Tag: Upper Kirby

Interiors, Townhomes, Upper Kirby

8 Comments

A tilted 2-story skylight provides a star-command view within a 1970 townhome just behind West Ave. The area was dubbed the Upper Kirby District decades after this home and 4 related properties appeared on their stretch of block north of W. Alabama in the antique-shop-and-eatery hinterlands east of Lamar High School. The group of townhomes have varying facades of stucco, glass brick, timber and awnings, each over a 2-car garage. This home, slightly taller than its brethren, counters its contemporary origins with Old World-y flourishes. It was listed the first week of June, for $469,000.

77098, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Townhomes, Upper Kirby

Openings and Closings

05/22/13 3:30pm

A Downer for Taco Milagro in Upper Kirby

Quicklink, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

18 Comments

A DOWNER FOR TACO MILAGRO IN UPPER KIRBY A post on the Taco Milagro Facebook suggests that the restaurant will be leaving the corner of Westheimer and Kirby Dr. whereÂ it’s been — almost miraculously, you could say — since 1998. Culturemap, pinning the relocation onÂ rising rents there across from West Ave, reports that the restaurant group Schiller Del Grande that owns Taco Milagro (and Cafe Express, The Grove, and a few others) is looking for a new place for it “somewhere a bit further out.”Â Attempts to contact Schiller Del Grande for more details haven’t been returned. [Facebook; Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

77019, Openings and Closings, Relocations, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Apartments

05/06/13 2:30pm

Westheimer Rd. Cafe Adobe Closing on Mother’s Day

Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

9 Comments

WESTHEIMER RD. CAFE ADOBE CLOSING ON MOTHER’S DAY At the palm-obscured corner of South Shepherd Dr. and Westheimer since 1981, Cafe Adobe announced that it will be closing this Mother’s Day, May 12, reports the Houston Business Journal. The property at 2111 Westheimer Rd. was purchased last year by Hines, which has said it plans to tear down the restaurant to build a 215-unit apartment complex. An up-to-date rendering of the complex-to-be hasn’t been made available. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

Apartments, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Office Buildings

05/06/13 12:20pm

Upgrading Upper Kirby Office Buildings

Renovations, Upper Kirby

10 Comments

A few more views of the renovations from Cisneros Design Studio planned for the office buildings at 3701 and 3801 Kirby Dr., near the Elevation Burger and the closed Maggie Rita’s on Richmond:Â To be removed from the faÃ§ade, it appears, is that throwback turquoise-and-red detailing, replaced with what architect Tim Cisneros tells the Houston Chronicle is a kind of stretchy vinyl skin.

77098, Office Buildings, Renovations, Upper Kirby

Apartments

04/23/13 3:45pm

Hines Replacing Cafe Adobe With Apartment Building — Just Not This One

Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Streets, Upper Kirby

30 Comments

This rendering of the apartment building that Hines is replacing Cafe Adobe with isn’t current, says a company rep. And details about the building are few — though the rep says that the midrise Hines is planning for the soon-to-be-former restaurant and parking lot at Westheimer and South Shepherd will contain 215 units and no retail space.

77098, Apartments, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Streets, Upper Kirby

Homes for Sale

04/22/13 1:00pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Pour House

Interiors, Upper Kirby

No Comments

2801 Colquitt St. [HAR]

77098, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Upper Kirby

Streets

04/19/13 10:00am

TxDOT Plans To Upgrade Upper Kirby Southwest Fwy. Feeder

Streetscapes, Transportation, Upper Kirby

29 Comments

A project to improve a 2.9-mile stretch of the Southwest Fwy.Â feeder road between South Shepherd Dr. and Newcastle St. could get started as early as May 1, a rep from TxDOT says. And the Upper Kirby Management District contributed some funds to the $19 million project, which might give you an idea about what to expect.

77027, 77098, Feeder Roads, Freeways, Streetscapes, Transportation, Upper Kirby

Homes for Sale

04/04/13 4:16pm

Fencing Off the Urban Setting of an Upper Kirby Contemporary

Interiors, Price Reductions, Upper Kirby

7 Comments

Behind the curbside growth gone wild, a far tidier contemporary home has been hiding (above) in plain view since 1998. The Upper Kirby property dropped its price April Fool’s Day to $745,000, down from an initial $770K when listed in mid-March. Facing west — and located across from older apartments and the back of a more recent mid-rise complex — this home on an end-cap lot not too far from Whole Foods Market saves its outdoor impact for the back side of the fenced lot (above) and uses the scene as its view from rooms within.

