- Noticing a Billboard [Vimeo]
- here are some images from the first week of installation [Inbound:Houston]
- Six billboards in place [Houston Chronicle]
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Tag: Signs
A reader from the Heights sends in photos documenting only the latest scene in Houston’s long and theatrical history of commingled real estate and political ambition. If you like, say, the pricing on the homes Karen Derr’s former company sells — like this one at 946 Arlington St. — you’ll certainly want to see Derr join city council!
But what’s with that part in red letters? Maybe just to let voters know she’s a little less favorably disposed toward freeform demolition than, say, former candidate/broker Michael Berry was. Writes our reader and snapshooter:
I am guessing that Karen Derr’s office rec’d so many calls as to the future of this house- one the few remaining 19th century homes in the Heights, that she had the “Remodel” sign made and stuck atop her broker sign. . . . Karen used to be on the board of the Houston Heights Association and she is locally active and running for office, so she does not want to piss off too much of her long time neighbors.
Not seeing so many signs of real-estate activity in Houston lately? Swamplot’s Montrose correspondent says that might be because the Houston Association of Realtors has been telling its members that city officials have been handing out fines to agents who’ve placed their signs in the public right-of-way:
. . . the word is out and there are very few signs out on major streets on sundays. its really odd— the name brand real estate companies have been cracking down on their agents. When you do see a misplaced sign, its usually a listing that has been on the market for a fairly long time or there is an “off brand” real estate company. . . .
The response has been to put up generic open house signs for cover. Makes it harder to identify the perpetrator.
How long has this been going on?
I started seeing sign changes in the last couple of weeks. There was a trend toward people using open house signs pre-printed with their name. That has stopped. For awhile I thought no one was doing open houses because it was just too hot. . . . . As the photos show, the for sale signs are moving off city property too.
And where are those signs going?
The new owners of this townhome on Reinecke St. in Rice Military “obviously are having some difficulties,” writes reader CK, who snapped this photo of a sign next to the front driveway:
SMALLER SIGNS IN HOUSTON’S FUTURE Approved by City Council yesterday: Big changes to the city’s sign ordinance. “The ordinance, which applies only to signs on the premises of area businesses that go up after Sept. 1, diminishes the maximum allowable height and square footage of signs by nearly half in certain cases, eliminates roof signs and regulates electronic displays, among other more specific rules that will apply to shopping centers or other multi-tenant locations.” [Houston Chronicle]
THE GREAT SECRET BILLBOARD REPAIR CAPER BEGINS Certain billboards grandfathered by city ordinance can’t legally be rebuilt after the hurricane: “For billboards, the city ordinance says that if the cost of repairing the weather damage is more than 60 percent of the cost of erecting a new sign, the billboard comes down. . . . [Scenic Houston program director Holly] Eaton said documenting weather damage is critical because ‘it’s one of the few ways we can get these things down.’ Showing the city the damage avoids ‘sneaky, stealth-of-darkness repairs on signs that really should be coming down.’ She’d collected photos or notice of at least 20 billboards with significant problems by Monday afternoon.” [Houston Chronicle]
“Kirby Drive is just as purty as ever,” writes the Swamplot correspondent who took these photos Saturday.
The evidence?
A reader tells us that the Harold Farb Apartment Homes sign at the Broadway Square Apartments hasn’t been taken down yet, but it has been hooded — with a new temporary fabric covering identifying the apartments and new property manager Pinnacle.
- Property Listings in Houston [Pinnacle]
- Farb Gone: Will the Signs Go Down on Broadway? [Swamplot]
Photo: David Beebe
From our email: Photographic confirmation that the 90-ft.-tall billboard in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning has indeed been removed.
After the jump, the billboard that Afton Oaks ate!
Here’s one advantage if you’re one of the not-so-large number of retail centers in Houston that doesn’t have a parking lot in front: If business ain’t so hot, you can always sell the highly visible adspace on your facade!
A reader sends in this photo of an ad for Red Bull’s Art of Can competition on the streetfront of a retail center on Elgin, across from the Calais apartments in Midtown. The Maple Leaf Pub is two doors down.
