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"3611 Drew Street is a remodel/addition to an existing structure. The original structure was a single story daycare center. The goal of the project is to convert the existing building into 20 micro-loft apartments. The average square footage of each apartment is 300 SF and includes a full size bath and fully equipped kitchen." These units are within walking distance of the University of Houston and judging by the size of the units, they will be geared toward students. https://www.drafthousedesign.studio/3611-drew-street https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Projects/TABS2021008213

The house at 5151 (originally South Park Dr.) MLK belonged to my late grandmother and her first husband, Herbert Tartt and Bernice Tartt. When she married my grandfather in the 50s, he moved into the big white house along with my step-grandmother's mother-in-law Tartt. We had such wonderful memories of that house. It had two living rooms, two dining rooms, two kitchens and baths downstairs, a large den that my grandfather added along the back of the house. Upstairs it had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms on each side of the house separated by attic space. There was a replica play house in the back and the yardman, Sam, had living quarters in the backyard as well. It also had a 6 car garage. The house was original white washed brick. It has since been restored to it's original brick and home to the Church of the Black Madonna I believe. It was Frank Ingrando Orphanage after my grandparents moved to Piney Point off of Memorial on Tynebridge Lane. https://www.google.com/maps/place/5151+mlk/@29.7042898,-95.3341356,3a,75y,103.1h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s3YbKEuXlRciNjYAm-b8k7Q!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x8640be3f9d36894d:0x7a3983724aa678d0?sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyjv_DnKXWAhVM5WMKHalFCw0QxB0IKDAA

I'll update with name(didn't bother to remember since it's on TABC sign...of course can't read from picture). It's going to be a hot dog place. Google st view 2015

Not really sure how far along this is. Just sharing what I saw on Facebook.

New Mid-Rise at 2020 McGowen, 100 units.

Another Student Housing Project for the UofH 4-story wrap style project 739 beds 1-4 bedrooms .25 miles from main campus easy acess to SE METRO rail line. Fall 2015 Completion Project also includes sidewalk improvements to Cullen Blvd http://www.houstontx.gov/council/1/bfacommittee/20140429/aspenheights.pdf

Frenchys is moving two blocks away to the 3600 block of scott! https://twitter.com/cindylgeorge

http://swamplot.com/church-expansion-plan-casts-out-frenchys-from-original-scott-spot/2016-09-12/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+swamplot+(Swamplot%3A+Houston's+Real+Estate+Landscape)

Last night I went to the 3rd Ward bikeway system meeting. This is for one of the sections that the city is focusing on using the $10 million from Rodney Ellis to build high-comfort bike lanes. There were probably about 20ish citizens there and about 15 city planners/contracted engineers/etc. First, the map! They didn't have an updated whole map that showed the changes that they've made in the last few months, so I whipped up my own. Green - existing high-comfort bike infrastructure Blue - proposed and imminent high-comfort bike infrastructure Purple - "Community Bikeways" aka sharrows . No separation from vehicles. Red - Bike infrastructure being handled by those other than the city or projects that are planned but I don't have specific info on (like Polk. A city project but I have no/they haven't presented updated info). Timeline: finalizing design work by March. Starting construction in April on all projects. Most blue/purple projects completed by end of the summer. The new information can be split into changes on four streets. 1) Gray would run from Brazos in Midtown to the Columbia Tap Trail. Split into 3 different designs based on road width. Brazos to 288 (converting parking on one side of the street to a bi-directional bike lane) 288 to Live Oak (converting parking on one side of the street to a bi-directional bike lane) Live Oak to Columbia Tap Trail (sharrows) 2) Hutchins: adding bike lanes and reducing lane sizes. No reduction in parking. 3) Blodgett: Elimination of parking on both sides of the street and converting to protected bike lanes 4) Cleburne: Elimination of parking on both sides of the street and converting to protected bike lanes

