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Specwriter

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  1. Specwriter
    Che (there should be an acute accent over the 'e') was a very nice restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel at the corner of Montrose and Berthea. The main entrance was on the Montrose side of the building. I took a date there in the late 70's and she was completely impressed (we were very young). IIRC we had rack of lamb for two. Reservations were required. When we arrived there was a matchbook at the table with the restaurant's logo on on one side and my last name on the other.
  2. Specwriter
    It looks like the "designer" of the exterior of the building was trying to evoke the warehouse lofts on the near north side, e.g. Dakota Lofts, which was originally the Bute Paint plant. I don't know how well this "style" will fly in this particular neighborhood. Time will tell. Hopefully the all brick veneer will give fewer maintenace issue that EIFS or even true stucco. Successful use of real stucco requires proper design and placement of control joints, etc. and application by skilled trades people. That is harder to find these days.
  3. Specwriter
    When the Andover property at 1301 Richmond was sold and almost immediately demolished for the new construction I asked about this vacant site at Richmond and Dunlavy. Well, here's my answer. I could see the value for residents along Richmond who worked and shopped also somewhere near that rail line when it is completed (note my reserved optomism). In the meantime I find the #25 bus to be pretty useful terminating as it does at the Wheeler Avenue station where there is also a stop for the exisiting rail line.
  4. Specwriter
    I passed by the Brucette's shoe store on Bay Area Blvd. last Friday and it was open and appered to be fully stocked. I wonder if the Brucette's in the Galleria will just relocate. My young adult daughter has a passion for shoes exceeded only by Imelda Marcos so I am peripherally aware of these things. When I was paying for her clothes and shoes I was acutely aware.
  5. Specwriter
    Thanks, fwki. Your post made my day.
  6. Specwriter
    I am also greatful that Hakeem is preserving this building and the First National Bank building downtown as well. Short of a wrecking ball nothing is worse for an historic building than for it to sit empty. It also appears that he has done nothing that is not reversible. Kudos for that as well. Filio, are you remembering the commercial for the voice recognition device where Hakeem says something to the effect of, "if it can recognize what I say it can work for anybody?"
  7. Specwriter
    I had to explain the DR34M to an acquaintence of mine. The 3 and the 4 substitute for the 'e' and 'a' in "Dream" - Hakeem's nickname. 34 was also his jersey number. I guess it has become the boutique we heard about earlier. I see the same two or three automobiles parked on the west side of the building each time I pass buy (which is fairly frequently these days). I suppose those cars belong to the people who operate the boutique. I am a very unlikely candidate to shop there but my curiosity may get the best of me soon.
  8. Specwriter
    Of course I remembered those three a few hours after I posted my incomplete list. It's rather strange that I forgot Helfman because I bought a new Jeep Cheokee there in late 1995 and Lt. Alan Helfman himself handed me the keys. My father was good friends with one of the salesmen at Bland Cadillac (also at one time Bland-Willis and Bland-Curran) which was last located at Bagby and Gray. He would call Dad up every other year or so to tell him about a really nice, low mileage Caddy some "River Oaks dowager" had just traded in. Dad made a few nice deals on a some really well kept, late model cars. The last car he bought from Bland right after the first oil embargo in the early '70s wasn't a Cadillac though - it was a 6 cylinder BMW sedan. I was a few months away from getting my driver's license and was beside myself waiting to get behind the wheel of that car. It was without a doubt the most washed and waxed vehicle in our neighborhood at the time.
  9. Specwriter
    I've purchased five vehicles from one inside-the-loop dealership over the years. In 1986 and again 1993 I bought used cars from Tommie Vaughn Ford on Shepherd as well. It is so convenient when one has to take the car in for warranty work, or the inevitable "call back" on a used car, to have a place that is close by. About 3 years ago I bought a Mini Cooper from the dealer on the Southwest Freeway at Beltway 8. The car was fine and the dealership did what they were supposed to do but the inconvenience of trips to the service department has really influenced my consideration of future purchases. Let's see, that limits me to Ford (Tommie Vaughn), Chevrolet (Knapp), Volkswagen, Audi (Momentum), or Mercedes-Benz (Greenway). Did I overlook any?
