While the golden days of espresso and gelato with friends on the giant wooden deck at Dolce & Freddo are long behind us, the vacant building at San Felipe and Voss that once housed the popular Italian coffeehouse has stood neglected since its closure several years ago, a sad reminder of days past. Similarly, the wood-paneled, mid-century modern office buildings nestled around the former Dolce & Freddo slowly became abandoned and shuttered, blending into......

In case you've managed to miss it, Kirby Drive south of the Southwest Freeway has been sort of a mess for a while — almost three years, in fact. The street has been torn up so crews can install a massive new storm sewer; in the process, super-bumpy stretches of street will get fresh new pavement. So what's not to like? How about this: Because of a measurement error, some of the fourth phase of......

The United States was built on a foundation of freedom. Unfortunately for Houston, foundations are freely put anywhere for any purpose thanks to the lack of public zoning. However, the Houston Area Survey says that change may be on the horizon. Richard Dawson would have been so proud. We've witnessed an acceleration in growth and cannibalization of the city. Town homes, strip center construction/renovations and apartments are exploding as developers try to cash out of......

One Park Place may be billed as "the pinnacle to the adjacent new Houston Downtown Park," but this new kid on the block should not go around beating up on its neighbors. Construction materials fell from the tower (foreground in the accompanying photo) striking 5 Houston Center (background), which sits across the street from the construction site. The objects shattered the outer panes of a lower level window at 5HC. We arrived on the scene......

Kermit, you’re wrong. Jeff Kaplan, owner and founder of New Living -- an eco-friendly home supply store, is out to show us that in fact it’s quite easy being green. But, honestly Kermit can’t be blamed. Times have changed and surely back in the ‘80’s being eco-friendly wasn’t such a piece of cake. New Living, the “Healthy Home Essentials” store will open in the Rice Village sometime early this week, and offer customers the......

Houstonist has an active and amazing Flickr photo group. We receive many, many photos of Houston and the surrounding areas every day and unless you are an active visitor to our photo pool many of these photos go unnoticed. So in a weekly effort to bring you more amazing photos from Houstonist readers and photographers, we are going to feature a block of photos submitted to our Flickr photo group. The images will be dug......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • Ashley Benton, the 17 year old accused of murdering a 15 year old, has agreed to a plea bargain and will avoid prison time. • Former President George Bush's favorite BBQ joint, Otto's on Memorial is going to be razed to make way for new construction. There is no current date for the demise of Otto's, so go grab a Bush plate......

Looking for a little green space to stretch out those overworked holiday shopping legs? Check out Mosaic on Hermann Park's one acre, 7th floor amenity deck, as they host Hermann Park Conservatory's Urban Green for a Holiday Al Fresco event. Tonight's party will feature cocktails and canapes poolside, and all proceeds will benefit the Hermann Park Conservatory. Tickets at $30 and can be purchased at the door. We were bummed to learn this week that......

Good morning, Houston. 'Tis the season for strange missing persons reports: In Tyler, the latest individual to go missing is a 42-foot-tall snowman. The inflatable snowman was last seen at a Tyler tree farm Friday night; the tree lot's owner, Royce Wisenbaker, told the AP that he believes it was hoisted over a fence and carted away. The snowman is worth about $10,000, and a $1,000 reward has been posted for information leading to......

Deconstruction... ...of the environmental kind - not the more erudite nature of Derrida or even deconstructivism (a la Gehry) - is taking place this week in Briargrove and Rustling Pines. 6219 Del Monte (picture) and 306 Wilchester (picture) will soon be upgraded to two stories, stucco, and granite counter tops, but pieces of the old houses seem to have been taken off for recycling. While we're not thrilled about perfectly fine houses being tossed out,......

Good morning, Houston. Time to flex your democratic muscle again: Early voting begins today for the Nov. 6 election. You can check out a map of early voting locations here and get more information on where and how to vote from the Harris County elections website — so now, you can't say you haven't been informed. See you at the polls! >> For some, a flood of bad news: If you're a property owner......

Good morning, Houston. How better to end the week than with a little soul searching — and when better to do it than on Evaluate Your Life Day? Yeah, we know, it used to take hours (days, even) to find your true self, but the good news is that you can get things taken care of much more quickly these days: using online quizzes, you can figure out whether you're CEO material, which celebrity's......

In the city of gas, no-zoning and laissze-faire developers, local eco-sensitive construction will get the Houstonist’s attention. So, when we recently spotted this article in Dwell Magazine, we just had to share the good news with as many Houstonians as possible. Matt and Tina Ford seem to have figured out a way to make eco-friendly design both attractive and affordable. Having built in the Houston area for a few years under their company Esplanade......

The party is at Rudyard’s tomorrow – you know - THE party. The Black Math Experiment’s CD Release Party for “All You Need is Blood”, at which a couple of other bands will be performing. La Sed will bring some progressive rock courtesy of Puerto Rico and Mk Ultra adds politically-minded psychedelic punk to the mix (political as in the song writing may focus on fighting military culture and the 9/11 conspiracy). This should be......