Is this the future of retail real estate? Sure, we’ve all seen ads painted onto the sides of old buildings and the giant window stickers on David’s Bridal storefronts, but doesn’t this go a bit . . . beyond that? Think of the possibilities: Stores . . . with ads covering their entire fronts, advertising . . . other stores. Or anything.
Forget billboards, graffiti, and wheatpaste posters. When this new market really kicks in, we’ll see Houston for its revenue-generating possibilities: We’ve got acres and acres of exploitable advertising space.
Tyvek Housewrap was only the beginning.
What comes after Tuscan-themed shopping centers? Billboard-themed shopping centers!
After the jump: a second photo, so you can get your Red Bull straight.
No photo this time — just imagine a 90-ft.-tall billboard . . . that isn’t there!
That’s right: The billboard placed in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning St. near the West Loop has apparently been removed. Says our tipster:
I drove by the Afton Oaks billboard house yesterday and the billboard is now GONE!!! I wonder what happened? Maybe the guy who told me they were making the billboard larger was just pulling my chain?
- Previously in Swamplot: Sign-A-Rama: The Billboard That Ate Afton Oaks, Billboard House: No Reason for a Front Porch Anyway, The House with the Very, Very Tall Sign in Front [Swamplot]
When last we left the house at 4743 Banning Dr., a giant billboard had been planted in the front yard and the enterprising owners had successfully converted the front porch into a driveway. In this installment, our correspondent gleefully returns to the scene and finds even more exciting transformations, plus hints of a lot more fun in store for Afton Oaks. Here’s the report:
OH BOY!!!! Do I have some scoop for you.
So I went by the house on Banning and it has been swallowed up like a snake eats a rat. . . . It’s been completely usurped by Sign-A-Rama…now looks like one structure.
After the jump: it’s not just one billboard . . . there’s so much more!
With their Afton Oaks neighbors up in arms over their enterprising 90-foot-tall front-yard billboard, the owners of the home at the corner of Banning and Vossdale have apparently decided there won’t be much need to hang out on the front porch anymore. A Swamplot reader drove by the site Friday and sends in photos and comments:
Yes, the driveway is now where the front porch once was. Also, every shade on the house was drawn. I wonder if they have gotten threats from this? Oh wait, this is Afton Oaks. Of course they have.
The reader, who asked to be called “Buildergeek,” also reports on the yard improvements described in the Afton Oaks eNews:
As for landscaping, if you call not mowing a tuft of grass and leaving a mud track where your old sidewalk used to be landscaping, they did a really good job.
Below the fold: Buildergeek’s view from the front.
Yes, that’s a mighty big sign in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning Dr. in Afton Oaks. And it’s not listing the house for sale.
A reader sends in photos and says they’re from a couple of months back. He adds, “What good is having a home at the edge of the West Loop if you can’t put up a 90 foot tall billboard in your front yard?”
Remember that hiccup in the city’s sign ordinance, back in October? Well, look how resourceful some people are! The Afton Oaks January eNews reports that the billboard is still there, but that there’s now . . . landscaping around the base!
Court date: postponed until the second week of February. After the jump: a few more pics from our tardy tipster.
Attention billboard hobbyists: The City of Houston has temporarily lost control of its sign ordinance.
Jim Moriarty, the attorney handling the case for the city, called the current situation a “disaster.”
“Somebody could take a 200-foot banner and run it across I-10,” he said. “It could say ‘Fred’s Cleaners,’ or ‘Out of Iraq Now,’ or whatever.”
The city’s motion suggested that people already are taking advantage of the injunction. Inspectors have noticed banner signs strung casually on roadside poles and electronic signs blinking and scrolling “at a rapid pace,” according to an affidavit by Susan Luycx, division manager of sign administration.
Under the ordinance, electronic messages can only change once every five minutes, to prevent driver distraction.
“We believe the court has made an error,” Moriarty said. “That doesn’t mean that Houston should become the Wild West in regards to signs.”
Sellers of real estate (especially those of you in the ten-gallon hats): You know what to do. Now is your chance.
After the jump, another bandit sign spotted only hours ago near IAH—on wheels!
