marmer

I seem to remember you saying years ago that that house needed to be put out of its misery.

And here is some info on Stran-Steel. Apparently they invented or at least popularized the Quonset Hut and really were at the forefront of steel framing for residential projects. http://tinyurl.com/chw7dew

This might be Eddie Parker (bet it is.) http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=140063801#fbLoggedOut

The one we saw last weekend, right? Have you found anything else about it?

OK, so the scream house is Steinberg? Just wanted to be sure.

Seek out Robert Searcy. http://www.houstonmod.org/for_sale.asp

Anyone have any idea who did Berechah by the Galleria? Just drove by there after the Briargrove Mod of the Month; it's a nice one, as Subdude said. It's not in the new Guide.

Rats! Sorry to see the David D. Red house on Sunset go. Not surprised, though.

As it happens, I was wrong. The 1940 building was indeed Lamar Q. Cato. The 1976 addition was done after Hedrick's death by Hedrick's firm. Not an unreasonable mistake, given the style of Hedrick's earlier work.

Irving R. Klein and Associates was an architectural firm. I need to go over and get a pic of the building at Travis and Rosedale where ttweak has their offices. I think that Phillip Willard developed it and had his firm there. High set windows allow both privacy and natural light while the street-side wall helps cut noise. Edit: I'll bet there still are a few of these architect-designed small commercial buildings on the periphery of downtown. It certainly looks like a familiar type.

Google Earth has b/w historical imagery from 1978 and 1989 which is fairly clear; maybe you can find them there.

Oooo, that's really nice. Thanks, sev!

Rice's "science triplets" (Geology, Biology, and Space Science, now unfortunately with their arcades glassed in.) and original Student Center/Chapel building Hermann Professional Building Petroleum/Great Southwest Life Building and I actually like Heritage Plaza in all it's postmodern crazy.

A fair amount of the Fifth Ward. Lyons, Jensen, Elysian. Except for the cars, Broadacres. A bit of Cherryhurst. The Rice Academic Quad. The area around Gus Wortham Golf Course and Villa De Matel. Quite a bit of Garden Oaks. The pre-1980 part of Pearland. That's all I can think of right now. Bet sevfiv can think of more...

Sure, but he probably doesn't want to spend any money on it and he's probably holding out for an unreasonably high price. That's often the story behind derelict properties.

Using Google Earth historic imagery, which is different from Historic Aerials, looks like it was thriving in 1978, moribund by 1995, and deserted by 2002. Torn down between Feb. 2004 and Oct. 2005. I saw a listing for the property being for sale on Loopnet, not sure if that's still current. 8700 (South) Main Street. My guess is that it was cheap to scrape and haul off the buildings but the pool would have been a lot more expensive to demo, and why tear down mature trees until you have to?

Aww, darn. Yes, funeral home for years, and HPB was across the street from it.

Several hundred? Really? I did almost exactly that a few years ago, for a 60th anniversary presentation DVD. I didn't find it so horrible doing four to six at a time, but maybe I had more time than you do with the party coming up so soon. I also had to crop, color correct, sharpen, and enhance most of them, too. If you're really in a time bind, you probably should take them to a service. I don't mean to presume, but could you maybe choose a hundred of the very best images and show each one a little longer?

Well, if it's Louis Aulbach, it's not J.R. Gonzales's Bayou City History blog on chron.com, which is what I thought of. Still, it's definitely worth seeing. http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/

http://dining.rice.edu/RetailContent.aspx?id=138

Go back to Columbia blue. Black 'n' white is for State Troopers!

Sure. No reasonable person would disagree. It's also already illegal to run into stopped vehicles or people on the side of the road. And Fringe has a good point that tow trucks are often the first to an accident scene and serve a public safety function with their lights. For an accident. Where there might be an unexpected and difficult to see obstacle in the road. (Anyone who's driven 288 late at night probably knows what I'm talking about. You come over an overpass and "Holy @#$%^&!") My big issue with it is that the original article said there was going to be a major enforcement push. I have a problem with creating a bunch of new revenue producing judgement calls for police. I don't want to get a ticket if traffic conditions don't permit slowing down that much or moving over just because AAA is changing someone's tire on the shoulder. An accident, especially with blocked lanes, is probably going to bring traffic to a near standstill anyway.

I do have a problem with this law. Police, fire, and EMS are government agencies whose mission is to protect the public. They have certifications and commissions and badges. There's nothing wrong with giving them special treatment from a traffic perspective, that's after all why their vehicles have lights and sirens. And rapidity of response for them is a life and death matter. Tow trucks are commercial enterprises who have a license from the city. Their public safety role, in spite of what the tow company owner says, is marginal. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that any time a tow is required for real safety reasons, that police, fire, and EMS is there already anyway. For that matter, I think calling a traffic stop a "roadside emergency" is stretching it a little, but if it saves cops' lives I don't object.

No, he didn't and I didn't want to press him about any authorized or unauthorized residential usage of the building. I was just happy to have any information he wanted to share.

Sorry to gravedig this old post, but I know people are interested. Thanks to a tip from strickn, I was able to contact a member of the Alexander family. He gave me permission to share this info: In response to a later question about the derrick, here is his response: He was kind enough to share this great picture from me, from 1985. He also said that there have been problems with vandalism and specifically asked me, if I share this information, to ask that people respect his family's private property.