squatterkid

Hey y'all. I'm back, sort of. I live in California again. I just ran across these pictures I took a awhile ago and thought I might share them, as I recall someone expressing a like for the Central Square sign. Well, here they are. Second one is from the roof of the Central Square, looking north. With my neighbor and enemy, the 22 story inpenetrable fortress that is the Days Inn. I can not believe they put that head on the lawn of the Savoy. The first words out of my mouth "Only in Houston." -sean

Yeah, the people who "secure" buildings aren't always that great at what they do. Look at the two new murals on the Wast side of the building for proof. Spoke and whoever didn't have a tough time getting in. Luckily (or unluckily, depending upon how you look at it) for the owners, there isn't a scrap piece of metal left in the building worth salvaging. Scrappers got every bit of copper plumbing, wire and aluminum that was possible. Crackheads, among other things, are efficient. I'm really still curious about the Days Inn. A couple years ago, some friends and I went in to have a look, despite the signs outside saying that tresspassing was a felony. (What, is it a government historical site or something? Ha.) We we're greeted by a fellow who was the "caretaker" and said that he had the day shift and another fellow had the night shift, and if we came back at night he would give us a tour. This intrigues me because I would love to have a position like that. I do miss living in a 17 story building with a few friends. We used to slide down the laundry chute at the Savoy. We filled one room with mattresses and had a bouncy wall room. At any rate. I'd be perfect for the job. I've vowed to never again pay rent. And being the type of person that gets into buildings, I'm perfect for keeping other people out. Not to be exclusive and proprietary, but I don't agree with gutting a building of all of it's usuable copper plumbing and electrical wiring, rendering the building almost beyond repair. That's dumb. Unless the owner of said building is a rich jerk... Well, I'm only around for a few days, headed up to NYC. No abandoned skyscrapers there...

Hi folks. I'm back. In Houston, and on this forum. Didn't know there was still so much interest in this stuff. Let's see... My girlfriend got an apartment so I don't have to live in empty buildings anymore, at least in Houston anyways. The Central Square seems to have changed ownership again. Watercolor drawing of what they hope to have happen in the area. I'll believe it when I see it. That area just seems destined to forever fail. That donut shop changes hands every so often, the Thai place is never open, the 50's Diner that looks like an Airstream trailer (who's idea was that?) just down the street speaks for itself. More and more people have gotten into the building. Just smash a window on the ground floor and go for it. Never my style. But the owners are silly, instead of boarding the whole bottom floor up, they just board up whichever window got smashed. I spent some time in Detroit last month. Possibly the only place with more empty actual skyscrapers than houston. I got into one, the Fort Shelby Hotel. Completely wrecked but still interesting. I dunno, pretty boring town..... kid

Oh, and I forgot something. If you happen to know one of these philanthropists, have them throw some money the Public Library's way. They could certainly use it. I saw a rendition of their upcoming (hopeful) remodel, and it included a Library Cafe. Never a good sign when a Public Library has to turn to selling coffee to fund itself. I judge cities by their libraries.

It's true, Houston does lead the country in philanthropy, hands down. With all the fortune 500 compaines and oil money, how can it not? Unfortunately just because you have all the money in the world doesn't mean you know a good painting from a piece of garbage. It's partly what I was trying to touch on before, you can't buy class. Or taste for that matter. For a good explanation of this (and a rather interesting view on Texas in general) read John Steinbeck's "Travel's with Charley, In Search of America".

I meant more along the lines of rip the whole damn street up and put in a decent light rail system. Seriously, do we expect the super rich to have to cross Westheimer to get to Neiman Marcus from the Derek? Pshaw. I know we disagreed on car traffic being prohibitive of a decent downtown area before, but if you don't see how four lanes or more of Westheimer through the center of an upscale area like the Galleria is just ruining it, then well, look harder or something.

