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MontroseNeighborhoodCafe

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  1. Dec. 21, 2005, 1:59PM New plans unveiled for Holcombe Square By TOM MANNING Chronicle Correspondent The first phase of a project aimed at improving pedestrian safety in Holcombe Square in the Texas Medical Center will include widening sidewalks, separating cars from pedestrians with a string of live oaks, improving ramp access at street corners, and adding new lighting along Holcombe, South Main and Fannin streets. Read More...
  2. Dec. 22, 2005, 2:40AM A step forward downtown Land purchase could set stage for retail, condos By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle A real estate development group has purchased three blocks of prime downtown land, a move that takes it one step closer to building a proposed retail, condominium and office complex on the site. The property was purchased by a partnership between William Denton, CEO of California-based Entertainment Development Group, and Geoffrey Jones, CEO of the Texas Real Estate Fund. The group paid more than $20 million for the property, according to individuals close to the deal, who released the price on the condition they not be identified. The three blocks bordered by Main, Polk, Dallas and Caroline streets are currently used for downtown parking. The developers want to fill the large site with restaurants, shops, offices and residential units in a project called Houston Pavilions. Read More...
  3. Nov. 12, 2005, 9:34PM Parking garage to go up on Main Rubble-strewn space to become 11-story structure By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The lot filled with rubble at the corner of Main and Walker will soon be replaced by work trucks and a crane as a developer prepares to break ground on an 11-story parking garage on the downtown site. Read More....
  4. Name change After nearly three years, the chic Sam Houston Hotel has a new name. The boutique inn, which opened in 2002 in a historic building at 1117 Prairie, is now known as Alden-Houston. A snag with online search sites was part of the reason for the name change. Sites directed users looking for the downtown property to a hotel on the Sam Houston Parkway. "We needed to find a neutral name," said Bill Franks, president of Spire Realty, which owns the hotel. The only other significant change will be the removal of the lobby's impressive sepia-toned mural of the Battle of San Jacinto, where Gen. Sam Houston led his troops to victory. The company may also open more hotels in other cities, and it wanted a recognizable brand name. "Sam Houston doesn't mean much in Atlanta, Ga., New York City or Chicago, Ill.," Franks said.
  5. EXCLUSIVE REPORTS From the August 12, 2005 print edition Cosmopolitan condos to replace coney islands Jennifer Dawson Jennifer Dawson Houston Business Journal Developer Randall Davis is cooking up plans for a high-rise residential development on the site of the James Coney Island restaurant near the Galleria. After serving up hot dogs and chili at the Post Oak Boulevard location for more than 30 years, the restaurant owners are branching out from cuisine to condos by entering into a joint venture with Davis on the project. Initial plans call for the frankfurter fixture to be demolished and replaced by a 20-story tower with 90 residential units. The building would be located on the half-acre tract nestled between a 24-Hour Fitness and the Dessert Gallery on Post Oak near the intersection of San Felipe. Sources say the high-rise will be named "Cosmopolitan," and details could be released as early as September. Read More...
  6. EXCLUSIVE REPORTS From the August 12, 2005 print edition Car dealership gives way to urban infill Jennifer Dawson Houston Business Journal A high-end development mixing retail, residential and possibly office space will soon be parked on an inner-city tract that has been occupied by auto dealerships for the past three decades. Trademark Property Co. is negotiating a long-term ground lease on six acres on Westheimer just west of Mid Lane, which is currently home to a Central Ford dealership. Trademark is the Fort Worth-based developer behind the $100 million Market Street project in The Woodlands. That successful 34-acre development includes 400,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 100,000 square feet of office space. Read More...