Good morning, Houston. If you've lived here a while, you probably know that the city is prone to livestock running amok — so it shouldn't be too surprising that Third Ward residents found a pair of ewes loose in their neighborhood yesterday. Some neighbors and a KTRK crew tried to catch the animals and eventually chased them to the TSU campus, where a Harris County sheriff's deputy and KTRK photographer Ben Lutman made a......

Good morning, Houston. At Houstonist world headquarters, our e-mail boxes are graced almost daily with offers from people who want to move millions of dollars to U.S. bank accounts and allow us to take a huge share of the money just for helping — eh, all in a day. But there's a new e-mail in the same vein floating around now: It comes from someone claiming to be Michelle Kristine Kraiser, the "the Confidential......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Notsuoh Photography. This is a photo of the historic Nash House in the Westmoreland Historic District in The Montrose. The following information is from a brochure from The Westmoreland Civic Association. 215 Westmoreland (1907). The Nash house is a grand Colonial Revival house that resembles the Connecticut State Building designed for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The house, designed by......

Good morning, Houston. The Chron's Eric Gerber points out something interesting: a Washington Post story that says people hold onto utterly untrue myths even when they're faced with factual information that disproves them. An example: A University of Michigan psychologist showed people a CDC flyer stating that myths about the flu vaccine aren't true — such as the story that the side effects of the vaccine are worse than the flu itself — and......

Good morning, Houston. Looks like we'll have a tougher time cracking out those fake Benjamins next year: The $100 bill will soon be getting a high-tech makeover to thwart counterfeiters. The key feature: 650,000 tiny lenses embedded in each bill, which will magnify the printing so that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin appears to move up and down or side to side, depending on which way you move the bill. "It makes for a......

Today’s video comes from a highly regarded 5-piece Austin band, The Lemurs. Although you may not have heard of them, The Lemurs have been around since 2004, playing all over Texas including several SXSW festivals. The band is in town tonight playing at Walter’s on Washington, so if you like what you hear, go check them out tonight. Breaking You Down comes from the bands 2006 self-titled EP, and we think it is a......

Headed around town this weekend? - Maybe to an Astros or Dynamo game before School starts up? Well, you may want to take rethink your normal route and put on your patience hat as several major road closures will be going on around town. Here are the major closures from TxDOT (full list here): I-10 Katy Westbound Connector Ramp to BELTWAY 8-WEST north- and southbound. TOTAL CLOSURE. Closed continuously from 5:00 AM, Saturday, August 25......

More on Hines' proposed 47-story downtown skyscraper: The Chronicle has some details about the building and its design, and it looks like it really could be something different for the CBD. Plans call for the 630-foot building to be clad in glass, with the west facade featuring projecting vertical glass fins to shade offices from afternoon sunlight. Near the top of the building, on its east side, will be a notched opening that'll shelter......

A quickie tidbit on a local institution: Café Brasil (2604 Dunlavy) is undergoing some major construction to keep their coffee guzzlers and pizza munchers satiated. Nothing to get your feathers ruffled over, you can still order, drink and mingle as before - but you have some new goodies to look forward to. In the coming months Brasil's menu is doubling and seating area expanding meaning you'll have just that many more seats to stumble......

Ever since Inversion Coffee House opened its doors this past March fans have been raving about the artsy space, local coffee, and great Houston vibe. Though it may seem like Starbucks is taking over the world (and saving the world), this local dig is a breath of fresh air. Loyal patrons have been screaming for expansion since March. The people have spoken and owner Michael Terrazas has listened. Houstonist has learned that Inversion will be......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Graustark. This shot is of construction of a downtown church. In the photograph's comments, Graustark stated that she liked the stairs. We have to admit that they drew us to this image also. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 350 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor MasTaPiannis. It's an eerily edited photo of a scene that is very familiar around town, cranes. There are cranes all over the place. We see them in the Upper Kirby District, Downtown, The Medical Center and a couple of other places we can't recall. Crane rental and construction are booming here in Houston. If you have a passion for Houston and......

Good morning, Houston. We think it's even too hot for the beach lately, but that didn't stop lots of people from heading to Galveston last weekend. But the heat wasn't the only thing those folks had to watch out for - fourteen of them were stung by stingrays. These injuries were all due to beachgoers stepping on stingrays and causing them to lash out. According to Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis, such incidents can......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced Thursday that the district needs an $805 million bond issue this November to repair and replace aging schools — but the HISD trustees are expected to vote next Thursday on whether to put the issue on the ballot. Think that isn't much time to learn the details of a pretty big amount of money? You're not the only one: "I'm concerned about the timeline," school board member Greg Meyers told......

This morning, Houston City Council designated Old Sixth Ward as the first and only Protected Historic District in the city. This new status will enable the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission to prohibit the demolition of historic structures within Old Sixth Ward's 33.8 acres. There was only one dissenting vote for this measure, which came from council member/real estate broker Michael Berry. As far as actual limitations on properties within the district, the Greater Houston......