The coming of the new year brought year-end and decade-end posts including the Swamplot awards. "Lakes of" won favorite Houston design cliché of the year. Christof Spieler looked back on a decade of transit megaprojects. Also of note, the Chronicle published two pieces on philanthropist Cynthia Woods Mitchell, who passed away (1, 2). A good story I missed in the last headline post was the Rice News piece on Chris Hight's and Michael Robinson's studio on Brays Bayou and their website hydraulicity.org.
Monday January 4
Black medical museum to honor pioneers Facility will be located in historic Freedmen's Town and focus on the struggles of black doctors to provide care [Houston Chronicle] "Historians hope to restore the home at 1319 Andrews owned by the Rev. Ned P. Pullum, a minister and entrepreneur, and transform it into the Pullum Health and Business Museum. The Pullum Museum would become part of an educational and cultural park corridor in Freedmen's Town that includes the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum - another reclaimed historic home. Freedmen's Town, just west of downtown, is the only remaining post-Civil War, freed-slave historic district of its kind."
Sunday January 3
A fixer-upper attitude in a tear-down world: Houstonian turning old buildings into bars and restaurants [Houston Chronicle]
Atul "Lucky" Chopra didn't set out to save old Houston buildings. He realized it was his mission once he was well on his way...
Having built several successful medical services businesses, Chopra began buying real estate on the side about five years ago. His first two investments were lots in Midtown that each had an old building on them, priced as tear-downs. But the 40-year-old radiologist had no intention of demolishing the big white Colonial house, built in 1913, or the former Boy Scouts of America Building, built in 1975.
In addition to the Midtown investments, Chopra acquired the Kennedy Corner Building at 218 Travis downtown about two years ago from the previous owners, who had restored the historic property and opened the Twelve Spot bar in 2001. It closed in 2006. At that location, Chopra recently opened Hearsay Gastro Lounge, which he owns.
Saturday January 2
REBUILDING GALVESTON Riding on the waves of change: Houstonian Scott Arnold had high hopes for the famed Balinese Room in 2001. [Houston Chronicle] "Arnold is considering filling the Balinese Room's spot on the sea wall with an icehouse made of shipping containers topped with a pavilion formed of steel masts, sails and canopies. He calls the concept America's Icehouse. Arnold intends to rebuild the Balinese, possibly inland, but he's not sure when."
Plastic being phased out For those who don't compost, get ready to buy bio-bags. [Houston Chronicle] "City solid waste workers will only pick up material in starch-based bags that decompose within six weeks into nontoxic organic residue. Anyone who dumps plastic bags with lawn trimmings into the city's automated containers for pickup will be subject to a fine after a grace period and initial warning."
Thursday December 31
A decade of megaprojects and hints of the future [Intermodality] "It has been a busy ten years in Houston transportation. It was a decade of huge projects, some controversial, some nearly unnoticed. It’s also been a decade of more modest projects that give a clue to what the next decade (or two or three) might be like. Here’s 11 built projects that represent 2000-2009 in Houston transportation."
Fire damages 1935 mansion near Rice [Houston Chronicle] More than 100 firefighters in 34 units responded to the blaze, which was reported at 10 Remington Lane about 11:30 a.m....The house was built in 1935 for William Stamps Farish II, a founder of Humble Oil and Refining Co., now Exxon Mobil."
Cynthia Woods Mitchell: Grande dame of civic and arts patronage left gifts that benefit us all. [Houston Chronicle] "From the streets of Galveston, where she had a hand in restoring much of that island city's downtown, as well as its tourism heart, to the forested neighborhoods of The Woodlands, the planned community in south Montgomery County that she named, her imaginative hand can been seen on literally dozens of projects."
Council adds 3 museums to tax zone [Houston Chronicle] "The 8-acre enlargement of Houston's second TIRZ, created in 1994, will add a cultural and tourism district that will include the Asia House, the Buffalo Soldiers Museum and the Museum of African-American culture. Within a TIRZ, revenues from increased property values are set aside for public improvements."
