla and a group of accomplices has been hanging in the Shadow Creek Ranch McDonald’s. And there’ll be plenty more time to see it: An unidentified McDonald’s representative tells Eater Houston that the store atÂ 2815 Business Center Dr. has no plans to take it down, noting however that renovations are planned in the future.

Maravilla (right) took the photo of him and his friend Christian Toledo (left) at the Westside Event Center — just a mile away on the opposite side of 288. He then added graphic elements to mimic the other wall art in the store and ordered a print through Office Depot’sÂ online service. Clad in a McDonald’s employee shirt he picked up for $7 at a nearby thrift store — along with a tie, clip-on walkie-talkie, and fake nametag dubbing him a “Regional Interior Coordinator” — Maravilla entered the store and hung the poster with the help of a few more friends.

He describes the undercover op beginning at the one-minute mark in this video:

See the McPrank Yourself

77584, Fast Food, Pearland, Public Art, Restaurants

Comments

08/27/18 3:30pm

Comment of the Day: Another MFAH Sticker Solution

Museum District, Public Art, Quicklink

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ANOTHER MFAH STICKER SOLUTION “It will be a sad day in Houston when there are no MFAH stickers stuck to things in the Museum District. Youâ€™d think that the museum long ago would have embraced the tradition and added some weird sculpture-looking things in front of all exits that say ‘stick stickers here.â€™ It would reduce the occurrences of random vandalism by hoodlums. I wonder how many tags they expect to ‘loseâ€™ as part of this experiment?” [toasty, commenting on Flood Bond Passes; Harvey Movie Sets Its Premiere Date; MFAH Stickers Swapped Out for Reusable Tags] Photo of sticker collage at Binz and San Jacinto streets: Alley Lyles

77004, Comments, Museum District, Museums, Public Art, Quicklink

Downtown

08/20/18 2:30pm

New 22-Octave Musical Work Premiers at Jones Hall, Drawing Full-Block Lines Between Texas Ave. and Capitol St.

Public Art

5 Comments

The title of artist Joan Dodd’s new composition 88 Keys undersells it — it’s actually 275 keys, more than 3 times the amount found on a piano. Installation artists laid them down along the rounded ~~east~~ west side of Jones Hall over the weekend. Constructed from 900 pounds worth of temporary marking tapeÂ — the kind commonly used on highways — they now span the entire block of Louisiana between Texas Ave. and Capitol St.

That material choice means they can really take a pounding from anyone who feels like stomping out a silent melody with their feet while heading south to check out the Bank of America Center’s ongoing renovations. Or those lured in by the glow of the Lyric Center parking garage’s new lighting, pictured off in the distance below:

Sidewalk Chromaticism

77002, Downtown, Public Art, Sidewalks

Downtown

07/11/18 3:00pm

There’s Now an Open House at the Open House Planted in the Middle of Sam Houston Park

Parks, Public Art, Renovations

1 Comment

A new downtown hole-in-the-wall is making its debut at the foot of the city’s longstanding famous buildings. Among all the openings in the house now standing in the middle of Sam Houston Park, the most accessible one (ADA-certified) is at the end of the ramp pictured above. Cherry Moving was the first to add holes to the building: it inserted the more conventional windows after scooping upÂ the 80-year old, 16-by-24-ft. single-story from the East End in order to resell it. The buyers: serial house tweakers Dan Havel and Dean Ruck, who perforated its faÃ§ades and lined the bubbles with PVC piping to make them watertight.

You can see the piping’sÂ light blue tint from the angle below:

Say Cheese

77002, Downtown, Housemoving, Parks, Public Art, Renovations

05/23/18 4:00pm

Gulfton Salvation Army Thrift Store Will Soon Be Surrounded by Murals

Gulfton, Public Art, Retail

1 Comment

Longtime Gulfton activist Tammy Rodriguez’s likeness is now fully rendered in the mural above, as well as that of Pastor Alejandro Montes, to her right. The pair makes up one third of the population now flanking the Salvation Army storeâ€™s west side along Ashcroft Dr. off Bissonnet, a block east of Hillcroft Ave. Chicago-based artistÂ Rahmaan Statik (who got some design inspiration from students atÂ Braeburn Elementary School) plans to have the work complete for an unveiling ceremony this Saturday.