  10. Specwriter
    My parents probably have pictures or even 8mm movie film. I wonder what shape that is in. I'll take Plumber2's advice and try to get my parents to look at their stuff with me while we are all still here. They have lived in the same house since July 1961 so I can just imagine all that is in there. My memory of our families visit to the fair is vague. It was during the summer between my 1st and 2nd grade year in school. My parents had just bought a silver Buick Skylark in which we traveled from Houston to San Antonio. I do remember very well being on the observation deck of the tower and Dad finding our car in the parking lot through the coin operated binoculars. We knew it was ours because we could even read the license plates. We stayed at La Mansion on the river but I believe it had a different name then. I thought my father was incredibly strange for wanting a room that backed up to the parking garage instead of one on the river side of the building. There was a door which went directly from the room to the garage and we parked only a few feet away. Obviously this helped Dad get our luggage into the room without having to tip a porter. Forty-four years on I now understand my father better. He's the guy who runs the Sam Houston Parkway (ugh! there's that incorrectly used name again) access lanes, stopping at every light, rather than paying the toll and driving on the main lanes. To quote the old man, "I pay taxes. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay extra to drive on a road in my own country!" Dad truly does believe that this is the "land of the free."
  11. Specwriter
    I stand corrected (actually I am sitting as I write this). I passed by the West Mansion again this afternoon and on the monument sign I mentioned yesterday, in very nice lettering, are the words "West Mansion" and below that, "3300 E. NASA Parkway." So I guess that part of what I will always call NASA Road 1 is, indeed, NASA Parkway. I guess too, by the strictest definition, it is a parkway since Clear Lake Park fronts on both sides of the road just a short distance east of the mansion. The more interesting thing I saw was when I drove through the open gate and right up to the house itself. On each of the red awnings are the letters and numbers "DR34M." I suppose the '3' substitutes for the letter 'E' and the '4' for the letter 'A' thus indicating the Dream, i.e. Mr.Olajuwon. The same also appears in plaster relief over the porte cochere at the rear of the building. A quick Google search turns up this: http://www.dr34m.com/ Well, we'll see how successful that venture is. I notice the car wash is still operating on San Felipe just inside the 610 Loop. To give due credit the restoration of the exterior seems to have been done well and there are no permanent alterations to distract from the structure. The owner(s) are to be commended. I still believe the house and grounds would better serve as a venue for receptions and similar events. I attended a wedding and dinner at the Guenther House in San Antonio last October and the house and grounds were excellent for that event. The West Mansion should be just as fitting.
  12. Specwriter
    I see a bit more happening here in the past week or so. Dark red canvas awnings have been installed above several of the windows and just yesterday I saw some men erecting what seems to be a sign at the gate along NASA Road 1. They were installing some large square tile over the concrete block structure of the sign base. It disturbs me that I see a round tube coming up through the middle of this pylon sign. I hope there is no intent to have some tacky lighted marquee atop that tube. Yecch. Happy Historian, I believe the old FM 528 is still officially NASA Road 1 east of the Johnson Space Center. I agree with you, and I stated in other threads, this indiscriminate renaming of thoroughfares "parkways" is incorrect and causes those who make the decision to rename appear to be not too intelligent. Allen Parkway fits the definition of a parkway. St. Joseph Parway does not.
  13. Specwriter
    IMO the outling of buildings with neon, LEDs, or whatever is just wrong. It is banal. The "ziggurat" of the Heritage Plaza building should be uplit like the "tempieto" of the Esperson Building. This would better show the geometry that makes the building interesting in the first place. Running strings of light around the tops of tall buildings is just unimaginative. Perhaps a stage set designer could come up with better ideas - or a third grader.
  14. Specwriter
    I've heard no more talk lately about a third airport west of the city. Has anyone else heard anything? I was at IAH just last week for an international flight. The place is pretty empty at 4:30am (my departure) and at midnight (my return) but I can see how it would have trouble handling even a moderate increase in traffic. The whole complex just doesn't seem to be laid out efficiently. I do most of my air travel inside the U.S. and almost all of that on Southwest. Hobby is much closer to my home and office anyway. If (when) Southwest begins international flights HOU will really get crowded.
  15. Specwriter
    Off topic but, looks like a first generation Cadillac Seville (1976-1979) was destroyed in the fire. That's a shame since it was apparently garage kept and probably well maintained. I'm not saying they were the greatest automobiles ever but it's sad to see something kept for so long - ~35 years - lost like this. I certainly hope no people or pets were injured.
  16. Specwriter
    From personal experience I can say "Yes, that is how it starts." Another great thing about HAIF is it gives me the opportunity to 'exercise' my memory which is getting pretty flabby these days. That's a pity. My family and I bowled there just last July. My two grown children took their mother and me there to celebrate her birthday. The four of us going bowling was something we did more frequently when the children were young and living at home. This is a little off-topic but: I've 'bowled' on the Wii and there is no comparison to real bowling. I sort of suck at bowling (just like golf) but I enjoy it none-the-less. We as a society need to shut off the laptops, I-pads, etc., get off our rear ends, and socialize face-to-face while doing something that is at least a bit physical. In my warped mind even playing 42 is physical compared to staring at a screen and clicking a mouse.
