Black Heritage Society's Martin Luther King Day Event [Photo by Raj Mankad]
Headlines January 17 to January 23
Friday January 23
Bridge’s name goes nowhere / City officials think ‘Tolerance’ too negative, seek new suggestions [Houston Chronicle]
Category Results
Category: Architecture
Rendering shown at the groundbreaking for the Memorial Park Pedestrian Bridge, which was initially designed at a Rice Design Alliance Charrette by Clark Condon Associates
Headlines January 24 to 30
I attended the groundbreaking of the Memorial Park Pedestrian Bridge on Friday. It was a glorious day for a good project. I interspersed a few pictures from the event below.
Friday January 30
Lessons from Ike move city forward [Chronicle] “If Hurricane Ike was a learning opportunity, this is what the city of Houston learned: Don’t rely too much on the state. Pinpoint where elderly and sick people live before the storm hits. Buy more generators – lots more. And more fuel to run them.”
Bicyclist on Braes Bayou path [Photo by Raj Mankad]
Headlines January 12 to January 16
A roundup of last week’s news about Greater Houston’s built environment. Good — City bicycle coordinator invites input at January 27th meeting. Bad — Huge piles of trash.
Wednesday January 14
Ike debris towers over Pleasantville “Felton Lee does not remember the exact day when trucks started dumping heaps of tree debris about 20 feet from his backyard…Now, stacks of chipped wooded waste from Hurricane Ike loom like browned mountains high above his Pleasantville home.”
Mosaic Condominium Towers [Photo by Raj Mankad]
Headlines January 3 to January 11
The New York Times led their story on high rates of office space vacancies with a picture of Houston. On the residential side, according to the Houston Business Journal, “Developers of the award-winning Mosaic condominium tower filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week to avoid foreclosure on the property.” Several political shake-ups at the state level. The Trans-Texas Corridor has died and been split into smaller projects, and the pundits are guessing what the new Texas House Speaker Joe Strauss will do for Houston.
Sunday January 4
As Vacant Office Space Grows, So Does Lenders’ Crisis [New York Times]
Canal Street Apartments, Val Glitsch FAIA [Photo by Miro Dvorscak, Courtesy of New Hope Housing]
Headlines December 27 to January 2
This New Year week came with some bleak news as several hundred million dollars of cancelled or delayed developments were announced including High Street at Westheimer and the Titan on Post Oak due to problems with sales and financing. Carolyn Feibel’s Chronicle article on New Hope Housing was a bright spot. Pictured above is New Hope’s Canal Street Apartments, which includes 133 single room occupancy units.
Saturday December 27
Hidalgo County nears end for its border fence [Houston Chronicle]
Red swing at the Menil Collection [Photo by Raj Mankad]
Headlines December 19 to 26
Friday December 19
Texas transportation price tag put at $313B through 2030 [Houston Chronicle]
$8.5 million deal assures Water Wall will survive: Company agrees to sell Galleria-area spot to the city [Houston Chronicle]
Broadway Urban Corridor [Rendering by Allison Parrott]
Infill: A Framework for Growth in the East End
The thin urban fabric along Broadway in the East End is fractured by prominent voids. Used car lots, abandoned buildings, and empty land dominate the strip, which is the main route between Downtown and Hobby Airport. Just to the west of Broadway are a few streets of sparse, dilapidated rental housing units which, in a city with limited natural views, sit just to the south of the turning basin looking onto both Brays Bayou and Buffalo Bayou. This specific urban corridor, already an important transit route within the city, has the potential to become a strong community center within the East End by addressing the fractured nature of its current landscape. What are ways to intervene in these urban gaps?
3916 Woodhead on a foggy morn [Photo by Raj Mankad]
Headlines from December 13 to 18
For a few months this year, the economic story for Houston was that we were an exception. The headlines this week indicate that the national downturn has finally caught up with us. Perhaps the above townhouse, which is being built on a site where the original house was torn down, will be among the last of an era.
Tuesday December 16
The Swampies: Voting Continues [Swamplot] This blog on Houston’s real estate landscape has set up a wickedly clever competition that includes such categories as Most Fattening Real Estate Development, Only in Houston, Best Rebranding Effort, Best Teardown, and Best Project Cancellation or Delay.
Man throwing debris into pile in Galveston. [Photo by Eric Hester]
Disappeared: Galveston, Ike, and Affordable Housing
What happens when you take a failing affordable housing policy and add a direct hit by Hurricane Ike. I talked to Chula Sanchez, a LEED-certified architect and member of the Galveston Planning Commission, about just that.
“The planning commission seems to be more of a permitting commission,” Ms. Sanchez explained.
Rendering of Donald Lipski's "Tubbs," an outdoor sculpture commissioned for the upcoming WaterWorks museum, Arts in Houston
Headlines from December 6 to 12
Saturday December 6
Lisa Gray: Older homes blind to the bayous [Houston Chronicle] This story came out Friday the 6th but it was missed on the last headline roundup and it’s worth reading.
Monday December 8
Financial crunch may stall effort on Astrodome hotel [Houston Chronicle]
UH study will create real estate database [Houston Business Journal]
