marmer

Not condoning those rates at all, but garages, maintenance, insurance, and garage staff are expensive. Assuming the TMC wants parking to pay for itself, sorta, the rates probably have to be that high. I'd be willing to bet there's no real profit margin.

Dern near 6 acres:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...9&encType=1

flipper

Where you guys been? I've been doing birds-eye caps from maps.live.com (formerly Windows Live Local) for about the last 18 months! In recent months they have added lots more birds-eye areas (Pearland, Lake Jackson, etc.) Still not Sugar Land. :-\

The house and grounds shown in this picture is the famous John Staub house for Hugh Roy Cullen. It was extensively remodeled and re-landscaped (including the sunken pool terrace) by the James Flores family in the early 2000s after they bought it from Lynn and Oscar Wyatt. It is spectacular -- I went to a Christmas party there once and there were thousands of tiny light bulbs dangling in the trees.

This is my wife's single worst pet peeve about the Houston area. It drives her absolutely crazy because she navigates sequentially (do this, then this, then this, etc.) rather than by landmarks or spatial relationships.

I got it for Christmas and it is an absolutely lovely book. There is no old theatre that I know of that is not comprehensively covered. I second the enthusiastic recommendations. I actually was going to create a thread about this, but it fits here:

In the book, in the section devoted to the Village Theatre (which was an early Mackie and Kamrath, I had forgotten ) there is this intriguing passage:

After a period of sitting dormant, the property was acquired by Rice University. Plans were drawn up for a major reconstruction of the central Village shopping district, which would have required the demolition of the Village Theatre and neighboring buildings. Several preservation groups expressed a desire to save the cinema. Their concerns were politely rebuked...

(Jerry) Bryant's strategy was to seek $250,000 in corporate funding for the restoration process. The renovated theatre would host theatrical and musical performances, movies, civic affairs, and gatherings of Rice students. Rice and Weingarten were not receptive. To complicate matters, a city moratorium on the destruction of historic structures had been enacted by Mayor Lanier's administration a few years earlier. The theatre qualified for that protection because the Texas Historical Commission had declared it eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Rice asked the state to remove the building from the list. That request was refused, so the university waited for the moratorium to run out. The moratorium expired on January 1, 1994. By January 15, the Village was gone.

--David Welling, "Cinema Houston," p. 167

Isn't that interesting? A city moratorium on the destruction of historic structures enacted by the Lanier administration? Rice University actively opposing preservation of an historic theatre?

Hmmm.

Love the rock walls.

Lovely!

Thanks, Ben!

Depends on the house. Some are admired and some are reviled. Generally speaking, though, they are more highly respected than McMansions are . My gut feeling is that the style will increase in popularity over the next 20 years or so.

Thanks for posting this, Jason! What a great letter! Now, of course, I wonder if any of those "hundreds of custom homes" or that "House of New Dimensions" are still extant and/or interesting. And what about this Raul Alvarez? It's sure nice to see the fortunes of this house may be on the rise after the Carousel debacle.

All gearheads should go to Keels & Wheels at least once - there's nothing like it anywhere else in the area, as the 2007 list of car entries will attest.

Anyone remember dethroned strip-center king Jerry J. Moore's Antique Car Museum that used to be in a warehouse on the North Loop near Shepherd/Yale? That place was incredible - rows and rows of Duesenbergs, 12- and 16-cylinder Cadillacs, Packards, and other similar classics worth millions of dollars, all crammed into a nondescript building in a part of town you wouldn't expect to find it in. It was closed to the public at some point after he ran into financial difficulties and the cars were eventually moved out (and presumably at least some of them were sold). The building now houses a discount furniture store, but I think of what it used to be every time I drive by it.

AAAAUGH! Don't get me started, as this will be the thread hijack to end all thread hijacks. First, I wouldn't say Ol' Shel is still going strong, but he is still alive and trying to make a buck. I absolutely LOVE car museums. Yes, I certainly remember JJM's Car Museum. Well worth a visit back in the day. Even better was Vida's Vintage Vehicles on the North Freeway near the blimp base. It was attached to a truck stop and motel, both long gone. It had a greater variety of cars than JJM, who seemed to concentrate on '30s American classics. David Taylor's Classic Car Museum, in a restored art-deco building in downtown Galveston, was a lovely place. The Sterling McCall Old Car Museum in Round Top used to be spectacular, and my favorite day trip from the Houston area, but I've heard that McCall auctioned off a number of his vehicles to concentrate on Cadillacs, so I'm not sure about the status of the museum now. The Alamo City Car Museum in San Antonio died a few years ago, but they had an interesting collection. Probably the best one within easy driving distance is the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History in Rosanky, which is about two-thirds of the way to San Antonio on I-10. Occasionally I hear rumors that John O'Quinn of Carousel House notoriety is going to do a museum, and judging from what I've seen at Keels and Wheels and Classy Chassis, he certainly could.

Keels and Wheels is not to be missed. Period. And the lineup varies enough from year to year that you need to go. It's the only local concours that draws major participation from lots of out-of-state collectors. Two years ago the Petersen Museum in LA sent about five or six of their best cars. Classy Chassis, at Reliant Stadium in June, is not quite as spectacular but still draws most of the really interesting local cars and a few out-of-towners.