Moneymakers: Alexander Muhammad Community project lets builder branch out Carlos Antonio Rios/Chronicle "A lot of people need homes, and I want to stretch more into the affordable housing market." -- Alexander Muhammad When Project Row Houses, the public art project that renovated 22 shotgun homes in the historic Third Ward to provide housing for single mothers and artists, wanted to build duplexes, it needed help. It already had a design provided and test-built by the Rice Building Workshop, which is affiliated with the university's architecture school. But the not-for-profit wanted an African-American contractor who lives and works in Third Ward to build a modified two-unit version on four adjoining lots. It found Alexander Muhammad, president of Eastern Design Homebuilders and bearer of the graduate master builder designation bestowed by the National Association of Home Builders. Last week, he took time out from inspecting the nearly complete duplexes on a mud-clogged street behind the white row houses to talk with Chronicle reporter Shannon Buggs about this job. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What else have you built or will you be building in Third Ward? A: I've built three custom homes in Riverside Terrace that cost $220,000 and up. They're all in West MacGregor Estates. I did a little refurbishing of the mosque in Riverside Terrace. And the mosque is getting ready to build a new structure for elderly housing, with businesses on the first floor that will be across the street. That should start in January and I'm going to do that. This is the first multi-unit project I've done. Q: How did you get involved with the Project Row House Community Development Corp.? A: Minister Robert Muhammad met with the project manager, Antoine Bryant, and I came to meet with Project Row House after that. Knowing that this was a community project and that they want to do more, my fees were negotiable. But I really can't discount my workers. They have to do the work for a certain price. Normally, what I would actually charge for doing a house, I really wouldn't take anything less than $25,000. Q: What was the most difficult part of the building process? A: The foundation was the most different thing that we did and the most important part. It's called an adjustable pier and beam, and it was designed by Mr. Danny Samuels at Rice University. When a house gets unlevel, you can adjust it by turning a bolt versus hiring a company to come out and jack it up. You can save a lot of money that way. Q: What happened on this project that surprised you? A: There were some design things that I had not seen before. The subfloor is also the finished floor. It's 2-by-6 tongue-and-groove treated planks. And there was not that much theft. I thought we might have a lot of stuff stolen. A few pieces came up missing, but nothing on the scale of a $1,000 or more. We were building four houses at one time, and there was a lot of material laying around all the time. But nothing big came up missing, and that was surprising. Everyone is real nice out here. Q: Will you be expanding your business to include more commercial projects? What type of construction do you prefer to do? A: Residential is what I like to do. It's what I have a lot of experience in doing, and it's what I want to master. A lot of people need homes, and I want to stretch more into the affordable housing market. A lot of people, when they want a house, they usually go to the production builders, get a brochure and bring that to me. They don't envision sketching out their own homes. But you can do that even if you don't have a lot of money. That's how I'm building my own home. It's going to be right near the George R. Brown Convention Center on Dallas at St. Charles streets. I don't know if they call that Third Ward anymore.

Will be a great addition for the neighborhood especially the medical center and UH!!!

bill barfield has added a photo to the pool: Perkins & Will Architects, Houston View the full article

5-story residential building proposed near Emancipation Park.

I've passed them countless times, but only in the last week have I really paid attention to the older homes on MLK near OST. When they were built, MLK wasn't even known as its prior name of South Park Blvd. It was known as Holmes Rd. If you look at old aerial views from the 40s, you can see where Holmes Rd. made a curve to the north at what is now the intersection of 610 and MLK. Part of that curve still exists as the right turn lane from MLK to the 610 WB feeder. But, back to the homes. Most of them sit on slightly less than an acre of land. The one in the best condition is the mansion at 5151 MLK. It's owned by a church now and was built in 1910 according to HCAD, but it looks more like a 1920s or 1930s build to me. https://www.google.com/maps/@29.704455,-95.33413,3a,75y,119.58h,91.16t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sqMOCcisJ8t4e6_XV5mNqHg!2e0 The next one is hidden behind a bunch of trees. The only way you can really see it is on Bing maps. It's at 5302 MLK and was built in 1939 according to HCAD. http://binged.it/1lFNK34 5306 MLK is also owned by the same church that owns 5151 MLK. HCAD says it was built in 1958, but Google Earth aerial views from 1953 show otherwise. It's also shrouded by vegetation http://binged.it/1nmyZPZ 5320 MLK is also owned by the church. HCAD says it was built in 1947, but Google Earth views from 1944 show it to be present. It's surrounded by trees and doesn't look to be in good condition. http://binged.it/1nmzcT4 There was another one next to 5320 at MLK and Stuyvesant, but it was torn down for some apartments in the 60s or 70s, which were owned by the same church in the 90s, and torn down recently and replaced by KIPP Academy. I wonder, who built and originally lived in these homes? They seem more like something you would've found on S. MacGregor or N. Parkwood Dr. When most of them were built, they were in what was still considered the outskirts of town. It's amazing that most of them have survived the developments that have surrounded them.