Wednesday December 30
The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2009: The Winners!
1. Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Award winner: “Lakes of” subdivisions.
2. Best Vacancy. Award winner: Villas at the Heights, 114 Heights Blvd.
3. Best Teardown. Award winner: 1514 Banks St., Ranch Estates.
4. The “Only in Houston” Award. Award winner: The Grand Parkway Through the Katy Prairie.
5. Most Underappreciated Neighborhood. Award winner: Robindell.
6. Most Overappreciated Neighborhood. Award winner: Washington Corridor.
7. Neighborhood of the Year. Award winner: Galveston.
Disconnected Christof Spieler invokes the Lord of the Rings in his shaming of local transit authorities in their failure to coordinate a regional system.
Monday December 28
Humanitarian was ‘a force of nature': Charity icon dies at age 87 in the community that she named. Mitchell helped to save historic Isle buildings to national level [Houston Chronicle] "Beginning with the 1871 League Building in 1976, the Mitchells restored 17 iron-front buildings in the island city's historic downtown. Among their projects were conversion of the Leon and H. Blum Building into the luxurious, European-styled Tremont Hotel. On the beachfront, they bought and restored the Galvez Hotel. On the Gulf and Galveston Bay, they built two new hotels, the San Luis and the Harbor House. 'Mrs. Mitchell brought style and sophistication to all the family's work to preserve historic Galveston,' said Dwayne Johnson, Galveston Historic Foundation executive director."
Sunday December 27
The Woodlands moving to new status in 2010: Law lets it run more like a city, avoid annexation [Houston Chronicle]
Saturday December 26
Environmental groups hope the successful effort against butadiene can be duplicated [Houston Chronicle] "Pollution monitors show that concentrations of 1,3-butadiene, a chemical used in rubber production, are at their lowest point since two industrial plants pledged under regulatory pressure to reduce emissions in 2005. Butadiene levels at Milby Park, about a quarter-mile west of the two facilities - Texas Petrochemicals and Goodyear - have dropped from 4 parts per billion before the agreements to less than 1 ppb, according to the data."
Friday December 25
Happy trails! Houston's expanding hike-and-bike system brings neighborhoods together. [Houston Chronicle] "The county had previously eyed the MKT easement as a possible toll road route, but the City of Houston purchased it from the railroad and replaced tracks with a concrete pathway. Stands of trees are being planted in the wider stretches of the corridor to create a greenbelt from Shepherd east to Heights Boulevard through a formerly grim industrial zone."
Thursday December 24
Local chef touts garden-fresh food: Midtown resident works on urban garden in Third Ward [Houston Chronicle] "EcoTone, an acronym for an ecological atonement model, is Gary's effort to introduce organic gardening to the urban St. Charles Street Community Garden, 3616 St. Charles St. in the Third Ward. Gary and her partner, Trent Jefferson, were given the vacant lot through the City of Houston's Urban Community Garden Program."
With housing, jobs as the draws, state adds more new residents than any other [Houston Chronicle] "The Lone Star State has 478,000 more people than it did a year ago - roughly the equivalent of packing up all of Fresno, Calif., and moving it here."
No more train horns in corridor: Washington Ave. to be quieter in late April [Houston Chronicle]
Wednesday December 23
Harris County commissioners delay entry into storm district: Radack wants some questions answered first [Houston Chronicle] "Among the projects the district intends to study is a Texas A&M University oceanographer's idea to extend Galveston's seawall 15 miles to the island's West End, build a similar structure along the Bolivar Peninsula and construct massive floodgates at the entrance to Galveston Bay."
The historic Gragg Building has the Wright stuff [CultureMap] "Originally designed and built by the architectural team of MacKie & Kamrath, the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright is apparent. A large canopy emphasizes the horizontality of the meandering courtyard floor plan. Walls of a natural green stone taper to copper flashing, demonstrating an interest in materials that fell out of favor until today’s focus on sustainable resources.'