Ben, even if you were on life support in a hospital (G-d forbid), you should drag your IV line to Keels and Wheels. Seriously.

When I rode by earlier this fall, there was a bunch of boxes and stuff stacked up inside:

That is a particularly nice Caddy. Those cost over $10,000 when new, which would have put them right up near Rolls-Royce at the time. Your camera would probably enjoy this, the first weekend every May:

http://www.woodenkeels-classicwheels.com/

Well first of all, I wasn't going much faster than walking speed, so the pedestrian dodging wasn't as scary as it looks being played back at 5x speed. They use the same effect in some kung fu movies

Good point, fair enough.

Second of all, when the roads are one way its a big pain to ride all the way around the loop when you really want to get somewhere in the quad (center of the loop). When I returned to my lab, I rode on the street since traffic was flowing in the direction I wanted to go. I could have posted that video but it wasn't as interesting.

And finally, the point of this video was to show off some cool parts of campus away from the road (the quad, the area in front of Fondren Library, where the bike rack is by the way), so it required the sidewalk riding to get there. Maybe I should have cut the sidewalk part along the street and only included the quad...

And those were really cool in a retro sort of way. I don't really have any problem with bikes in the quad, or anywhere else the roads don't go. There's so much room in the quad that it doesn't feel as confining as the sidewalks along, say, College Way or Lab Road.

When I ride on the sidewalks, I ride very slowly and am careful about not hitting pedestrians.

Thanks for that.

My sense is, yes, in the strictest sense, bicycles are illegal on public sidewalks. I think that's not really enforced, though, because sometimes street conditions make the sidewalk a safer alternative. I suspect that Rice, being private property, has no such restrictions, and yes, there are many places where you must ride on a sidewalk to get somewhere. Having said that, there is no reason to ride on a sidewalk adjacent to any of the campus roads, as some of your video shows. The campus roads are very bike friendly and some of the pedestrian dodging in your video made me a little uncomfortable.

AAAAUGH! That makes me dizzy! Amazing, except for the cars and clothes this looks like it was done in 1963 with a Super 8 camera.

What are you doing riding on the sidewalk? You're going to hit a pedestrian!

Mr. Poage is apparently still alive and active.

http://www.valuearch.com/vaeuniversity/cgi...25%25user%25%25

Janel, I didn't mean to offend you, particularly in offering a compliment. And your background and equipment certainly explains the quality of your pictures. However, I strongly feel there's a middle ground. With a decent digital camera and tripod, a modicum of study, even independently from books or the web, and software to fix the really bad lighting situations, one can take dramatically better pictures right away. As good as yours, no, but far better than random point and shoot with no thought to lighting or flash range. Not to mention the choice of what to highlight, how to crop, and just getting the junky clutter out of the picture. I've spent a good deal of time on HAR, both for architectural interest and because my family is planning to move in the next twelve months, and I have seen a very wide variation in the quality of photos. The worst of them make the unfortunate houses look very unattractive, and I stand by my comment in those cases.

I have to add my voice to the props for Miss Janel. We expect a doctor to be able to use a stethoscope, a carpenter to be able to use a saw, and a mechanic to be able to use a wrench. Why don't realtors know how to use a camera properly?

HEXAGON HOUSE

HAS LOTS OF 60 AND 120 DEGREE ANGLES

with apologies to LOLcats everywhere.

This one might actually be the next Moonlight Drive. Looks like it needs a lot of work.

I think it's this.

The Tuscany Gardens and Villa

It was later revealed that Newton is NOT homeless. The cops found his address: http://www.examinernews.com/articles/2007/...news/news01.txt

I also found some addresses belonging to Larry Paul Newton on Zabasearch (the birth date, 1959, matched 2007 as 38+1959=2007).

38+1959 = 1997. Someone born in 1959 is _48_ in 2007.

Shame. Shame on Zev Isgur, for his taking advantage of the helping hand extended and also the damage he did to the classic car world. Shame on John O'Quinn for his antipathy or neglect. No doubt, for him, the property was a symbol of his financial losses, Isgur's betrayal, and his misplaced trust. Shame on Marvin Granit for his lack of vision and respect for a neighborhood icon. This is so sad.

I always want to follow the UPS man into shadyside to look around

flipper

I followed a car in once when I was on my bicycle (it was actually the AIA tour day and I was coming from the Robertson house). But then I was afraid I couldn't get back out so I chickened out and and left before the gate closed. Plkk, plkk, plkk, I know!

I have to wonder about someone in the building profession who doesn't see any difference between tearing down a cookie-cutter tract house in old Bellaire and tearing down this. Of course the problem is that a highly individualized custom dream house will probably have less appeal to anyone other than the original owner. I think the house should be preserved for cultural reasons as much as architectural, but do I want a round living room or a 15' velour sofa (even if extant?)

Good scenario: the girlfriends find out about each other in time to save the house from destruction.

Yeah, they lock him in the Carousel House and let the mold get him!