  7. BAGGAGE ACCLAIM: The Art Guys' Travel Light (shown) and Sheila Klein's Leopard Sky, are among the 21 works selected by Art in America magazine as being among the country's best public art projects of 2004. Aug. 12, 2005, 7:48PM Enjoying the scenic routes Two new artworks at Bush airport garner national attention By PATRICIA C. JOHNSON Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Read More
  8. http://images.chron.com/content/news/photos/05/08/12/b-histor.jpg Aug. 12, 2005, 12:28AM More historic markers ahead? City is weighing a plan to allow property owners to seek permanent protection for sites By MATT STILES Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle In what would be a victory for preservation advocates, the City Council is considering a new ordinance that would safeguard Houston's historic sites by allowing voluntary designations of "protected landmarks." The effort, designed to strengthen the city's 10-year-old preservation ordinance, would allow property owners to seek permanent protection for historic buildings they own if the sites meet specific criteria. That protection would remain, even if the property ownership changed. Read More...
  9. A stare-down from a fat rat Ron Guidry wants the park cleared of rats and the homeless. They Walk Among Us A closer look at a spiffy downtown park reveals it's crawling with rats By Todd Spivak Published: Thursday, August 4, 2005 Guidry has a grab bag of horror stories regarding the park. He tells one particularly bizarre tale that involves a penis, a groundskeeper and a shovel. It's midday a couple of weeks ago, the story goes. Guidry steps outside his building for a break. He watches as a groundskeeper pushes a lawn mower past a homeless man who's asleep on a bench. Apparently angered by the intrusion, the homeless man "all of a sudden pulls out his penis and chases the groundskeeper over the hill." The groundskeeper's supervisor fast approaches holding a shovel over his head and cussing out the homeless man, who yells right back. "Here it is," Guidry says, "three in the afternoon, and this guy is standing in the middle of the park, for like two minutes, shouting and holding out his penis and shaking it." Read More...
  10. July 27, 2005, 4:09AM A major bequest for the Menil David Whitney's collection includes a few masterpieces By PATRICIA C. JOHNSON Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The Menil Collection will receive a trove of modern art
  11. http://images.chron.com/content/news/photos/05/07/17/cac.jpg A RAZE AND A PROMOTION: This is an artist's rendering of the seven-story, $22 million project at 1515 Elgin, which will include retail space and 62 residential units, as well as 8,500 square feet for exhibition space and offices. July 15, 2005, 11:28AM The Collective imagination In Midtown, an art nonprofit dreams big, 100,000-square-foot big By PATRICIA C. JOHNSON Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Houston Chronicle Article
  12. The American Apparel store at 712 Broadway, with the trademark photographs. July 10, 2005 His Way Meets a Highway Called Court By MIREYA NAVARRO LOS ANGELES THERE is no question that Dov Charney is an unconventional chief executive. As the founder of American Apparel, the T-shirt and casual wear chain sometimes called an alternative Gap, Mr. Charney decorates stores with covers of Penthouse and Oui magazines from the 70's, admits in interviews to engaging in sexual relationships with women who work for him, and once exposed himself for an ad in a gay magazine, all in the name of personal freedom. Read More...
  13. That is awesome news, downtown really needs a bakery! Where is Corner Bakery going to be located? Also, is it a local or national chain?