I think anything that gets/keeps people talking is good. And to be talking about culture and class seems perfectly relevant to the health of a city. I'm not trying to rag on you for saying this is off-topic, but if you have a problem with it, then start something on-topic that people will talk about. The Galleria/Uptown is a major benchmark of the city in terms of the upper upper class. I could care less about those people or their money but I do want Houston to have a good image. And I want it to have a super good image for the super rich. (Most of whom are just "stopping by", staying at the Derek) Unfortunately in order to perfect the image, the city is going to have to do something about the four lane traffic nightmare that is Westheimer through the center of it all.

Culture and class can't be bought. Houston/The Galleria needs to learn that lesson desperately. Buying all your clothing at Neiman Marcus makes you no more of a sophisticate than sleeping in your garage makes you a car. I live very near to San Jose, where those pictures were taken. The development is rather cookie-cutter, but the area still has a nice "feel" to it.

y'all are complaining about a new park? Like it or not, homeless people exist. It must be hard to see with your nose that high in the air.

Living in Central Square, the Midtown Randall's used to be my main grocery store. The place does a brisk business, even though it is overpriced. I guess if you can afford to live in Camden, you can afford the convenience. Main Street Food Store is anything but. It's one of the shadiest businesses I've ever seen in operation. Not only will you never pay the same price twice, if you're not paying attention, you'll pay double. The liqour is unbelievably underpriced but they make that up by overcharging you after you've had a few. (too many) With a scary Russian accent Colombian looking guard sitting in a booth in front armed to the teeth, it wouldn't surprise me if half the items being sold on the shelf are stolen off the back of a truck. Scary place run by scary people frequented by even scarier people. Sorry if I'm offending anybodies cousin or uncles here, but it's the truth.

It can be very hard to figure out which buildings are empty and which ones aren't, especially in Houston. Reason being that oftentimes the street level retail shops are open, while the residential/office building upstairs has been closed for years. I do believe I know the building you're speaking of on San Jacinto at Walker. Haven't been in there yet, but it does intrigue me. A good case in point for my above interjection is the building that's directly across Louisianna from the Hyatt Regency. The northside of the building is a very busy parking garage, while the southside is (I'm guessing from the remnants of a sign) the old Houston Chronicle offices. See, I'm involved in this little informal contest to squat the tallest building possible. I'm still the winner with the Savoy at 17 stories, but I need to beat my own record.

Public libraries have internet access. I'm now at my "home" of the Bay Area in California. No empty skyscrapers here. I can get in the Shamrock. That trailer out front with the stylized design isn't enough to fool me. The old Days Inn has people living in it, purportedly there on behalf of the owner, in order to keep other people out. (just the sort of position I'm looking for) So many empty buildings in just downtown alone, I can't keep track and remember which one's are worth getting into or not. What about that HUGE skyscraper right downtown (I want to say Louisiana and Clay, maybe not though) north half is parking garage the south is a 22 story or more office building. Anyone know anything about that? Hearne Lithograph in Midtown (across from Specs) had a horrible attack from copper salvaging crackheads. Seems the water was still on and the entire place flooded from the second story down. Ridiculous structural damage as a result. I did my best to turn the water off but the property manager stole my backpack anyways. I've gotta get on the right side of these things.

