New Construction on Enclave South of Briar Forest, including new apartments and another Village School building

On foot in the neighborhood: 

ENCLAVE PARKWAY SOUTH OF BRIAR FOREST 

What’s on and going on on Enclave Parkway?

While the winding stretch of Enclave Parkway North of Briar Forest is dominated by modern Class-A office buildings occupied by well-known corporate tenants, the Southern part is lined by apartment complexes, including a new one that  saw completion early in 2014. It is helpfully named by its street address: SEVENTEEN15 Enclave.

The City of Houston has recently improved walkability in this residential area with sidewalk construction on Enclave.

Metro’s Bus Line 53 (Briar Forest) serves this neighborhood, with stops at the school campuses, and provides service all the way to Downtown, though it is a fairly long trip.

Enclave Parkway ends at The Village Primary and Elementary School.

Tarrytowne Estates, a senior living/care facility sits on the corner on the left. It has had an under-renovation sign posted on the fence for at least a year.

Turn to the left at The Village Primary and Elementary School and you can continue on to Dairy Ashford via Westella Drive, which is lined with single-family residences. Or you can turn right and then left to reach Dairy Ashford via Whittington. You will pass through apartment properties that are a bit older than those on Eldridge Parkway and eventually reach the Whittington Post Office that serves this neighborhood. It will be located on the right, shortly before you get to the intersection at Dairy Ashford, which has a gas station on one corner and a flower shop on the other side.

If you turn right at The Village High School onto Gentryside Drive, you will get deeper into the neighborhood and have two neighborhood streets available that connect to Westheimer. You can either continue southward on Gentryside or turn at Avenida la Quinta Street and, eventually, get to Westheimer via Briar West Blvd. On the latter route you will also have a good chance to get lost if you have not consulted the map beforehand or navigation equipment with you because these residential streets wind their way through the subdivision like a meandering bayou.

After completion of the new apartment complex at 1715 Enclave, construction activity continues in this neighborhood. The Village School (High School) has another building under construction on the Western lot (see photo of steel frame above). Nearby, in an area that was until recently undeveloped and partially wooded, another residential project just broke ground: 13115 Whittington Dr.

13115 Whittington Drive Construction project site as of Feb 2014

Metro Bus 53 - Briar Forest Limited (map)

Link to 53 Bus Schedule

Corner of Enclave and Eldridge Parkway - Cafe Express opening and more office construction ahead

The new Café Express is located at the South-East corner of the intersection of Enclave Parkway and Eldridge Parkway. This area has recently seen the completion of sidewalks on both sides of Enclave Parkway that connect the corporate campuses that line the Parkway to the Terry Hershey hike and bike system, which runs alongside the banks of Buffalo Bayou and Langham Creek. The project is  meant to enhance walkability and bikeability for area-employees and residents. It forms part of the forward-looking mobility concept for the Energy Corridor District - an area that is poised to experience significant growth in the near future - and the West Houston area more broadly.

Bench with Terry Hershey Bike & Hike Trail System Map North of corner of Eldridge Parkway and Enclave Parkway
Blue signage of Cafe Express visible on the building in the background

The signalized Eldridge-Enclave intersection has crossing lights for pedestrians with coordinated sound-track that issues walk-and-wait commands; which could be particularly useful for the vision-impaired, while it may annoy others.

Located across the street are a Holiday Inn with an inhouse restaurant and bar, a Capital One Bank branch, and several other restaurants, among them newly-opened Sharky’s Grill, a Japanese sushi restaurant. There is also a sandwich shop.

Within the shopping center East of Eldridge Parkway Café Express has the Houston Barbecue Company, Achille Italian Café, and Beans Café as neighbors. There are also a few other business in the shopping center, including a tavern, a realtor’s office, and a dentist.  

   

To the North, the red KBR logo prominently appears on top of a Class A office building of recent vintage that towers over Buffalo Bayou and the adjoining riparian parkland.  

The office property is named Eldridge Oaks One, and is awaiting its Number Two namesake, to be built on what is currently green space with a few trees in the NW corner of the intersection. The parcel still has a Transwestern project sign touting the attributes of the first stage Class-A Eldridge Oak office building, which saw completion in 2009.