  14. Renzo Piano's design for a $258 million addition to the Art Institute of Chicago features a suspended "flying carpet" roof Piano created such a roof in Houston more than 10 years ago for the Cy Twombly Pavilion. June 3, 2005, 11:08AM Flying carpets over Houston, Chicago Renzo Piano's plan for the Art Institute of Chicago is an homage to himself By CLIFFORD PUGH Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Houston Chronicle Article ***Edited to remove copyrighted content***
  15. Classical peristyle in Millennium Park. Frank Gehry's band shell. Jaume Plensa's fountain. architecture Chicago's Magic Kingdom Is Millennium Park a theme park for adults? By Witold Rybczynski Posted Wednesday, May 11, 2005, at 4:36 AM PT Chicagoans obviously don't agree. The city has just spent almost half a billion dollars on Millennium Park, which opened last July. In its first six months, the downtown park has attracted more than 1.5 million visitors. This is an impressive number considering the park is only 24.5 acres
  16. ------------------- This message has been edited to remove copyrighted material. Please do not post copyrighted photos or articles from newspapers or magazines. We have already received a warning from the Houston Chronicle, and the legal departments of other publications have visited the site. If you would like to discuss a published article, please summarize the article and provide a link to the original source. -------------------
  17. March 23, 2005, 11:14PM At Memorial City, a lifestyle in development Project will surround mall with residences, offices By DAVID KAPLAN and NANCY SARNOFF ------------------- This message has been edited to remove copyrighted material. Please do not post copyrighted photos or articles from newspapers or magazines. We have already received a warning from the Houston Chronicle, and the legal departments of other publications have visited the site. If you would like to discuss a published article, please summarize the article and provide a link to the original source. -------------------
  18. Feb. 19, 2005, 10:00PM Hotel ZaZa looks for a site Dallas owners believe Houston a hot stopover for wealthy travelers By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Hotel ZaZa, a swanky Dallas inn whose guest book includes such names as Cher, Britney Spears and Jerry Seinfeld, wants to open a property in Houston. A location hasn't been selected yet, but a hotel spokeswoman said the owners are looking to expand the ZaZa brand in a few select cities. "Houston is definitely in our scope," said Barbara Buzzell. She said the owners are looking at a property here, but wouldn't say which one, because nothing is final. Rumors about one possible location have centered on the Warwick Hotel on Main Street. John Remmers, general manager of the 1920s Museum District property, said he wasn't aware of any sale to ZaZa. The Warwick, which overlooks Hermann Park and the famous Mecom Fountain, was once the only place to stay in Houston. "In the '60s, the Warwick was the best game in town," said John Keeling, a hotel analyst with PKF Consulting. "For the well-heeled traveler, that was where they stayed, and there was no competition." As Houston started seeing more hotel construction in the 1970s, the Warwick became less exclusive. It suffered further blows during the 1980s oil bust, and the property later changed hands several times. But its location between downtown and the Texas Medical Center was an enduring problem for the Warwick, said Keeling. "It's a 'tweener,' " he said. "It's not in the Med Center, and it's not downtown. It's neither here nor there." Hotel ZaZa opened in Dallas, its only location, in 2002. Its Uptown site, which is walking distance to more than a dozen restaurants and condominium buildings, has helped its success, Keeling said. On the other hand, the Warwick location, while scenic and upscale, is more of a residential environment, he said. "It's a very risky call," Keeling said. Hotel ZaZa was developed by Charles Givens and Jeff Records of Givens Records Properties of Oklahoma City. Each of the property's 146 oversized rooms includes a sitting room, a work area, Mario Russo bath products and marble bathrooms. The hotel also has a salon called ZaSpa and a restaurant developed by celebrity chef Stephan Pyles. ZaZa is about to open seven luxury suites in a separate building. Catering to the ultrarich, these over-the-top "villas" have gourmet kitchens, Whirlpool spas, 42-inch plasma screen TVs and music systems. The most expensive one, called the Rock Star, goes for $1,695 a night.