It’s one in a set of 3 muralsÂ that public art organization UP Art Studio has planned for each side of the thrift store building — except for the south face, pictured above — as part of a project dubbed “Growing a Brighter Tomorrow in Gulfton.”

Work on the east side began with this preparatory whitewashing:

Bissonnet and Ashcroft

77081, Gulfton, Murals, Public Art, Retail

East End

03/08/18 4:00pm

‘Rebirth’ Mural Redo Now Reaching Final Stretch on Block-Long Stretch of Canal St.

Public Art

1 Comment

Aerosol artist Enrique Figueroa Jr. — also known as Gonzo247 — is about 3 months into his work on a new version of the Rebirth of Our Nationality mural that once faced Canal St. between Norwood and Linwood streets in the East End. Leo Tangumaâ€™s original 1973 work faded over time and was whitewashed last summer. He’s now providing Figueroa with some remote assistance on the redo.

A Fresh Coat

77011, East End, Murals, Public Art, Warehouses

03/07/18 12:00pm

Colorful Bubble-Like Patterns Now Popping Up Along Amherst Street and Its Banks in Rice Village

Public Art, Rice Village

New possibly aquatic-themed street and sidewalk art is bubbling up on Amherst St. west of Kelvin Dr. in Rice Village. The photo at top views a few of the freshly-laid, not-quite-concentric circles from outside the Everything But Water swimwear store that occupies part of the recently renovated retail building on Amherst St. The designs are being placed there by Crossroads Decorative Pavement — whose truck is on site in the photo above looking toward Kelvin.

Here’s a view of what’s under foot on the southern bank of Amherst:

Moistening the Pavement

77005, Public Art, Rice-Village

East End

11/21/17 3:30pm

‘The Rebirth of Our Nationality’ Now Rebirthing on Canal St.

Institutional Buildings, Public Art, Renovations

Leo Tanguma‘s 240-ft.-long, 70-character 1973 mural slowly peeling from the southern facade of the former Continental Can Company warehouse in the East End (pictured above in 2013) was whitewashed over the summer. Mario Enrique Figueroa Jr. — better known to Houstonians asÂ Gonzo247 — is now hard at work on the Chicano-art landmark’s replacement: creating with a small crew a mural of the same name, size, location, characters, and intention. These recent photos show the progress so far:

Gonzo, Not Forgotten

77011, East End, Institutional Buildings, Murals, Public Art, Renovations, Warehouses

Art

10/09/17 1:30pm

New Midtown Quilt Sculpture Unbolted, Dismantled, Laid Out on San Jacinto Sidewalk

Lower Midtown, Midtown, Public Art

10 Comments

Somebody carefully disassembled the recently installed quilting sculpture in front of the Bermac Arts Building at 4101 San Jacinto St. just south of Cleburne St. late last week, leaving behind a patchwork of colorful powder-coated-steel pieces on the former bus-stop platform next to the sidewalk. The 8-ft.-tall blue, orange, magenta, yellow, and metallic silver sculpture, called Quilt Peace, was erected at the site on September 20th. It was meant to remain there for 3 months — through next month’s International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center — before being moved to a different Midtown site.

Street Art Taken Apart

77004, Art, Lower Midtown, Midtown, Public Art, Sculptures, Vandalism

09/29/17 11:30am

A New Steel Sculpture To Stitch Lower Midtown into the GRB’s Quilt Fest Circuit

Lower Midtown, Midtown, Public Art

2 Comments

It may have been erected on a one-way northbound street in Lower Midtown, but this new sculpture now standing in front of the oak trees outside the San Jacinto St. entrance to the Bermac Arts Building just south of Cleburne was designed to flag down visitors from Downtown: Quilt Peace, constructed of powder-coated-steel, marks the entrance to the offices and exhibition space of the Community Artists’ Collective, where the Jubilee Quilt Circle meets twice a week to stitch works by hand or with the computer-controlled longarm flatbed stitcher onsite. â€œQuilt Peace is our tribute to the November 2017 International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center,â€ explains artist Michelle Barnes — who also happens to be the Collective’s executive director. “. . . We want to demonstrate our connection with quilting to the thousands of convention visitors.”