Nov 11, 2012 Update: The Transwestern project sign has since been replaced with one providing information on the next office tower (Eldridge Oaks Phase II) to be constructed on the empty lot, which should be completed by 2014.

Now more pedestrian-friendly - Neighborhood walkability enhanced for Enclave Pkwy residents and students at The Village School

Enclave Parkway, which winds its way through the Energy Corridor from the Gentryside neighborhood to Eldridge Parkway is becoming increasingly pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. 
  
Here are a few recent photos of the segment South of Briar Forest in which the sidewalk infrastructure improvement project has now been completed for a few months. The management of the adjoining apartment complexes are also doing their part to enhance the visual beauty and quality of life in the area with appealing landscaping, although trash pick-up still appears to be a problem in search of a solution.
  
Sidewalk construction work is currently under way in the Northern segment of Enclave Parkway (North of Briar Forest, where major companies occupy numerous large office buildings on both the East and the West side) to complete the link to the hike & bike trail alongside Eldridge Parkway that connects to the Terry Hershey Trail via a ped-bike bridge over Buffalo Bayou. 

Enclave Parkway with new sidewalk near The Village School
(Elementary School) at Westella Drive

Watch-for-crossing-pedestrians warning sign for motorists on the edge of Enclave Parkway going South;
new poured-concrete sidewalk and bike lane

New look of Enclave Parkway South of Briar Forest after completion of
2011 City of Houston sidewalk construction project in this -- mostly residential -- segment of the Parkway.

Map detail of area covered by 2011 Phase of City of Houston Sidewalk Construction Project on Enclave Parkway

Walkability improvements in Energy Corridor - North segment of Enclave Pkwy gets sidwalk

Walkability & Bikability get boost with sidewalk construction projects nearing completion on Enclave Parkway in Houston's Energy Corridor

  

Following completion of a sidewalk construction project in the mostly residential segment of Enclave Parkway South of Briar Forest Drive last year (2011), work is now continuing this summer on infrastructure improvement to facilitate walking and biking in the section from Briar Forest North to Eldridge Parkway, which is lined by large commercial office properties (not only energy companies), but also by acres of still undeveloped land with a nice stand of trees, giving the corporate presence a park-like feel.

The new paved (poured concrete) sidewalk will complete the connection to the Terry Hershey Hike & Bike system at the KBR office property near the Eldridge Parkway bridge over Buffalo Bayou. 

There is already a separate pedestrian/bike bridge on the East side of the two-span Buffalo Bayou bridge for motor vehicle traffic. A restroom facility with running water and hand dryer serves strollers, hikers, and bikers at an unmarked building North of the trail. It also features a drinking fountain outside. On the other side of Eldridge there is an open-air “runner’s shower”, although no one seems to ever use it. The doggie drinking fountain, by contrast, is much more popular.

Here are a few pics from the road work near 1200 Enclave Parkway, a large commercial office building, most of which was recently leased by Schlumberger, a company that already had a corporate presence nearby -- albeit not Class A like this one -- on Dairy Ashford Drive.

Sidewalk extension work under way near corporate park with fountain
(and lots of ducks) in the northern segment of Enclave Parkway
between Parkway Plaza Drive and intersection with Eldridge Parkway

A pair of ducks chattering at the existing sidewalk near the fountain

Corporate Park with lake and fountain on Enclave Parkway

The ducks are already quite accustomed to passers-by and line up to greet them
(more likely expecting to be fed)

Schlumberger's new address on Enclave Parkway - one of the large-company corporate tenants
with long-terms lease for lots of square footage of top-notch office space in this bucolic part of West Houston. No cattle anywhere to be seen, though, not to mention longhorns (but you can drive up North a few miles and gaze at some real Texas longhorn cattle at the Houston Farm & Ranch at Abercrombie Drive off  Patterson Road inside Addicks Reservoir if you are lucky)

Texas Longhorn in Bear Creek Pioneers Park
Houston Farm & Ranch / County Agricultural Extension Office