  19. Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is reflected in the window of the Caroline Wiess Law Building. The Museum District is in the midst of a massive expansion that could mean more than $100 million worth of cultural development. Feb. 19, 2005, 11:20PM City builds on culture 'It'll be like nothing else in the world,' Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, says about the Museum District By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is planning an expansion that would bring a massive gallery of 20th century art to its Museum District campus just off Main Street. A couple of blocks away, the Children's Museum of Houston wants to nearly double its size, adding gallery space and enlarging the courtyard. And just to the north, Asia Society Texas has cleared a block to build Asia House, which will include exhibition space, a performance hall and a library to showcase Asian-American culture. Throughout Houston's Museum District, a part of town anchored at the intersection of Binz and Main Street, similar new facilities, expansions and renovations are under way or planned at many of the 16 institutions that make up this growing cultural center. "It'll be like nothing else in the world," Peter Marzio, director of the MFAH, said. "And that's not Texas tall talk." Altogether, these projects could amount to more than $100 million worth of cultural development. From an economic standpoint, this cultural building boom is already starting to show in other ways. New restaurants and retail establishments are beginning to spring up in buildings that have sat vacant for years, and housing is also gaining momentum. Residential builders have been buying dilapidated homes and replacing them with townhome developments in an area east of Main Street that was once out of the realm of new development. Over 5 million people visit the five top museums in the district, according to the institutions. That doesn't include some of the smaller galleries like the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum and Lawndale Art Center, which recently completed a $1.4 million renovation to its building on Main. When it opened in its current location in 1992, the Children's Museum of Houston was one of the first art institutions to venture that far east of Main. Today, the museum is overflowing with visitors. At 44,000 square feet, the Children's Museum was designed to accommodate 350,000 visitors a year. Its actual number is in the 600,000s, which helps make a case for increased funding. It will soon begin a campaign to help raise money for a $16 million expansion and renovation project that will include a 37,000-square-foot addition to its existing building. "We're out of bathrooms. We're out of conveniences," said Tammie Kahn, executive director of the museum. "It's time for us to consider this." The museum will also build a small parking garage on a lot it owns across the street. Eventually, that land will be used for another expansion or could potentially be turned into green space, Kahn said. "We're trying to guard that parking lot for future development," she said. "The most important asset we have is that land." Space for the future Of all the arts groups, the Museum of Fine Arts, which is in line to receive one of the largest cash donations ever made to an art museum, will likely grow the most. "The MFA is sort of the mother ship," said Susan Young, administrator for the Houston Museum District Association. A construction date hasn't been set. Marzio said he has just started putting together a list of top architects who could design the new space. "If it went well, it would be nice to have a building no later than 2010," said Marzio, whose museum stands to net up to $450 million from the estate of oil heiress Caroline Weiss Law. The museum is considering four sites for its new building. Two of those sites are vacant blocks just north of the Glassell School on Montrose and adjacent to First Presbyterian Church on Main Street. The third alternative, Marzio said, is to build on land that houses the museum's parking garage and visitors center next to the new Audrey Jones Beck Building. The parking garage would be rebuilt on one of the museum's vacant tracts. The last option is to acquire another parcel in the area. Real estate experts said that while vacant land around the museum district is limited, there are older residential and commercial properties in the area that have "higher and better uses." "Some properties are at the end of their useful lives and are in great locations," said Tom Bacon, a principal of Lionstone Group, a Houston-based real estate investment firm. But prices for those properties are quickly escalating. Young said property that sold for $15 per square foot five years ago is now going for close to $50 per square foot. Others see growth ahead Other arts organizations own land they are eyeing for future growth. The Holocaust Museum owns a parcel next to its facility on Caroline. The land is leased to a nearby hospital while the museum ponders when it will use the property. Spokesman Mike Rosen said the