- Camden Says It Will Begin Construction of Delayed 20-Story Apartment Tower Near Toyota Center Later This Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Cabot Properties Acquires Techway Southwest in Southwest Houston for $33M [Realty News Report]
- Realtor for Glenbrook Valley ‘Time Capsule’ House Surprised There Hasn’t Been An Offer Yet [Houston Chronicle]
- H-E-B Anchoring Mont Belvieu Marketplace Near Baytown Breaks Ground [HBJ]
- Podcast: Details on the New Airline Dr. Farmers Market, from Seating and Sidewalk Improvements to Role of Current Vendors [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Beyoncé May Be Interested in Buying a Stake in the Houston Rockets [Bloomberg; previously on Swamplot]
- Please Stop Painting Houston’s Electrical Boxes [Glasstire]
Photo of Elysian St. Viaduct Bridge demo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Re: Please Stop Painting The Electrical Boxes
I agree. The money should be spent helping the discriminated. Maybe we, Texas, need to open more women’s reproductive health centers. Women’s health is human health. I guess Jesus and the Bible govern women’s health though.
the $750 spent by the city for each painted elec box creates a happy atmosphere, which is a form of health assistance for everyone cause happy cells are healthy cells…except for those people who want to gripe about everything….that 750 gives jobs to artists and the results get seen by tens of thousands while they roam the gritty streets….pretty good bang for those bucks I’d say….but maybe we’re reaching some level of hip urban artsy burnout from trying so hard to be cool and once it all becomes mainstream the trend is over soon anyway…back to brutalism and urban decay I suppose now.
HA! Tying the argument against painted electrical boxes to women’s health…. Classic! I’ve had my fill of swamplot comments for the day.
Ugh, HEB what about mens reproductive health? At least with money being spent painting boxes benefits everyone. Dont know why you would only want to help half of the population? Wait, a minute, I bet you are in the subgroup, that you exclusively want to benefit with everyone’s money.
Maybe the “time capsule” house hasn’t sold cause it’s basically in a floodway.
Re: Glenbrook Valley Listing Realtor Gobsmacked by No Offers
.
As a fellow realtor told me, pricing a property correctly is the key to selling. Ergo sum, the price is too high. I’ll bet if the price was lowered enough, it would get offers out the wazoo.
Re: Glenbrook Valley house. Why hasn’t the house sold? Simples… It’s over priced for the area!
I disagree with the Glasstire opinion piece. For instance:
.
“Good artists make their best work when they’re given as much freedom as possible to design their project.”
.
This is demonstrably false. Artists often flounder with complete freedom. Give them constraints and their creativity flourishes.
.
“No artist ever woke up one morning and spontaneously said, ‘I sure wish I could decorate an electrical box!’â€
.
But they have. Electrical boxes have been decorated by artists (or defaced, depending on your point of view) long before Houston started paying for it.
.
I also disagree that unadorned electrical boxes disappear into the background. Maybe some folks don’t notice them, but I do.
Why is Beyonce’s interest in buying a stake in the Houston Rockets a featured item on a real estate blog?
Much props to anyone that was able to finish that bizarre article about painting electrical boxes. I made it maybe 1/2 way? And I think I have a pretty high tolerance for stupidity (keeps me coming back to this site — ZING! I kid… I kid…)
I wouldn’t buy the house in Glenbrook because I’d have to drive down 45 or on that god awful Broadway street to visit it. The apartments and businesses around there are so lovely. I’d have to gouge my eyes out to survive the drive down there. Otherwise it’s a very nice house.
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.
As a roadway and traffic guy, I regret that my profession switched from Greco-Roman Classicism (scope any bridge rail from 1925) to stripped-down Modernism (see: every bridge bent from 1955-1980). There isn’t enough good architecture in our lives, and the proliferation of cheeseball public art is a response to that. Give the signal boxes some Art Deco or Federal Style detailing molded into the steel and call it a night.
Cody,
I made it to the part where he said the unpainted boxes blend in with the surroundings.
.
that guy needs to have his license to share his opinion revoked.
@ Purple City: My inner Howard Roark rolls his eyes at you.