  17. Specwriter
    I have bowled at all three. I was a member of the bowling club in junior high (Stovall, Aldine ISD) and we would go on Wednesday afternoons to that small alley on Little York. I can't remember the name but it seemed old even then (around 1973). Could it have been Canino Lanes? That half way makes sense in that Canino was the name of a prominent family in the area (think Farmers' Market) and there is a Canino Road that runs parallel to Little York. Firebird65 are you there? Big Texan was, at first, a Grants or some other discount/variety store. It seemed huge compared to any bowling alley I had seen up to that time. It was a great late-night hang out for a bunch of teenagers. A good friend of mine worked at the bowling lanes on Aldine-Bender (FM 525, not 529. That is in the northwest part of the county near Copperfield). His family lived in the Imperial Valley neighborhood so he could even walk to the place. I got some free games and soft drinks at that place as one might imagine.
  18. Specwriter
    That would be great but I'd make such a mess of my car's interior with the powdered sugar! I do go there on occasion and, yes, they are doing great. I suppose their customers don't mind waitng a few minutes for their beignets. There was a place at Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet (in the strip center that was demolished for the new HEB) that served beignets. The owner was a grouch but he told me he had much better business in the evenings than in the early morning.
  19. Specwriter
    There is an issue with beignets - they have no shelf life. They must be eaten almost immediately after coming out of the deep fry (cooled enough not to burn one's tongue of course). Cafe du Monde sells beignets successfully because it has a steady stream of customers around the clock. I believe it was Crescent City Beignets that opened a shop in the Clear Lake area a few years ago near the corner of Bay Area Blvd. and El Camino Real. The pastries themselves were fine but when business picked up it wasn't possible to fry the beignets fast enough to please the average Shipley-shopping suburbanite*. And, of course, you can't "stock up" on these things. In fact, I wouldn't even dream of taking them home if I lived more than a short (3 minute max.) walk from the shop. Still, jazz and Community coffee sounds great to me and if the clientele can appreciate waiting a few minutes for a plate of beignets (they are so wonderful right out of the fryer) then so much the better. *No slight meant to Shipley doughnuts (Do-nuts); I like them too.
  20. Specwriter
    I have a house in the 77586 zip code (Seabrook area) that I travel to on weekends so I only see the property on Friday and Sunday evenings generally. H. H., please keep us informed if you will. It is a mystery to me as to the "secrecy" or lack if information about what is going on. When I did see people working on and around the mansion there was no indication of who they might be like a sign on the vehicles etc. We saw the same thing during Ike that you saw during Carla: boats sitting on top of NASA Road 1. Actually, I only saw pictures because we evacuated and were safely in Austin when the storm hit. I posted on this thread last April about the Sealy Manison in Galveston becoming a conference center for UTMB. I still think something like that would be the best use for the West Mansion though I realize it is in private hands now. I know the Lunar Planetary Institute used the building some years a go but I'm not exactly sure what for.
  21. Specwriter
    Bill Gates has more money than Croesus. I'm surprised the bureau of engraving can print it fast enough for him. (tried but failed to place smiley emoticon here) I think one reason the truly rich (not Hollywood and sports celebrities) are so nearly invisible is because of the litigious society we have become. If you don't know who they are you can not sue them for slights real or imagined.
  22. Specwriter
    Further activity at the mansion: an iron fence (about 8 feet tall) is being erected along the frontage of the man-made lake. The old stone fence along NASA Road 1 and the west side of the manision is getting an iron fence on top of it as well. I still have no idea what the ultimate use of building will be.
  23. Specwriter
    That makes sense. I wonder when that might begin. It would seem to have a leg up on other developments in the area since it is a second phase of an existing complex.
  24. Specwriter
    I'm currently renting another former Andover property which was recently sold. It is much smaller (about 20 units) and is not located on a major thoroughfare. The new owner (not Behringer Harvard) has assured the tenants he as no plans to demolish the apartments and build something else. I hope, not but would also not be surprised, if rents took a sizeable jump as leases are renewed. The complex is practically full right now. Though it is old it is well kept up, quiet, and superbly located. Andover has been a good landlord to me for the past few years. I would guess the size of 1301 Richmond and its location make it very attractive for redevelopment though. Aside: Does anyone know what is to become of the vacant land at the southwest corner of Richmond and Dunlavy (right across Richmond from the fire station)?
  25. Specwriter
    We got a bit off-track for this thread but the exchange was interesting and fun. Back to my earlier question: Does anybody know what is going on with the West mansion? There has been an increasing amount (though still small) of activity there in the past several weeks.
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