Purdueenginerd

fun fact, this site, during the first world war had several training trenches dug into it for the troops at the Now Memorial park military base. The trenches were visible from the air for several decades. Below is the site in December 1944. In 1953 there was some buildings put on the lot 8901 and it looks like most of the trenches were gone by the 80s... but I wonder if there are any archeological remains today.

I've been pretty unimpressed by Daddy's. Gone there twice now... rarely is there a wait. I dont think business is doing well.

all over reddit for some reason this morning. This is a good development, even if it is close to the other target. That target south of 10 is always packed so I'm sure the economics of this probably work out... Glad were getting a multi-use building with street retail. This is in conjunction with the installation of bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure on shepard and Durhan. More developments like this please.

Was looking for some old drawings for work today and totally forgot that library has a bunch of Finn's drawings. https://digital.houstonlibrary.org/hhrcad Some of them have been digitized, but they have more at hte library downtown.

I did a quick google search: https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/36530 http://archives.library.rice.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/21959 Found this building called the "Electric Building" which was designed by none other than Alfred Finn at 505 Goggan. The second link states it was located at Block 81, one which today is bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis and Main. I took a peak at the sanborn insurance map for houston from 1896, and there is no Goggan street in downtown... at least that I could see. I think youre right, Goggan Building was the name. The 1907 Sanborn map shows wood frame buildings located at 700 block of main. Again no Goggan street. That building must have not lasted very long <50 years...

Shored the house and replaced the structural members that were rotten in one case. In another case I put a new steel member to supplement the original header (at the garage). The windows were pulled, siding fully removed, re-did all the waterproofing and repainted the house. Not an enjoyable experience.

Found one more. A little older. Says Alfred Finn Associates, architects and engineers. Looks like he had his in-house engineers on some projects...

Another building of his from 1928, looks like he worked with another firm(one that you mentioned). This sometimes occurs when you have a "design" architect who creats the rendering and then a project architect of record that does the detailing etc. No idea what the relationship was for this particular building... Edit: Just going off of OP's comment, did Finn single handedly draw these drawings? By the 1920s For sure not and probably had a team of project architects, drafters, etc working on design,etc.

Ive worked on a few of his buildings over the years. I pulled up one the drawings for one of his buildings on our server right now, and for what its worth It Says Alfred C Finn Architect and the address is 505 Goggan Houston, TX. That address and building I dont believe exist anymore. It was definitly a firm with numerous workers. I do not know if the firm was acquired in the 60's when he passed away. Here's a clip of one of the structural drawings. He subbed out structural in the 1920s, which wasnt as common at the time. Won't share the location of this building but of the few projects of his i've worked on-- the title block is consistent.

Just wanted to share for future home-owners the importance of proper waterproofing details and c raft work on their homes and future homes. I wanted to elaborate on my current experiences. As we all know most homes these days are constructed with a DuPont Tyvek. This material wraps around typical wood-frame homes and serves as a vapor/moisture barrier between the elements and the interior of the house. In order to serve as protection and an envelop to the home details pertaining to installation are very explicit. With the amount of rain in Houston, its important that your waterproofing details are done correctly. Tyvek, by DuPont has a specification for the installation of windows: https://www.dupont.com/content/dam/dupont/amer/us/en/performance-building-solutions/public/documents/en/K27340%20Window%20Installation%20Up%20to%204%20Inch%20Recess%20After%20WRB.pdf Won't get in the weeds but basically Tyvek has to be folded and taped in specific manner around windows. The more important component is to fold and tape your tyvek over the window Sill 2x4, before the window is installed. If you don't, even with Tape, any pin-hole or improper taping will bypass the moisture barrier and allow water behind it, Allowing for water infiltration. When this isnt performed properly, it can foul the structure. Want to walk through a couple of photos pertaining to things to look for. In the Image above you can see as we tear away the tape that the tyvek terminates at the window sill. The tape does not turn over the 2x4 window sill. You can see fastener holes within 6" of the window as well. Any hole in the system will allow water behind the Tyvek, In this image as we cut away the tyvek you can see significant water infiltration has occurred at the window sill interface. In the image above, as the sheathing was removed, Structural damage to both a load bearing studs and the primary support beam is obvious as a result of the faulty installation. In another portion of the house, you can see again improper installation at the jambs of the window. The tape was applied underneath the tyvek, essentially making it pointless. Obviously these repairs have been expensive. The original builder of the home, Ansari Builders, was not helpful at all pertaining to the addressing of these issues but I wanted to let everyone who's building and owning homes know that there are resources pertaining to how windows should be installed and the importance of proper waterproofing in the Houston Area. Be sure during inspection to evaluate the windows and if waterproofing was properly installed.

