A few readers have requested a final tour of the former Sherwood Forest home of Greenway Plaza developer Kenneth Schnitzer. The home at 314 E. Friar Tuck Ln. showed up in yesterday’s Daily Demolition Report. It was built in 1970 from a design by Houston architects Neuhaus & Taylor.
Have a look around:
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I guess the neighbour’s houses were bigger.. *shrug*
I’d keep it ..
As you can see, it has no gift-wrapping room. So clearly it needs to be torn down.
If THAT house is a candidate for teardown, my fourplex apartment is practically Third World.
*blinks*
I just can’t understand why this needs to be torn down.
I guess I’m not meant to understand the motives of those who are able to throw $3M around to obtain a so-called “tear down” house.
I thought the interior was fine, but I guess they figured by the time they update the exterior and parts of the interior they may as well just tear it all down. These arent people that bring their lunch to work or buy their own groceries, lol
What was once my favorite residential street in Houston may soon resemble a wealthy gated community in AZ. Hopefully they at least do something challenging with the new build. ala the new construction on the south end of the street. Its like a huge V, pretty interesting exterior
I was wrong about the former resident of Wayside in my previous post in the Daily Demo comments. Mr. Simms’ mansion Wayside, near Villa de Matel, was actually occupied by architect Kenneth Franzheim, who I believe married one of the Simms daughters. Not Kenneth Schnitzer. I was confused by the name Kenneth and the letter “z” in the two-syllable surname.
How can I buy that built-in fridge from the demo site?
Scooper is out and timbers are fallin
http://img257.imageshack.us/i/img00020200910301242.jpg/
http://img511.imageshack.us/i/img00023200910301242.jpg/
photography is not my best pursuit
Unbelievable waste but this is happening all over Memorial. The houses that are going up there are beyond gigantic and beyond disgusting. I wonder what type of Spanish fusion will replace this beauty?
Looks like they’re taking out the trees first? Lovely.
I echo everyone’s comments but had to register my own dismay. I can understand if a unique house such as this is torn down when it hasn’t been maintained or updated over the years. But this one clearly has. To say it’s beautiful is an understatement. There just aren’t enough mid century mod enthusiasts in Houston who have $3 million to spare. Maybe someone in LA can have it moved over there.
^^ oh yeah, it’s already too late.
Alongside “Space City” can we please add “Teardown City” or “Demolition City”? Sigh.
This is so many shades of wrong.
This is why I hate Houston!
Unfortunately as the really rich recover you will probably see more and more of these treasures in Sherwood Forest fall along with the trees underneath the bulldozers. When you want to build a big pretentiuos palace so everyone knows how rich you are, land is all. And there’s a lot of land in these lots.
The worst of all is still the Shamrock. Torn down for a parking lot.
Will it still be Sherwood Forest after all the trees are gone?
I wish we could make people wear embroidered “V”s for Vulgarians on their chest for tearing down perfectly well designed pieces of architecture and erecting Twat Mahals.
Is this one actually being done by individuals? The real problem isn’t with individuals in Houston but rather every Tom, Dick, and Harry that thinks they are a luxury builder. Spec homes are destroying this city.
What a shame! That’s a very beautiful, well-maintained house they just destroyed.
Will it still be Sherwood Forest after all the trees are gone?
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Well to be fair they do replace the pine trees. With palm trees. Goes with the “Spanish/Tuscan/Mish-Mash” look better I guess.
This reminds me of one of the saddest scenes ever:
Years ago I was doing a measure/estimate for a new Manse going up in Memorial. Looking out of the beautiful second-story, custom mahogany! double-hung! windows I saw the swing-set belonging to the old, scraped house’s inhabitants. (landscaping phase was yet to begin.)
Blue paint chipping off the rusty tubular steel & mildew on the white plastic swing-seats, it stood there looking so teeny at the end of a flag-stone path lined with hosta plants, completely useless, overwhelmed by the scale of the new house. No doubt there are elegant parterres there now, with swimming pool, slabs of granite, trimmed hedges.
And the children play indoors.
Damn. Going, going, gone.
you can’t buy taste like this anymore.
I am envious..
Sadly, you can’t legislate good taste, as most of the Memorial rebuilds demonstrate. These folks don’t want good architecture, they want more features than their friends have. And ultimately, it’s their money, so if you love these spectacular mid-century mansions, the only way to save them is to buy them.
This was never one of my favorite houses, but if the Talbott Wilson house (which was a much better design) on Glen Cove didn’t have a chance, then this one sure didn’t.
This is heartbreaking. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to tear down such a beautiful home. When I was in law school, the property professors used to talk about Houston in all of their first year courses precisely because we lack zoning. It’s sad. A little urban planning might prevent some of the demolition of history, beauty, and taste that takes place far too often in H-town.