Photo: Community Artists’ Collective.

Quilt Peace

77004, Art, Lower Midtown, Midtown, Public Art, Sculptures

08/10/17 12:45pm

Corazon Now Being Removed from Its Big Red Dot Spot at Waugh and Fairview

Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Public Art, Redevelopment, Retail

6 Comments

Corazon — your Hyde Park source for guayaberas, Lucha Libre masks, and other assorted crafty and gifty south-of-the-border imports — has lost its lease and will be leaving its longtime spot at the northwest corner of Waugh and Fairview within a month, store owner Chris Murphy reports. The 6,250-sq.-ft. lot it sits on, which includes aÂ recently demolished property at 1410 Fairview, is now under contract after being marketed as a redevelopment site.

Corazon moved into its current home in 1998 — from a location in the former Gramercy Apartments on Montrose Blvd. across from Bell Park (where the Museum Tower now stands). The corner spot at 2318 Waugh Dr. has a craft-y history: Previously a furniture refinishing shop, the building reportedly earlier had gigs as an antique store, a glass-blowing studio, a general store, and a smithy. Murphy says he expects it to be demolished — and replaced with townhomes.

The structure is perhaps best known to passers-by, however, as a frame for the fifth-ever red dot, painted by Red Dot Boys (and former Houstonians) Robert Ramos and Rick Carpenter, as shown here in this undated image from the Red Dot Boys website:

Folk Art History

77006, Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Public Art, Redevelopment, Retail

Comments

08/03/17 4:30pm

Comment of the Day: The Difference Between Public Art and Landscape Decoration

First Ward, Historic Preservation, Public Art

Public Art, Quicklink

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUBLIC ART AND LANDSCAPE DECORATION “It is poorly written, but I think I get the point of the Glasstire post. Public art should really be art that is given its own space and not be little more than an attempt to pretty up the existing urban landscape. When you have artists putting decorations on electric boxes, bridges, or other things that are normally not even noticed as part of our urban landscape, you diminish the art and the artist into a municipal decorating service. Public art should be set aside from the urban landscape instead of being relegated to dressing it up. I generally agree. I do like the paintings on the electric boxes, but these kind of projects seem to be a way of paying lip service to public art.” [Old School, commenting on Tip-Off for Apartments by the Toyota Center; Details of the Coming Canino Farmerâ€™s Market Redo] Photo of mini mural by Anat Ronen at Airline Dr. and Hardwicke: UP Art Studio

Comments, Murals, Public Art

Demolitions

06/02/17 12:45pm

Fallen Jefferson Davis Nurses Quarters Face Death atop Old City Graveyard, Surrounded by Art and Emergency Response Vehicles

by Christine Gerbode

The partially ruined former Jefferson Davis HospitalÂ nurses quarters at 1225 Elder St.Â — until very recentlyÂ in the running for a spotÂ on the National Register of Historic Places — was recommended for demolition at last week’s Harris County Commissioner’s Court meeting following a public hearingÂ the day before.Â The building, tucked west ofÂ the elevated freeway tangle where I-45 splits from I-10 near Downtown, would have joined the nextdoor former Jefferson Davis Hospital itself on the historicÂ registry — instead, it looks like the structure will finally meet meet the ‘dozers after its long slow decline, accelerated by damage from a fire inÂ 2013 that lead toÂ last year’s semi-collapse.

Next door, the 4-story hospital structure (built in 1924, and replaced by 1938 with another Jefferson Davis Hospital where the Federal Reserve building now stands onÂ Allen Pkwy.) cycled through variousÂ modes of use and disuse until its early 2000’s restoration into the Elder Street Artist Lofts, whichÂ serve as low-rentÂ apartmentsÂ and studios forÂ artsy types.Â That redevelopment, of course, involved carefully diggingÂ around theÂ dozens of unmarked gravesÂ turned up on the surrounding land, which beginning inÂ 1840Â had served as the second city cemetery (and as the final resting place forÂ a hodgepodge likely including Â Confederate soldiers,Â former slaves, victims of the 1860sÂ yellow fever epidemics, people who died in duels, Masons, and a variety of others). The hospital’s name is still carved above the lofts’ entrance: