Wide open spaces are inside as well as outside a 1994 contemporary home of steel and Galvalume siding on a heavily landscaped half-an-acre unrestricted lot tucked into the southern hinterlands of Rice Military. The green-screened property first appeared on the market back in January. Its price tag dropped by $100K last week — to $2.65 million.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A REAL ESTATE CHILDHOOD 
“When I was a kid in the 80s, I used to write letters to builders requesting floor plans & brochures. Every holiday and birthday, my favorite gifts were house plan books. I would pick out my favorite houses and design communities on giant posterboards, with lots drawn out and all. I was a weird kid . . . who grew into a weird adult who works in GIS and tinkers with home design software in my spare time. One of my favorite games is Try-To-Figure-Out-The-Builder. . . .” [Bridgeland Dude, commenting on Fulshear Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Zamboni Finish] Illustration: Lulu
Over in Southampton, a brick ribbon wall (top) with curve toward the curb encases the front of a 1970 contemporary by architect Tom Wilson, who later consulted on the current owners’ subsequent renovations. Behind the barricade, the minimalist property centers around the contrasts between an open-plan living space and an even more open patio (above).
When interior walls came down to open up a former duplex, planks of the original shiplap (top) found new uses within this 1932 bungalow, located in the Alden Place section of North Montrose — sometimes also known as the Reality Bites neighborhood. The retro-rustic property with eyebrow-gable entry popped up on the market for “Pi Day” (as in 3-14) and has an asking price of $549,000.
A futuristic pneumatic vacuum elevator (top) links levels within a 2006 steel-and-stucco townhome developed by Carol Isaak Barden and designed by former filmmaker Francois de Menil, architect of the Menil Collection’s Byzantine Fresco Chapel. Originally, this property was the Two in a duo Barden named the One-Two Townhomes. The bermed-skirted property rises over street-level garages on a site located a block south of Allen Pkwy. and Buffalo Bayou in Temple Terrace. The larger of the units had its resale premiere last week at an asking price of $1.395 million. Back in 2008, it sold for a disappointing $749,000. In the scenes arranged inside, a strategically placed palm tree on the site appears to have been cast in a supporting role.
There may not be a whole lot of wildlife ranging around the grounds surrounding this 1982 property in Piney Point Village. But check out the inside of the home:
If you didn’t get enough time to linger inside during one of the home tours — or if you’ve always been curious about the concrete-block construction at the corner of Peden and Van Buren in Hyde Park — now’s your chance: The “Zen like” home and garden that architect and UH professor John Zemanek built for and by himself in 2000 is now available for lease. Yes, every view and material and juxtaposition has been selected, crafted, and stuck together with care, but there’s only a single bedroom, and the kitchen isn’t exactly made for large baking projects. But at $3,000 per month, this 2,352-sq.-ft. Texas farmhouse–Japanese Teahouse hybrid could be a relaxing place to call home.
Stainless fittings in the kitchen and steely paint can’t entirely conceal the hand of prolific Houston society architect John Staub, who designed this 1935 Regency-style home in Riverside Terrace. When the property popped up in the listings at the end of February, it did so with a $895,000 asking price — considerably lower than what a Staub home might fetch elsewhere in the city. During renovations back in 2006, which replaced the HVAC, electric system, plumbing, and gas lines, and made a few alterations to the structure and finishes, the attic proved to be a real treasure trove:
Talk about shotgun stylin’: The listing for this double-barreled 1885 cottage in the Old Sixth Ward winks at its straight-shot floor plan with a sure-fire choice of equivalent-vintage decor above a bedroom door (top). Posted Wednesday, the renovated property (with patriotic porch) has a $325K asking price. The last time the home changed hands was 2012, when it sold for $242,000.
As with the curving private lane it fronts, a 1939 home in understated, gated Shadyside splays slightly on a pie-shaped lot (top). The stately front screens the grounds on the back side, a deliberate design by Houston architect John Staub for original clients A.J. Wray and wife Margaret, daughter of J.S. Cullinan — founder of the company that became Texaco. Writing about the property in his monograph on the architect’s “country houses,” Rice architectural historian Stephen Fox notes how the home’s pivot-point entry bay is light on windows and flanked by 2 wings with far more iron grill and veranda flourishes out back — for a focused view of private grounds with reflecting pond (above). Is the home’s styling “Regency-inspired,” Louisiana-Creole-derived, or an example of Latin Colonial Regionalism? Feel free to mull it over as you survey the property on 1.3 acres across from Rice University’s Main St. main gate, just south of the Museum District. Home to oil heirs and a former Texas governor, the well-groomed and rather proper property made its market debut Monday, asking $6.9 million.
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair North Norhill, where we lay our scene . . .
Open water is one lot away from this 1996 resort-style contemporary home on one of Tiki Island’s knuckle-ended land nubs that protect the tiny coastal community’s interior canals. That gives the peninsula property a vista beyond (and at) neighbors across the pond. The home has double-decker vantage points and 170 ft. of waterfront. But boats aren’t the only amenity floating around the property.
Limestone-paneled Byrd’s Department Store, designed by architect Joseph Finger in an early modern style back in 1934, was turned into an awning-skirted mixed-use structure in 2005. The conversion was planned by Ray + Hollington for builder Robert Fretz, grandson of the original builder, and left the upper portions of the building rebranded as Byrds (no apostrophe) Lofts. In the retail space downstairs is Georgia’s Market. Upstairs, one of the second-story condos was put up for sale last week, with an asking price of $484,000. But the listing’s interior peeks still leave some rooms up to the online condo-shopper’s imagination.
This graceful estate is a bit coy about revealing its Riverside Terrace address. The street name and number are hidden on HAR, though other sites using the same MLS info show it. You’d be able to figure it out anyway: Aerial maps and old architectural guides show the circular driveway, massive lot, and balanced opposing wings of a homestead across from Parkwood Park, located just south of S. MacGregor (and Brays Bayou) and east of Del Rio. That would make it the Kurth House, a 1938 southern colonial whose design is attributed to Henry A. Stubee. It was the first home built in the Parkwood section of the vintage neighborhood. Grand (and grand-scale), the tended property is reported to have changed ownership only 4 times in its 75 years. If you could afford the $2.65 million asking price, would you sign on to be number 5?