museum hosts about 90,000 visitors annually, and that number grows by about 10 percent a year. The Menil Collection, considered by many to be one of the most high-profile privately assembled collections of the 20th century, is also doing some planning. The museum, which already owns a number of properties in the Montrose area, recently purchased more on Richmond Avenue at Mandell. The Menil is known for creating new uses for the vast amount of real estate it controls. The museum houses an art exhibit made of lights in a nondescript building on Richmond. And it owns dozens of bungalows that line the perimeter of its main gallery where it houses offices and has its bookstore. While the museum has considered building a new gallery to house its large collection of sketches, drawings and other works on paper, plans for its newest acquisition are still unclear. "It was a very smart thing to do in terms of securing that parcel," Menil spokesman Vance Muse said. "It's now ours well into the future." One museum without a surplus of land is looking at ways to plan ahead. The Houston Museum of Natural Science is renovating its entomology hall and insect zoo, which by 2006 will culminate in a new insect wing at the Cockrell Butterfly Center. But, surrounded by public parks, the museum itself is somewhat landlocked. And attendance at the museum has increased almost tenfold in the past two decades, museum President Joel Bartsch said. "Right now we are looking, as are our neighbors in and around Hermann Park and our sister institutions in the Houston Museum District Association, at several options for how we might meet the ever-increasing demands that come with the continued growth of the city," Bartsch said. The Museum District Association's Young said the light rail system and a new Main Street exit ramp off U.S. 59 will help shape how the area develops. The Museum District is already served by three rail stops because it stretches from the Montrose area on the north to near Rice University on the south. And the new freeway ramp, Young said, marks the first time since the 1950s that traffic has been able to conveniently reach the arts district. 'Museum walk' planned Young also said the "museum walk," a federally funded infrastructure plan, will improve the area by linking pedestrians and Metro riders to the museums and district landmarks through walkways and signs. Asia Society Texas chose the area for its new museum partially because of its proximity to light rail. About two years ago, Asia Society bought a block on Caroline at Southmore for Asia House, which is expected to break ground in two years. Yoshio Taniguchi, who just completed the renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was chosen to design the building. By the look of things, Asia House won't be the only new museum in the area. Supporters of an African-American culture museum want to be in this area, which encompasses part of the Third Ward. "Our intentions have always been to be in the para-meters of the Museum District," said Irene Johnson, who's involved in the planning. "We're steadfast in our commitment to see this project become a reality." And the Czech Cultural Center Houston, which recently opened on San Jacinto, will likely expand into a full-fledged museum. While land prices are becoming an increasingly important factor in the district, Lionstone's Bacon said prices here are still a bargain compared to other cities. "There has been a lot of focus on land prices having jumped, but relative to other major cities, our land prices remain on the very lowest end," he said.
  20. Reuters file photo Rafik Hariri was a billionaire and former prime minister of Lebanon. Feb. 15, 2005, 5:54AM Hariri owned JPMorgan Chase Tower, Houston's tallest building He also had a stake in the new Calpine Center skyscraper here By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese billionaire and former prime minister who was killed in a bomb explosion on Monday, owned Houston's tallest office tower and held a stake in another. Hariri owned the JPMorgan Chase Tower at 600 Travis downtown through his U.S. business subsidiary Prime Asset Management. Prime purchased the building in the late 1980s from Hines, the Houston-based realty firm that still manages the property. Prime also holds an interest in the new Calpine Center at 717 Texas in a partnership with Hines, which developed the building. Hariri, who resigned as Lebanese prime minister last fall, was riding in a motorcade on Monday when he was killed in an explosion in Beirut. Hines and Hariri's business relationship dates back two decades, said George Lancaster, a spokesman for Hines. "Mr. Hines and several people that have worked closely with him are saddened by the tragic news," he said. It's too early to tell what will happen to Hariri's interests in the Houston properties, Lancaster added. The 75-story JPMorgan Chase building opened in 1982. It was designed by the famous architect I.M. Pei. At 33 stories tall, the Calpine building was completed in 2003. Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum was the architect.