77098, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Patios, Price Reductions, Upper Kirby

Openings and Closings

03/07/13 2:00pm

A 60 Degree Turnaround on Westheimer

Restaurants, Signage, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

Looks like there’s something coming soon to the former Palazzo’s Tratoria at 2300 Westheimer. (And, presumably, someone’s coming to deal with that raggedy palm tree.) A Swamplot reader sends in this photo of the sign forÂ “60 Degree Mastercrafted” with Master Chef Fritz Gitschner. The new dining concept wasn’t immediately available for comment. Palazzo’s has 2 other locations in Westchase and Briar Grove.

Coming soon! [60dmc]
Party Pans, Pizza, Pasta [Palazzo’s]

Photos: Loves swamplot

77019, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants, Signage, Upper Kirby

Quicklink

02/22/13 10:15am

Mini Cooper Parked on Kirby Store Wall Now Permitted

Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

MINI COOPER PARKED ON KIRBY STORE WALL NOW PERMITTED Call it the artifice on the edifice: It took a few months, but the City of Houston seems to have embraced — or, at least, bureaucratically allowed — the fakeÂ Mini Cooper parked on the wall that was slapped withÂ a red tag in early January at Internum, the interiors and design store at 3303 Kirby:Â “After some back and forth about permitting,” explains The Highwayman’s Dug Begley, “the city granted a permit in late January. Turns out you need to let the city know when you hang something over the sidewalk, even if it is a temporary ad and not a permanent sign. Otherwise, you get a lot of attention . . . .” [The Highwayman; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lisa Garvin

77098, Quicklink, Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

Art

01/08/13 12:44pm

The Mini Cooper Parked on Kirby That’s Getting All the Attention

Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

It might not be sporting an engine — and KHOU reported yesterday that the vertically parked car’s Fiberglas shell weighs in at just 350 lbs. — but at least the headlights work. Similar Mini Coopers have popped up before on billboards and storefronts, especially in Europe, but a rep from design and interiors store Internum told auto blog Jalopnik yesterday that the Mini on their Kirby wall is “the first example of a Mini-on-building ad in the U.S.” It’s also the first to have been given a special citation by the city.

77098, Art, Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

Art

01/07/13 12:00pm

Parked High on the Wall of Kirby Building, Mini Cooper Still Gets Ticket

Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

35 Comments

A red tag from the City of Houston, a reader reports, has beenÂ posted on the window at Internum, the design and interiors store at 3303 Kirby where this Mini Cooper’s been mounted since December 18. “Remove car from building front,” the City of Houston violation reads, “barricade sidewalks at front — do this immediately.” The violation is dated December 27, but as of this morning the car’s still hanging in there.

77098, Art, Retail, Signage, Upper Kirby

Retail

11/27/12 4:00pm

Glick Textiles Sewing Up Its Southwest Fwy. Business; Furniture Royalty Moving In

Upper Kirby

2 Comments

Nest-Feathering and costume-designing customers of Glick Textiles Fabric Warehouse learned from a “pre-announcement” mailer over Thanksgiving that the Upper Kirby interior decor resource is closing and the company is going out of business. The property was sold mid-month by Levan Group I — the outfit behind Midtown’s High Fashion fabric, furniture, and home-goods empire — for an undisclosed price, though the asking price was $3.8 million. Glick, a sister company of High Fashion Fabrics and High Fashion Home, will vacate by February 2013. The site’s new owner is a familiar furnishings venture, planning an “enhanced concept” for the freeway-side spot.

77098, Retail, Upper Kirby

Apartments

11/20/12 11:28am

Kuhl-Linscomb Plans To Turn Googie Penguin Arms Apartments into Modern Home Goods Showroom

by Swamplot

Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Modern Design, Renovations, Retail, Upper Kirby

13 Comments

About a year after snatching up the Penguin Arms building at 2902 Revere St., Dan Linscomb and Pam Kuhl-Linscomb announce to the Chronicle‘s Lisa Gray their plans to incorporate Arthur Moss’s pedigreed 1950 Googie-style apartment building into the multi-building streetside campus of their Upper Kirby home-furnishings-and-knick-knacks empire: “In about a year, after a round of renovation and restoration, they plan to open the Penguin Arms as a showroom,” Gray writes. “Maybe, Dan says, they’ll reserve a little piece as an apartment, so they can literally live above the shop.”