My background is posted on the Central Square topic in case this doesn't make sense to anyone. I lived in the Savoy hotel for about 6 months starting last February. I discovered and had to explore the building the moment I saw a huge chandeller (sp?) hanging from behind a broken window in the lobby. It's hard to keep me out of any building and it wasn't long before I had discovered an entrance. The Savoy is actually two buildings, the older, shorter one on the north side and the addition on the south. The older building is absolutely rotten and decrepit. It has caved in from the top floor to the ground and actually looks pretty freakin cool. Toilets hanging by plumbing ten stories up and whatnot. Well anyways, that's where the fire escape was, though they had cut it off about two stories up. I had to climb up a support pole to reach it. And then go down an elevator shaft to get to the newer building. Once in it's always easy to find a way out. My first astonishing discovery was that the place was still completely furnished and obviously nobody had been in it for quite some time. I'm from California where land is worth more than gold so this was quite shocking. Also, the electricity was still on for some reason. There's a refrigerator downstairs in the kitchen that has the door ripped of and has been constantly on since 1988 and is probably still on. There was also a phone in the lobby that I used to get calls on. 713-something-1212. It's still listed and I used to get calls from people asking for room rates. The downstairs is actually really pretty. Tall ceilings and curved staircases, huge chandelliers and a beautiful solid marble statue in the entryway. Two libraries, (stocked completely with Texas law books) a patio area between the two buildings had a fountain and a jacuzzi, now smashed and covered in pigeon refuse. Anybody know why the hell they would leave the electricity on for so long? Makes no sense to me. The owner is obviously hoping for the "New Main Street" effect to take place that far south and have the building converted into lofts ala Rice. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but then again it's already been closed for 16 years. The upper floors are rather ugly and boring. Single hallways straight through with cookie cutter rooms on each side. The penthouse suites are kind of nice but still I don't think they could call this place urban lofts without gutting the whole building. There's no uniqueness to it. The older building was obviously a hell of a lot classier in it's day but when Best Western had control of it you could tell it was a bit cut rate. I have a pile of brochures for it from the 70's that I'll scan if I get the time. I think the hotel was mainly for visiting Shell employees across the street. They'll have to demolish the older building before they can do anything with the newer one, as they are both connected and the older one threatens to demolish itself any day now. I say smash it and start over, the building is too ugly to ever be profitable. But in the meantime, open it to the homeless sleeping on the sidewalks outside. (that's what I told the owner anyways, with a few expletives added in) They have the parking garage open now, mainly so the penny pinching millionaire can make 30 bucks a day and watch the building he's sitting on sit empty while people sleep outside. Sorry, I hate landlords, particularly that one. Any questions? Any other buildings worth getting into? I'll be back in Houston come January. Charles Grube beware.

First off, thanks all for the warm welcome. Somehow I expected a bunch of property owner types to be telling me to bug off and whatnot. Glad that's not the case. (although property owner types would actually benefit from knowing me, I'm good at keeping the wrecker of building types out) All I can recall from the upper floors of Central Square was that they were a hell of a lot more wrecked then the lower floors which were still nice. And I remember that one of the upper floors had a bunch of stylish leather furniture, probably that night club. The electricity is unfortunately cut off at the street level so my attempts at manipulating the GIANT l.e.d. screen on the roof of the building failed. The bank building (northeast corner) is kind of cool. The vault is open and it's kind of weird to be behind the bank teller. I don't ever really live in one particular place in the country but by far my best free-rent living has been in Houston. Leave it to Texas to have abandoned SKYSCRAPERS!! The Savoy is a completely different and awesome story. I think I'll start a new topic for it. I have friends of friends that lived in APV, and would absolutely love to hear about any squats or stories in or near Houston. sean

Let's see, how do I start this. Basically paying rent sucks so I've lived in quite a few empty buildings in the Houston area. Kapish? Central Square is indeed two buildings. I'm not sure if they we're built seperately and joined later, but it certainly seems so, as navigating the place can be a freaking maze. There's also a third one story building that's cinderblocked off from the rest (used to be connected) on the northwest corner. It is indeed a very ugly building. As much on the inside as on the out. Some pretty bad leaks in the building, and salvagers (crackheads) who also lived there have ripped out all of the copper and most of the brass. The noise from the Pierce elevated is actually barely noticeable, even on the lower levels. The building has very few windows on the North, East and South sides. (none on the south) I made a boat to explore the flooded basement. (pretty common in houston) I would certainly believe that the upper stories are haunted. Weird feeling up there. And there's actually a bathroom on the VERY top with a window directly in front of the toilet that seems oddly placed. Like encouraging suicide. Very strange. Very awesome HUGE map of Houston from the sheriff dispatch office that used to be in there. Still very easy to get into in case someone happens to know David Cook or whatever the realtors name is. I also lived in the Savoy and have plenty of stories and opinions about that place. Houston is a squatters paradise. And before anybody yells at me, I never cause harm to a building, on the contrary, I often improve them. Unless the landlord is a jerk.