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marmer

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Everything posted by marmer

  1. marmer
    There ya go. Inter-bruta-national style. I kinda figured that the big HISD projects from the sixties would be that way but couldn't remember what they looked like. Sharpstown, anyone?
  2. marmer
    Wow. Just wow. The master bath needs more mirrors, though.
  3. marmer
    There were both, under the Galleria I stairs. They may have not been there at the same time. The purple one was called Purplemania. I believe that same location also sold left-handed items also, like scissors and coffee mugs, though it may have been a different store. I remember the cat-themed store but not its name.
  4. marmer
    I agree with you, Dan. Aren't the bungalows already very desirable income-producing rental properties? But the gray color has been around since way before the Menil Collection building. At least since the early 80s, probably earlier. The area was called "Doville" for Dominique de Menil. I don't know for sure but I imagine it dates to her association with the University of St. Thomas and the Rothko Chapel.
  5. marmer
    I loved it because they were close to Rice and had really good pizza. Back on topic, I'm glad they want to maintain a "park-like setting" but that rendering looks a whole lot less park-like than the setting does now.
  6. marmer
    Is that their Mercedes Sprinter, or is it a different vehicle? They have a tall, narrow courtesy van, designed for the Euro market by Daimler-Benz, but sold in this market as a Dodge Sprinter. You've seen them -- FedEx, for example, uses them a lot. But Zaza's somehow gotten a Mercedes-badged one, which would be right at home in Rotterdam but it's the only one I've ever seen here. Actually, I drive by there every day, so maybe I'll check it out. Unfortunately, the traffic is sometimes a little scary going around the fountain, so I may or may not be able to look closely.
  7. marmer
    Flipper, Would that make it a very attractive teardown? Or is the location going to pretty much limit it to someone who wants to live in that house?
  8. marmer
    Niche, I am not trying to flamebait you. If I have not made it clear before now, please let me say that I have great respect for your perspectives, your articulateness, and the knowledge and facts you bring to the table. Your posts are often among the most informative and enjoyable in this community. The fact that we often disagree is one of the reasons I have withdrawn from this particular discussion for several weeks. I know better than to poke a bear with a pointy stick. But I was responding to a specific post from KA about tall buildings at Rice, the Med Center, and the Museum District and the term "the public good" was just a concise way of saying "longstanding non-profit institutions whose worth to the community is not seriously questioned." I don't think one can equate their tall structures with this proposed tower, nor do I think that you are trying to do that. I do have my doubts about the viability of any new small retail or restaurant spaces in the area given how many of them have failed in the last decade. (expanding "the area" to include Shepherd up to about Westheimer.) I also have doubts about displacing the Rice students, med students, and young middle-income tenants of Maryland Manor in favor of twice as many wealthier people. (unless the rents would be lower than I think they will be.) And I think it wouldn't take very many cars at all to make Bissonnet, not to mention Sunset and Rice Boulevard, a lot worse. And it seems perfectly reasonable for the few dozen adversely affected households you mention to fight it. And if you, being one of the most passionately pro-development participants here, can see that, then the developer certainly shouldn't have been surprised by it. Especially since, IIRC, they were Rice alums and should have known the area well.
  9. marmer
    Good points, KA. Having lived, or gone to school, or worked in the area for nearly thirty years, I can echo the feelings of everyone I've talked to about it -- regardless of financial concerns or even construction inconvenience, it's just not right for the area. It doesn't fit in at all. _That_ was the developer's mistake. It's a lovely building, judging from the renderings, and I'm sure it would be a nice place to live and shop. But that is such a tremendously suburbanized area that its urbanizing benefits are not the least bit attractive to anyone who lives in the area. And it's not just Southampton -- Broadacres and Shadowlawn don't want it either. I mean, seriously, I'm no real-estate expert, but if you stopped me on the street before any of this had been planned and said, out of the blue, "Hey, would it be a good business decision to build a high-rise apartment building where Maryland Manor is?" my first response would be "Are you crazy? On Bissonnet? In that neighborhood?" Sure, there are lots of high rises near desirable neighborhoods. Near, but not as close as this would be. And Bissonnet at Ashby is no Kirby, or Memorial Drive, or Holcombe, or Post Oak, or Westheimer. I mean, look at it, except for the little shopping center where Picnic is, the businesses are in old houses. And, yes, Rice and the Museum District and the Med Center have tall buildings, but all of those institutions have been there a long time and they are not literally right on top of the Southampton houses and they all exist to serve the public good, not to make money for a private developer.
  10. marmer
    OK, now I'm wondering where I heard about the Shadyside high-rise, specifically. It was recently and from what seemed to be a reputable source. It was not the Stephen Fox book on Rice University nor his new book on John F. Staub. It was also not the Southampton Walking Tour Guide he did for RDA in Spring 2006. It was not on the last two AIA home design tours (there was nothing in Shadyside) I'm guessing it might have been from a docent at the Wray house in Shadyside during the RDA tour of Staub houses associated with the Fox book. Mrs. Hobby was on the Rice board of trustees during the late 60s and early 70s so it makes sense she might have given the property to Rice. Of course Rice couldn't do anything with it but sell it, since it could only be used for single family houses and was not accessible to the campus.
