There are a couple of givens about Houston. One is that it’s humid during the summers. And, the traffic sucks.

And then there’s the fact that developers love to tear down any structure of significance. Remember the Shamrock Hotel? Talk about paving over paradise to put up a parking lot. And then there’s the Jeff Davis Hospital, the Gulf Publishing Building and the Allen Park Inn. All gone, gone, gone.

But luckily, we are starting to see more and more historic structures saved. And the saviors, often as not, are celebrity chefs.

“Nationally, it’s a trend in the food industry,” says David Bush spokesman for the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. “I think a lot of it is part of the green movement, and they always say the greenest building is the one that’s already built.”

And nowhere is the trend more prevalent in Houston than on lower Westheimer in Montrose.

Construction fencing rings the old Chances Bar, not exactly an architectural landmark but certainly an historically cultural spot for the city’s lesbian and gay community. Bobby Heugel and the crew from The Anvil Bar & Refuge are turning the building into a new beer bar on one side and chef Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly restaurant on the other.

“It would have been cheaper to do that (tear it down), but I would never do it,” says Heugel. “I am really passionate about saving Montrose’s history.”

And right across the street, crews are working fast and furiously to transform the landmark Tower Theater Art Deco building, at into El Real Tex-Mex, a hotly anticipated vintage Tex-Mex joint by Los Tres Amigos: chef Bryan Caswell, partner Bill Floyd and author Robb Walsh. Most of the interior of the W. Scott Dunne-designed 1936 theater was gutted long ago, but that fabulous marquee, repaired after Hurricane Ike damaged it, remains.

“It’s important to save the façade of the Tower Theater,” says Bush. “It’s a pivot point for Westheimer and an historic landmark for Montrose.”

But this isn’t exactly a new trend in Montrose. Cruise just down the street and you’ll find Hugo’s, the eponymous and widely lauded eatery of chef Hugo Oretga. It’s a mecca for interior Mexican cuisine, a Sunday brunch hot spot and, also, an historical landmark.

Built by architect Joseph Finger (who designed Houston’s 1939 Art Deco City Hall) in 1926, the restored brick building won a Greater Houston Preservation Alliance Gold Brick Award for preservation in 2003, when Hugo’s opened.

The longtime home to Imperial Plumbing Supply, the building still features the original exposed brick walls, stamped-tin ceiling and iron beams. A long row of picture windows front Westheimer Road and a quaint patio sits to one side of the building replete with a gurgling fountain and blooming bougainvilleas.

“Andrew Kaldis’s (Kaldis Development Interests, Inc.) father used to come to Backstreet Cafe,” says Ortega. “He told us about this building they had and Tracy and I went to see it and we fell in love with it.”

Ortega’s wife, restaurateur Tracy Vaught, was no stranger to historical eateries. One of the restaurants she owns is Backstreet Cafe, housed in a beautiful 1930s house near River Oaks.

“The Westheimer building had been closed for a while,” Ortega says, “and the plumbing company had gutted the inside. But Tracy understands the character of old buildings, she knew it would work.”

So they bought the building and took a couple of years to rehab it, saving many intricate details including the beams, ceiling and original brick. Today it is a charming culinary oasis that pays heed to the neighborhood’s past.

“It’s a good feeling to save a building,” says Ortega. “I think the customers really appreciate it. The character, the authenticity, it reminds us of what the neighborhood used to be.”

Ortega says the original owner occasionally comes into Hugo’s to dine and always thanks them for restoring the building to its former glory.

There are other chefs who have joined the trend in restoring historical properties, in particular Scott Tycer whose Krafts'men Baking is housed in the 1893 old Oriental Textile Mill on 22nd Street in the Heights and whose Gravitas restaurant resides in a former Taft Street warehouse with the original bare bricks and concrete floors.

But it’s really lower Westheimer where chefs are preserving more than just local fruits. Just a stone’s throw from Hugo’s is Mark’s American Cuisine, the 1927 St. Matthews Church that morphed into a '70s head shop before becoming chef Mark Cox’s high class eatery in 1997.

And now, just down the road, two more buildings are being restored to soon become hot eateries and bars.

“I think it’s great what they are doing,” says chef Ortega. “We are all part of this community in this corridor.”

And both diners and historical preservationists are very happy.