Patrick Feller has added a photo to the pool: 3204 Ennis Opened in 1926 Later, Riverside General Hospital View the full article

One block north of O.S.T. and one block west of Scott and across from the catholic church, This site had roughly eight individual 4 plexes on the property. It lies just behind the CVS on the corner of Scott and O.S.T. . They had been abandoned for as long as we've lived in the neighborhood. Old furniture on lots broken windows torn down doors. You get the picture. They have done a remarkable job of razing the apartment buildings and it has left several acres of century old oaks in its place. Just curious if any of you have seen or heard what is in this properties future. It would be a beautiful park but I'm pretty sure someone has plans.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/Fighting-gentrification-is-a-losing-battle-get-14066994.php

Blue Triangle Multicultural Association and Community Center What we know about the Blue Triangle renovations ahead On Tuesday, the state of Qatar announced it was providing the Blue Triangle Multicultural Association and Community Center with a grant for $4,988,123. The money is part of Qatar's $30 million Harvey Fund that has provided monies for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the aftermath of the 2017 storm. This video walk through looks similar to the pictures shared.

BACKYARD HTX https://www.instagram.com/backyardhtx/

This is just a shot in the dark, but I'm wondering if any HAIF members attended "The Oaks" preschool in the 1950s (and I think it still existed in the same spot, but under a different name, through the sixties). It was was on, or close to, the 3000 block of Rosedale, a stone's throw from the University of Houston (I remember that detail because one day my father, on his way from teaching at U. of H. to pick me up, spotted a toddler standing by the railroad track, surmised, correctly, that she had wandered away from the school, and came to get me with the little girl on his hip--averting a tragedy. If something like that happened today ... ). We children could see the railroad track from the playground. The school was, I believe, in the home of the owner/director. I even remember it had a flowering pomegranate tree at the front gate. Teachers I remember are Mrs. Campbell (or as I called her at age 3, Mrs. Camel), Miss Vaugn, and (I think) a Mrs. Herbst. The school was for children aged three to six. I know that it was still in existence in the late '60s because around the age of 18 I stumbled upon it, recognized it, went in and looked at the playground, and was surprised that the playground equipment I remembered as huge was, in fact, tiny--as befitted a school for pre-schoolers. It had a different name then, which I don't remember.

http://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=6966&MeetingID=147

Proposed development at Scott and Hadley St., near I-45 SubdivisionPlatPDF_universitygateway.pdf

It would appear the same company behind the Vue on MacGregor is also building directly across Brays Bayou. Apparently they are wanting to tear down Beall Village. I couldn't find any information on the web. (Click image for larger picture)

Proposed multifamily project on the Planning Commission agenda. Unable to upload the file. Site of the Alamo Plaza Motor Hotel. https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7051675,-95.3460678,3a,75y,301.2h,77.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1Yee6zFfT90ZJs7V9_jdsQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I lived at the City Prison Farm on Mykawa Road in early 50's. My husband was a prison guard. The prisoners worked on the farm, guarded, and were housed and fed at the farm. It was not prison-like to me. It was well-run by a man with a family; Some of the prisoners were assigned to my home there and did cooking, cleaning etc .