  21. Feb. 15, 2005, 6:12AM BEQUEST TO MFA COULD SET RECORD FOR AN ART MUSEUM Oil heiress's gift ultimately may be up to $450 million By SHANNON BUGGS Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, soon could be entered in the annals of philanthropy as the recipient of the largest cash gift to a fine arts museum ever publicly announced. Caroline Wiess Law, the daughter of one of Humble Oil Co.'s founders, made the museum the prime beneficiary of her estate. When all of Law's assets are sold and the legal proceedings conclude, possibly by the end of this year, the museum could net between $400 million and $450 million, said director Peter Marzio. "In recent history, this would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest cash gifts to an art museum," said Mimi Gaudieri, executive director, Association of Art Museum Directors in New York. "This money will help make Houston one of the most important museums in terms of programming and serving the public." Law's giving would rank as No. 1 in non-art donations to museums on a list compiled by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which tracks charitable donations of $50 million and more. Less pressure on budget The MFA already has plans to kick off a capital campaign in the coming months for designing and building a third structure on its campus to house 20th century and contemporary art, Marzio said. This comes after the museum raised $125 million to build the 200,000-square-foot Audrey Jones Beck building, which opened in March 2000. "If the Law bequest works out the way we want, " Marzio said, "there will not be as much pressure on the operating budget to build the new building as there was on the budget when we built the Beck building." Because the Law gift is endowed money, it is not meant to be spent. Instead, the cash will be invested by money managers Fayez Sarofim in Houston and Luther King in Fort Worth. The $165 million the museum has already received from Law's estate has raised the museum's total endowment to $545 million. A second check of $165 million is expected to arrive by the end of March, making the city's wealthiest arts organization even richer. "It's a magnanimous gift not only to the MFA but to the entire city," said Ed Wulfe, president of the Houston Symphony. "It ensures the long-term viability of one of our major arts organizations and allows it to continue to impact the quality of life of our entire city." An avid art collector, Law followed her mother's footsteps on the MFA's board of directors. She used oil industry inheritances from her parents and husbands to support the museum's growth. She was named a life trustee and was thanked by the board for her generosity over the years with the honor of her name being bestowed on the museum's main building designed by architect Mies Van Der Roh. "She felt that our family has been very lucky and that this city has been very good to us and that it is our privilege and duty to give back to the city and that this gift might inspire others to do the same," said Jim Elkins, Law's nephew and executor of her estate. Soon after Law died in 2003 on Christmas Eve and her 85th birthday, her estate gave the museum Law's contemporary art collection valued at between $60 million and $85 million. The 55 major works include pieces by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. The estate also distributed $25 million checks each to the museum, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. What was not mentioned in the museum's announcement about that gift was that Law named the museum the residual beneficiary of her estate. Anything not specifically given to a person or institution was to go to the museum, including all of the assets of her foundation, which is valued at $18 million and is scheduled to be dissolved by the end of the year. The endowment also allows the museum to use less of the endowment's income every year to run the fine arts museum and the central administration of an arts organization that also operates the Glassell School of Art and the decorative arts museums at Rienzi and Bayou Bend. The museum's budget requires a draw of about 5.1 percent of the $544 million endowment total return to generate one-fourth of the the $41 million needed to operate the museum this fiscal year, which ends June 30. History of efficiency Before this infusion of cash, the museum earned a reputation as an efficient charity by spending 88 percent of its budget on programs and services and paying only 4 cents to raise $1 in charitable contributions, said Charity Navigator, a Web-based evaluator of the financial habits of nonprofits. That compares with the average art museum's spending just 68 percent on programs and 13 cents on fund-raising expenses. But one area in which the MFA appears stagnant is in revenue growth. Over the past three to five years, the average art museum grew by at least 6 percent, deriving primary revenue from individual donations, corporate contributions and and ticket sales. The MFA's revenue in that time frame rose only 1.6 percent. Chronicle reporters Everett Evans, Purva Patel and Charles Ward contributed to this story.
  22. ------------------- This message has been edited to remove copyrighted material. Please do not post copyrighted photos or articles from newspapers or magazines. We have already received a warning from the Houston Chronicle, and the legal departments of other publications have visited the site. If you would like to discuss a published article, please summarize the article and provide a link to the original source. -------------------
  23. ------------------- This message has been edited to remove copyrighted material. Please do not post copyrighted photos or articles from newspapers or magazines. We have already received a warning from the Houston Chronicle, and the legal departments of other publications have visited the site. If you would like to discuss a published article, please summarize the article and provide a link to the original source. -------------------
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