  11. marmer
    I didn't know Rice had owned it either, but I'm not surprised. Rice owns a surprisingly large amount of property. _Cinema Houston_ tells the story of how Rice owned the Village Theatre and surrounding area and deliberately refused to cooperate with local groups trying to preserve the theatre. After a moratorium on demolition of historic structures (!) sponsored by Mayor Jim McConn's administration lapsed in early 1990 or '91, the bulldozers were there within a week. I posted a quote about that a year or so ago. As to why Mrs. Hobby demolished Shadyside, I can only speculate. If she had intended to redevelop the property, demolition would have been part of the process anyway. Or more likely it could have been for tax reasons, or perhaps it needed a lot of work. One thing we see when we look at the history of the downtown and South End upscale neighborhoods is that apparently the wealthy folks of the pre-1950s generations had maybe even fewer qualms about tearing down old-ish houses than do their counterparts of today.
  12. marmer
    I was there before Christmas and there were lots of shoppers. Maybe not jam-packed, but lots of them. Like all the Town Center stores, though, it is not so very big or as well stocked as some of its Houston brethren.
  13. marmer
    Sev, Thanks so much for the citations. I'm trying to remember where I heard that Mrs. Hobby's planned structure was a high-rise hotel. I thought it was in the Rice Architectural Guide by Stephen Fox, but now that I think of it, it might have been in the RDA Southampton tour book by Fox, what, early last spring? I'll look at home and see if I still have it.
  14. marmer
    I can't prove it but IIRC the neighborhood was not happy about the Sunset Clinic and garage project. That may have been one of the reasons why there was so much opposition to the Ashby project. There were some old, run-down apartments on Bissonnet, but they were replaced by the Rice Graduate apartments. There are also those art-deco-ish apartments on Wroxton and Bolsover. I hope they're not rundown -- I think they're kinda neat. Maryland Manor useta be kinda seedy, but it was heavily remodeled in the mid-90s. Ya know, I still think that even if the Ashby highrise is the prettiest development in town, that nine months (probably more than a year, actually) of construction traffic and deliveries and lane closures is a lot to ask that neighborhood to endure. Especially when things are starting to get back to normal after the Sunset clinic. The other thing is, I live in a cheap, twenty-year-old tract house in a generic Pearland suburb. I don't have any kind of special view in my back yard. But I wouldn't be too happy about a giant residential tower suddenly looming over my back yard, either. This wasn't the first controversy about a high-rise structure in the area. Houston grande dame Oveta Culp Hobby wanted to build a high-rise hotel on her Shadyside property back in the sixties but the neighborhood association fought it and won. That's probably why she demolished her home, the eponymous Shadyside built for J. S. Cullinan as the first home in the development, and moved out of the neighborhood in 1971. Shadyside was on the property where those two new stucco and tile "beauties" visible from Main Street are now. I remember seeing the foundation remains of the Shadyside house back when you could walk in the neighborhood.
  15. marmer
    It's only buildings completed since 2001. I actually suspect, based on other structures featured, that had the Rothko been newer it might have been featured.
  16. marmer
    It's pretty clear after looking at the Phaidon atlas for a while that they are picking things that are either very dramatic or very minimalistic. It's also clear that Houston, or for that matter any city in the US, is not the modern architectural leader that it (they) might once have been when compared with some of the stuff going on in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
  17. marmer
    I've been to both. HEB has more unusual items but its layout is too inefficient. Kroger has nothing except fancy lighting to distinguish it from the Kroger at 518 and Cullen. Living as I do near 35, neither is worth the effort to get to.
  18. marmer
    I got the sense there was a joke I was missing, but I searched for "Phaidon," "atlas," and "Hobby Center," and didn't find it.
  19. marmer
    Wasn't built in the 21st century.
  20. marmer
    I've posted photos of this house before. It's been on the market for several months, originally at $300,000; now at $175,000. I think the photos and interior decoration don't do it justice; I believe this very well could be the steal of the year. Sure would hate to see this one demo'ed and the lot subdivided. http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y
  21. marmer
    Thanks for the heads up on the update to HG's site, Ben. As always, you rock. Waaah, I want the Villa Blanca and Lyne house photos to expand! According the the Guide, when Uniroyal was a tenant the brick decoration was painted black (to read as tire treads) It's rather less noticeable that way, and was still like that last time I was in the hood.
  22. marmer
    And I agree with crunch. It's pretty obvious to me the difference between a peck on the cheek and a romantic kiss. Same difference between an above-the-waist-hands-on-the-shoulder-blades hug and a romantic embrace. And we guys have all those kinds of flirting, too. Seems to me like there's an obvious definition of infidelity: when one partner has either sexual or romantic involvements without their partner's knowledge and consent. Pretty much anything else, while potentially problematic for the relationship, is not cheating. Especially differences in sex drive, which are common, though not universal, in heterosexual couples. If one partner is feeling neglected for whatever reason, they need to open their mouths and say something and work it out. But give guys a break about porn. Almost every guy's early sexual experiences center on porn and it's several years before they do anything with a partner. Not to mention it's a way to indulge your kinks without endangering your real life. So, unless it's illegal, like child porn or some kinds of extremely violent stuff, don't label your happy porn consumer a sicko. Dan Savage recommends: guys: hide it and be discreet, don't rub her face in it; girls: look the other way and don't snoop. Everyone then buys into the white lie that there's no porn.
  23. marmer
    It changed names a few times. I believe it was Dos Gringos at one time. I went there fairly often in college -- it was pretty good and not too expensive. Lee's Den, I believe.
  24. marmer
    You mean this? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/ar...ay/5985592.html It does mention the Transco (now Williams) Tower.
  25. marmer
    I ate at one in St. Joseph, Michigan a couple of summers ago. Had a Cajun-seasoned steak with fries, a good salad, and plenty of peanuts to throw shells on the floor. I was very impressed. They had Texas license plates decorating every booth. I told them they couldn't have the ones on my car!
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