PALLADIAN MCMANSIONS AND YOU “The next time you feel the urge to lament how a freshly built stucco McMansion has replaced two cozy bungalows down the street, consider this: You may be at the intersection where old meets new and bearing witness, as generations past have, to a longstanding battle of urban and rural ideals. At least, that’s one part of the equation, according to University of Houston assistant professor Michelangelo Sabatino. . . . ‘In the suburbs, homeowners aspire to show off verdant lawns as symbols of success. The lawn recalls the agrarian past of the country,’ he says. ‘And yet, if one looks closer, it is more of a simulacrum – just a representation – of this past. Few really want to actually grow vegetables, and few, especially in Texas, seem to want to hang out on the lawn or on porches, preferring the cool of their air-conditioned homes.’ . . . The paradox of today’s McMansion craze – many of them inspired by Palladian motifs, such as symmetry and classical ornament on their facades – is that they don’t reflect the values that originally inspired them, Sabatino says. In a way, this underscores that history is never stagnant, he says, yet it also illustrates that the builders and buyers aren’t really aware of what values inspired [Andrea] Palladio’s architecture. ‘In some cases, Palladio’s legacy has been reduced to mere “style.‒†[dBusiness News]
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Home Design
BIG AND GREEN Houston Architect Donna Kacmar rightsizes her client base: “What is our goal here? I once had a client interview me. She wanted to do a green house. I suggested they could combine some of their (rooms). She said, ‘Oh, no, I need 9,000 square feet; I just want it to be very green.’ (Kacmar laughs.) I didn’t get the job.” [Houston Chronicle]
What’s this 15,811-sq.-ft. home in Cypress doing on the market . . . for a fat $9.8 million?
Looks like the seller might be needing to do a little downsizing!
Joni Webb takes Cote de Texas readers on a driving tour of River Oaks houses, and reports:
. . . slowly yet surely, River Oaks has become a gated community of sorts without anyone realizing it. Instead of the one set of gates leading into the neighborhood, house after house is located behind their own iron gates now. Until my latest drive through, I hadn’t realized how many houses were gated in what was once a more accessible neighborhood. In America, we tend to think of gated communities as being far away, out in the suburbs, a place where people take flight against a rising crime rate. But here, in River Oaks, in the heart of the city, in the shadow of our downtown, this community has chosen to hide themselves behind formidable walls, and thus, have changed the look and atmosphere of one of our treasures.
Selections from Webb’s “exclusive” photo collection:
The planter cutouts next to the garage doors . . . the single-sided, shingled pediments . . . the cast-in-foam detailing . . . the security fence. Yes, it could only be another themed stucco townhouse compound in Montrose!
But the Piazza Townhomes, now under construction by Savannah Home Builders on Harold St. near Stanford in Audubon Place, will surely be unique! Consider: 4 stories. A garage-level wedding-cake-style central fountain, topped with . . . something that looks like a naked cherub. Above, an elevated second-floor courtyard, wrapped with wrought-iron-look railings and greened with potted topiary.
In the video below, it all blends together seamlessly, thanks to a languid easy-listening soundtrack. The project’s website puts it best: the Piazza Townhomes truly is “Architecture Imitating Art.”
Joni Webb goes on a tear through Bellaire, describing some new builder homes:
Each year, Bellaire builders compete in a Showcase of Homes where they try to out build each other with more and better amenities, more square footage, more details, more windows – more of everything and anything to win the Best of Show. The builder is the star here, architects are rarely if ever mentioned. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to claim one of these “show” houses myself. Is it truly harder to design an attractive house? Is it more difficult to design a home with inviting curb appeal? I don’t think so. I think it actually must be harder to design one of these detailed overloaded showcase style houses.
And then . . . she takes readers on a tour of Bellaire’s baddest spec homes! Here’s Swamplot’s edited version . . . actual addresses, details and asking prices, and links to the listings have been added (and some contrasting homes Webb likes much more have been left out):
Location: 4701 Braeburn Dr.
Details: 4-5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths; 5,076 sq. ft.
Price: $999,000
The Pitch: “Stunning Mediterranean stone and stucco new construction in Bellaire! . . . Virtual grass added to photo!”
Docent Comments: “Is it Mediterranean or French, contemporary or Tuscan? Take your pick, there are elements here of each style. The front loading garage is the focal point. Can someone please explain the two windows lowered on the stone at the front of the garage? Are they lowered for children or dogs to peer out of them? And why are there two faux windows on each side of them? I count FIVE lanterns on the garage alone. The house itself is barely noticeable, it’s so pushed to the back of the garage. The front door is encased in a square stone facade, again, why? Two turrets of different heights flank the front door. The stone work is placed with no regard to design. The left turret has a stone base, the right turret has a stone facade with bands of colored stucco at its base. The windows are contemporary, while the house is not. And why are there three faux windows with a small gable above the right turret on the second floor? There is nothing, absolutely nothing attractive about this house. If someone buys it, it will be a miracle.”
Oh, yes . . . there’s more!
The Wabi Sabi House in Boulevard Oaks has sold, reports developer Carol Barden. And she says the buyer found his new home . . . by reading Swamplot.
