When Canadian home-design expert John Brown featured an oddly designed 2800-sq.-ft. 3-bedroom Houston highrise apartment on the “What’s Wrong with This House” video feature of his online Slow Home Design School last week, Swamplot readers naturally wanted to know where the place was. A new west-facing 17th-floor apartment . . . somewhere “Downtown.” Hmmm . . .
You came up with a lot of good guesses: One Park Place, the Turnberry Tower, the Cosmopolitan, the Legacy at Memorial, Mosaic, Orion, 2727 Kirby, Commerce Towers, the Shamrock Tower, the Four Seasons, Titan, the Regent Square tower, Park 8 Place, the Royalton, and Four Leaf Towers.
So what’s the answer?
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Read more about: Apartments, Development Strategies, Highrises, Home Design, Real Estate Marketing
It seems Swamplot readers have had a little trouble identifying the highrise building discussed in yesterday’s Slow Home Design School video exercise. It’s new, it’s “Downtown,” and this west-facing apartment is on the 17th floor, says instructor and architect John Brown.
But is it even in Houston? Really?
What does Brown have to say about the floor plan?
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Read more about: Apartments, Highrises, Home Design
“Do you know which building this is?” a reader asks. The video is today’s presentation in Canadian architect/real-estate agent/developer/plan doctor/entrepreneur John Brown’s Slow Home Design School. The topic: a 2800-sq.-ft. highrise apartment . . . in Houston.
Where, exactly? “It’s on the 17th floor of a new building that’s been built in Downtown Houston.” Hmmm. . . .
You have until tomorrow to present your findings! The floor plan under discussion:
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Read more about: Apartments, Highrises, Home Design
“. . . it’s really proper to think of the supply of housing types and neighborhood styles as a lagging indicator of the demand for housing types and neighborhood styles. If everyone decided tomorrow that Tuscan was out and Tudor was back in, homebuilders would continue to build Tuscan until there was enough evidence that the trend back towards Tudor was solid. Likewise, if 1/3rd of homebuyers decided tomorrow that they wanted to live in a mixed-use, gridded, somewhat urban neighborhood, developers would keep building “loops and lollipops” exclusively until the demand for mixed-use grids was proven.” [Keep Houston Houston]
Read more about: Development Strategies, Home Design, Sprawl, Theming
“In the interests of improving the community as a whole do you think it would be possible for the City of Bellaire to call a moratorium on the building of faux Tuscan McMansions? Or perhaps a number of turrets per home limit?” [Jimbo, commenting on Crossing That Thin Baby Blue Line]
Read more about: 77401, Bellaire, Comments, Development Regulations, Home Design, Theming, Turrets
How’d that $99k house project turn out? One reader tells Swamplot he’s impressed that a custom-designed house that “may be LEED accredited” could be completed for that price:
The event was great, if very hot ( it was a Noon yesterday). The mayor and principals involved in the project all spoke briefly, and we toured the house.
More photos from yesterday’s official opening on Jewel St. in the Fifth Ward:
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Read more about: 77026, 99K House Competition, Design Competitions, Fifth Ward, Green Design and Development, Home Design, New Construction: Residential
A Swamplot reader asks: “I wonder if there’s a big market for $344k A-framed houses with cavernous looking rooms and green (oh yes, green to match the pine trees!) carpet?” Well, when times are tough, a resourceful family might want to look into saving some of that hard-earned dough by taking its summer vacation . . . at home!
This 3,944-sq.-ft. 1977 home on more than 1.3 acres in Tower Oaks features 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, a carpeted spiral stair, and a half-carpeted kitchen bar. You’ll save on siding maintenance, too!
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Read more about: 77065, Cypress, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Modern Design, Tower Oaks
Five Houston designers are gathering on the ground floor of Hometta, a new web-based business that aims to promote and sell plans for small Modern homes. Architect James Evans of Collaborative Design Works, Rice architecture professor Dawn Finley of Interloop Architecture, Brett Zamore of Brett Zamore Design, and Blair Satterfield of HouMinn Practice are scheming with architect Andrew McFarland to build up a company store of designs measuring less than 2,500 sq. ft. Hometta’s founder is developer Mark Johnson of Area 16 Homes.
The company plans to have designs from 25 different studios ready for the launch of its web catalog next month, available under a tiered subscription system. Access to design renderings will be available for a small fee; for a larger fee, customers will be allowed to look through plans on the site and give access to contractors for bidding.
Once the customer finds a builder and receives a bid they are happy with, they may then buy the plans, which range from $1195 for a studio-sized house to $3195 for a 3-bedroom. Our Builder Search feature will help match homebuyers with a qualified builder in their area.
After that, you’re on your own:
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Read more about: Home Design, House Plans, Houston Architects, Modern Design, Online Resources
Comment of the Day: The Houston Flood House
“. . . Lifting every flood-threatened home one story would solve so many problems - where to park the cars, where to store the trash can, where to house the nanny, where to store the wine (doesn’t everybody have these problems?) Just like old-time Louisiana homes. (Anyone been to Laura Plantation?) A while back there was discussion on Swamplot concerning a prototypical or traditional Houston architecture type. I think it should be dog-trot style, with roof-top garden, and raised on gulf-coast-style columns.” [movocelot, commenting on From Show House to Wet House to No House: Saying Goodbye the MacGregor Way]