A Houston Urban Neighborhood - Shady Acres

[urbannomad]

Despite saying that we never would, my wife and I recently moved back to Houston. However we knew to make it work we would have to live in the Heights area of the city. We settled on a house in Shady Acres. Shady acres is part of the "Greater Heights" but is its own separate neighborhood from the Heights. However, most people that live here won't correct you if you just say the Heights because no one really knows where Shady Acres is and the Heights is a well-known, nice neighborhood. The main difference in the two is that Shady Acres is still very much in transition so there are a lot of different architectural styles and building uses, but the trade-off is it's cheaper than the Heights proper. The boundaries of the neighborhood are I-610 to the north, 14th St to the south, Shepard to the east, TC Jester to the west. We have lots of new faux Victorian/Cottages, old bungalows (some renovated some dilapidated), shotgun houses, industrial and abandoned retail. Also we are not afraid to use color which is another cool thing about the neighborhood. Enough talk here are some photos.

First, here is a map from Google to help you understand the location of the neighborhood, but the rest of the images are my own.


Lets get started on my block:


The neighbors:




Shady Acres commercial development




Common new patio home development












More patio homes, these face a creek, very nice:




The closest you'll get to row houses in Houston, after this it's town homes:












A little too modern and out of place for the neighborhood, but we accept everyone and they are pretty nice






Yes that's a corrugated metal house


Those yuppies and their pretentious stores




A lot of the new developments have a shared driveway in the back, similar to an alley but they usually don't go all the through and they are privately owned by all the homeowners




Hurry up and paint me already
















More upscale retail






Here's some of that industrial






One of my favorite older, renovated bungalows




Almost done


Luckily these brick boxes are pretty rare in Shady Acres... no offense




We even have a little bit of San Francisco


Our park




In my mind either an artist or architect lives here


More new development


Color






Build your dream home here



Old vs. New




I love this old church




This is my dream house, but it's way out of my price range and way too much house


If you made it this far here a shot of the skyline off in the distance



Hope you enjoyed it.

[LSyd]

interesting mix for sure. thanks for the tour, looks nice.

-

[TexasBoi]

Yeah, that is an interesting mix. Nice colors on the homes as well. Good thread. Congrats on your move to Houston.

[Gordo]

Interesting tour...love the yuppified commercial sites

[Tom Servo]

urban?

[dharper6]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

urban?

This area is pretty close in, and is headed toward fairly dense development, so I guess it could be considered urban. It's defnitely not suburban.

To the poster:

Great post. I had no idea this was going on in that area of Houston. Reminds me of what happened in Rice Military near downtown, but your area is much, much more interesting. It's about time that cities get back to the old styles of architecture that actually have character, like your area of Houston. I long for that Austin.

[dharper6]

Good example of urban renewal. I'll bet before too long the abandoned buildings will be gone or renovated. The thing I like about Houston is that it's getting better every time I visit, unlike some American cities. I remember the bust of the 80s when the place went downhill so fast, but it's been coming back since probably the early 90s (but really rapidly in the last few years).

[mhays]

Looks like a lot of good infill. I like much of the architecture. Actually I love much of the architecture.

It's also horrible that they build houses with garages in front. Not that Houston is alone in that. Put it in back.

Even when sidewalks exist, look at how many cars are blocking them! Fucking assholes.

[Double L]

Wow, I really had no idea that there was any interesting architectural styles or urban style development going on in Shady Acres at all. Thanks for opening me up to a whole new neighborhood!

[yarabundi]

There are some fine houses but I can't believe that some of these houses have barely no facade except for the garage !!

[mrherodotus]

A really enjoyable thread. This will be one of Houston's treasures 50 years from now. Hope it inspires more similar hoods.

[erasercut]

The 8th picture down is so odd to me. It's hard to believe that a big 80's ranch home would be sitting vacant like that. I expect old homes to be dilapiated and falling apart but not new ones.

[TexasBoi]

Originally Posted by mhays

Looks like a lot of good infill. I like much of the architecture. Actually I love much of the architecture.

It's also horrible that they build houses with garages in front. Not that Houston is alone in that. Put it in back.

Even when sidewalks exist, look at how many cars are blocking them! Fucking assholes.

Yeah, I will have to agree with you on that one and I can understand how one could question this thread on calling this area urban because of those garages and the sidewalks. But it is or can become pretty dense.

[TransitEngr]

very suburban....

espeically with the driveways and two car garages...

but still a neat tour.

[Boris]

Looks like an area in transition.

[pwright1]

Loved the tour with the different styles of architecture. I gotta have one of those neat little bungalows. That is what I'm looking for but out here they're half a million or more. Nice tour. Thanks.

[edluva]

cute.

[FREKI]

Some awesome awesome houses there - thanks a buch and congets mate!

[KevinFromTexas]

Cool. Like the retro look and the color.

[urbannomad]

Originally Posted by TransitEngr

very suburban....

espeically with the driveways and two car garages...

but still a neat tour.

Perhaps you should pay closer attention to the title, "A Houston Urban Neighborhood." You can't sell a loft in downtown Houston without guaranteeing at least 2 parking spaces. Maybe one day they'll build a decent rail system, but we'll see and until then we are stuck with our cars.

I moved here from DC so I get my share of urban elitist cool credibility points. You should hear how many people at my work are amazed that I live in "that neighborhood with no yards, were I can touch my neighbors house from my window" ... relatively speaking, by Houston standards, this is a pretty urban neighborhood. You also have to consider that this is "urban" in the sense that it has long been home to the urban, extremely poor and as such has sat untouched, decaying since the early 1920's-ish. Similar to urban neighborhoods in most major american cities with the exception of the east coast cities of course. The area has only started to redevelop in the last 3 years. If that pace continues, which it probably will not, I can't image what the area will look like in 10 years. Given it's prime location and proximity to downtown I assume the area will continue to grow at a healthy rate however.

It's not DC or Philadelphia, but come on you click on a Houston thread, you knew what you were getting into. There's my defense!