The buyer apparently came across the Wabi Sabi while reading stories on this site about another Barden property: yes, that lonely Modern townhome on Stanford St. in Montrose designed by Francois de Menil that Barden was still trying to unload. Swamplot’s last report noticed that once-a-million dollar townhouse being offered for $749,000. Barden tells us that the Menil townhouse is now under contract. She won’t reveal any pricing details, but says that she “didn’t discount the price again.”
- Not Lived In Yet: The Wabi Sabi House [Swamplot]
- Inside the Wabi Sabi House [Swamplot]
- Menil Townhouse: Almost a Quarter Off [Swamplot]
- Menil Townhome Sales Looking for a Lift [Swamplot]
Photo of Wabi Sabi House: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen
The Dwell blog and a Dubai-based “ezine” named De51gn both feature long-awaited interior photos of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen‘s Wabi Sabi House on Bartlett St. near Greenbriar. Doesn’t look like the house has been staged too heavily, but . . . isn’t that the point of “imperfect beauty”?
Have a look around:
Houston design blogger (and Swamplot Neighborhood Guessing Game veteran) Joni Webb takes her readers on a tour of the many recent hôtels particuliers that line her daily café run. She explains West U’s new pseudo-Euro look:
When the rebuilding started, most people opted for red brick Georgian styled, two storied homes. Now, the trend is to build with stucco instead of red brick and French instead of Georgian.
Today, while driving to Starbucks and snapping photos of my favorite homes along my route, I noticed that I am very partial to the new, trendy kind of home: stucco, French inspired, with a straight facade.
After the jump: more wisteria and arched French doors, from Joni Webb’s West U Starbucks galerie!
There will be a grand total of 652-and-a-half private bathrooms in Houston’s Turnberry Tower. Apparently this is the kind of attention to detail that’s needed to attract buyers who are flush with assets:
When meeting with buyers, Turnberry’s sales staff emphasizes the high life they’ll enjoy, said [Turnberry Ltd. vice president Jim] Cohen, with the 40-year-old condo tower developer.
They’re told, for example, that when they hang out by the pool, a Turnberry staffer will offer a cool towel for their neck and wipe sunscreen from their sunglasses.
- A lifestyle as well as a home [Houston Chronicle]
- Tune In to the Turnberry Tower [Swamplot]
- Nine and a Half Bathrooms: The Turnberry Tower Penthouse Evacuation Plan [Swamplot]
Image of Turnberry Tower plaza-level pools: Turnberry Ltd.
For those of you still fascinated by that Tin House in Rice Military designed by Natalye Appel featured here Wednesday: Photos of the house dating from the . . . uh, Golden Age of Tin Houses in the West End, circa 1992.
Remember when it looked like the entire West End was going to go . . . metal? It was going to be the Tin House District: Hot young architects inserting daring steel-sided homes between ramshackle bungalows . . . with great sensitivity to the sleepy little neighborhood.
Here’s a Rice Military home Natalye Appel designed for Sarah Balinskas in 1992. And it’s for lease! Have a peek inside . . .
From one of Swamplot’s initial correspondents, K, comes word of a redo in Memorial Hollow she says
looks like a Mr. Potatohead gone wrong — parts and bits and pieces on a foundation that don’t really go together. It still looks to me like the bottom half of an older house that someone plopped new construction on top of.
At first, K thought the house
was being torn down like so many other 1960s-era homes in my neighborhood. It was a one-story, typical little cottage on a big lot — the kind they love to demolish and then fill up the entire lot with a three-story monstrosity. But then I realized that they were, in fact, totally remodeling it. They tore the roof off and blew out the back of the house until only three brick walls were standing.
Then they rebuilt the back wall and added a second story to the house. It looks pretty bizarre now, although I can’t tell if that’s because I was used to the little bungalow that was there before or because the house really does look weird. You be the judge.
Below: More before-and-after photos of this hollow sixties memorial in Memorial Hollow, ready for your verdict!
The Wabi Sabi House is Carol Isaak Barden’s latest High Concept development. Tucked into a normal-sized lot between Greenbriar and Kirby just south of 59, the 3,700-sq.-ft. cedar-faced home is the first Texas residence designed by Seattle architects Olson Sundberg Kundig and Allen. It’s scheduled to be complete this month.
What’s the big idea? Explains Barden,
Generally, wabi means humble, and sabi refers to the imperfection that comes with time. Freely translated, it means something like “lived in.”
Alternate translation: Move over, feng shui. Wabi-sabi is the ancient Japanese idea behind the latest category of home-design looks and books.
After the jump: A view from the Wabi Sabi House’s huge roof deck. Plus: Barden’s checkered and gilded past!
Upset that you missed that 1956 Lars Bang home in Braesvalley Swamplot featured last month? An option was taken out on it the same day we featured it.
But . . . the buyers of that house have put their own Tanglewilde Modern on the market. It was built the same year. Realtor Robert Searcy says it’ll have an open house, as Houston Mod’s “mod of the month,” next week.
After the jump: That turquoise tile, and that giant whisk!