These smaller light-gage steel office buildings I like. Good infill development.

• 4/9/20 – Discovery of trespassers living in the rectory. Windows on second floor broken. In addition, break-in through stained glass window of church. • 4/15/20 – Copper gutters and flashings stolen. • 4/23/20 – Second floor window of school broken out. • 4/24/20 – Air conditioning copper lines stolen; visible evidence of campfires burning along front wall of rectory. • 4/28/20 – Trespasser arrested inside rectory. • 1/28/21 – Interior patio door of rectory broken; basement garage raided for copper pipes, tubing, and wiring. Basement flooded. •12/6/21 – Pierce Street door and multiple windows found broken and used to gain entry. Electric wiring in old school was stolen. • 12/22/21 – Trespassers removed an 18-foot ladder from the rectory basement and used it to climb the school roof to access the wiring. • 1/31/22 – A 2-alarm fire at parish office and rectory. Extensive damage, holes in roof and windows, fire crews find the premises to be unsafe. • 2/1/22 – Break-in at the rectory through glass and sawing throughplywood that was supplied by an outside contractor after the fire. Looking at the case history, thats a lot of break-ins over 2 years. Its a huge bummer they went with surface parking lot. -- street parking downtown is free on sunday's anyway. Huge bummer.

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas/ According to the USDA, this site is indeed very close to a food desert by abotu 2 blocks. Eddie is right. Grocery store would be nice here...

Can definitely see the relics of oil derricks/drills corresponding in the 1944 aerial with your image above.

Great photo. Maybe it was Hogg Field located in Timbergrove? (Im speculating)

Wasnt there an oil-field in the area? Eureka Heights Oil Field? Or was that farther north?

For what its worth, there is a proposed extension to Ella. No idea on the funding or status of it. https://mycity.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4b5467e117d0459b84e2f2e94ba4fdc2&extent=-10619481.073%2C3470289.6806%2C-10609291.0617%2C3475071.7722%2C102100

Finally got a chance to ride the bike lanes on 11th on Sunday. I liked it. had a mild complaint going westbound and trying to turn left on to the heights bike-trail. I ended up going to Yale and turning left there. Not a big deal since I was doing 16mph pace... but with a slower bike/ride ---I coudl find this annoying. Commenting on the traffic issue at shepherd. I drive from my house down 11th (west bound) every morning to drop my kid off at day care. at 730 in the morning, anecdotally, during construction traffic was backed up some... but now that its more or less complete - I've seen no appreciable increase my time to get him to daycare and get to the office. Going east bound on 11th over shepard, I feel like there needs to be better paint markings to partition the road from 2 lanes down to 1, but thats just an adjustment on my part. Edit: Just want to add, I take my son to the heights library every 2-3 weeks and I generally walk there. Crossing 11th is drastically easier with a stroller than it was before.

my only issue with that round-a-bout is cycling through there. I dont enjoy the stone finish on a road bike. Driving the roundabout is easy....

Not big on the visual appearance of the houses but I do like the site plan/design. nice community center in the center there.

@hindesky, Are you bringing a drone on your bike rides now? Love the air-shots.

That retension pond has only been there since 2012 or so. Used to a be a ware house and laydown yard there. Looking at satellite imagery, it looks like 6th street never cross there. The 6th street on the west side was added after the fact.

Dialing gaudy up to 11.

Drove by the site earlier this week. Looks like there are some old drilled piers/foundations at the site that were left in situ when the building above was demolished. Looks like hte site held a large warehouse that was demolished circa 2013/2014.

So question, was the original building saved at all?