03/10/14 3:00pm

3302-s-macgregor-10

3302-s-macgregor-02

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:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Check Out the Garage-Door Bathroom
03/05/14 12:00pm

3-remington-02

3-remington-01-2

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.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Find Your Way Around the Wray House
02/24/14 1:30pm

Former Rice Museum, Rice University, HoustonFormer Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston

Online arts publication Glasstire is reporting that Rice University’s public-affairs office has confirmed plans to demolish the University’s most famous metal-sided structure. Known since the mid-1980s as the School of Continuing Studies Speros P. Martel Building, the southern half of the 45-year-old duo was dubbed the “Art Barn,” and was originally home to the Rice Museum, a predecessor to the Menil Collection.

John and Dominique de Menil paid for the construction of both corrugated buildings in 1969, and selected the architects, Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubry. The structures were created to house Rice’s art and art history departments, along with the de Menils’ Institute for the Arts, which the couple moved from the University of St. Thomas after a dispute with that institution. The de Menils later left Rice to start their own little Menil Collection in Montrose. The simple, unassuming design of the structures they left behind became the inspiration and model for a series of “Tin Houses” — Galvalume-clad homes designed by Houston architects primarily in the West End and Rice Military area.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

But Andy Warhol’s Tree Will Stay
02/20/14 4:00pm

919-prairie-2A-13

919 Prairie St., Downtown HoustonLimestone-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.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Cornering the Market
02/13/14 3:45pm

852-kuhlman-02

852-kuhlman-01

Far into the woods of the Memorial Oaks section of Hunters Creek Village, a 1958 contemporary attributed to Houston architecture firm Neuhaus & Taylor seems to defy access. There is, however, a mini-driveway extending from a private road that peels off an equally discrete cul-de-sac street west of Wirt Rd. Originally, the secluded property also had ramps spanning the ravine lot’s “intermittent” stream bed of Briar Branch. Or so reported one of the daughters of the original owners in an online forum about 5 years back.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Bring Your Squeegee
01/16/14 4:45pm

2218-wroxton-02

Stern & Bucek Architects designed this 2008 contemporary home for a mid-block double lot in Southampton. The site lent itself to a large, open-plan interior with many a view of the fire and water features found in the 3 courtyards behind the shade-dappled brick wall (above) marking the front yard’s setback . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Fire, Water, and a Staircase
12/19/13 11:30am

1215-kipp-31-2

1215-kipp-32-2

Once billed as “Somerset Estate,” a 1960 home designed by well-known Houston architect John Staub occupies a waterfront lot in the Bay Breeze neighborhood, located an amble down the road from the Kemah boardwalk. The Bermuda-style stucco home with aluminum roof sold for $1.9 million back in February, though that previous listing had a $2.8 million asking price. When the property popped back up on the market in June, it featured a slightly trimmed footprint along with much-tidied undergrowth along its curving driveway. The repackaged property’s $1.8 million price tag still includes the furnishings:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

A Walk from the Boardwalk
11/26/13 1:15pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: READY TO POUNCE ON ANY LIFE FORMS DETECTED IN THE WOODLANDS Drawing of Life Forms Home“I live in a neighborhood in The Woodlands that was built out 100% by Lifeforms (Mitchell’s son was an architect there at the time). The finishes can be a bit dated, as the area was built in the ’80s, but the design and layout of the homes in the neighborhood are unique and in high demand. The homes are comfortable and ‘livable.’ Lifeforms architecture has a cult following . . . there is a fairly substantial group of people circling like sharks waiting for a house to come on the market in my neighborhood . . . additionally, I think I have more respect for a billionaire who was content in a modest home designed by his son as opposed to a man who needs to build a ‘gorgeous spread’ just to impress . . .” [Jeff, commenting on A Look at George Mitchell’s Decked-Out Home in The Woodlands, All Cleaned Up and Cleared Out for Sale] Illustration: Lulu

11/15/13 10:00am

The uncommon 62 (and a half!)-ft. width of this West University lot near the city’s park on Sunset Blvd. gives a 1992 contemporary home by the late Preston Bolton room to change up the typical front, flow, and footprint found in the plethora of Georgians built around that time in the neighborhood. Bolton’s custom design for the current owner stacks living space back from the street, on a 20-ft.-setback block, and features a well-established lattice espalier as well as distinct geometric gates and grill work a spider would be happy to call its handiwork, despite slightly shaggy landscaping creeping onto the front walkway:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

11/12/13 11:45am

How about a public park that also serves as a multi-story entrance to Downtown’s extensive underground tunnel system? One that might even provide a little natural light or outdoor seating for below-the-deck diners? This pie-in-the-basement concept for the block-size surface parking lot between One and Two Shell Plaza made an appearance in the Chronicle‘s real estate blog last week — though the architecture firm Gensler had first posted it online this past spring. For the company’s own “Town Square Initiative,” designers were charged with envisioning a new type of town square for various cities around the globe. Tunnel Loop Square, for the block surrounded by Walker, McKinney, Louisiana, and Milam, was one of several proposals stemming from the firm’s Houston office.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/10/13 10:35am

Architecture firm Stern and Bucek has come up with this rendering of the Menil Collection’s new cafe, part of the free museum’s long-planned expansion of its Montrose campus. The design for the cafe — which is yet to be named but will be run by Greg Martin (of Cafés Annie and Express and Taco Milagro) — appears to adapt and elaborate upon the gray bungalow at 1512 Sul Ross St., on the other side of that path from the Menil Bookstore; this is the same site, says a press release from the Menil Collection, that architect Renzo Piano originally had in mind for a similar amenity. So there’s that. Whatever it’ll be called, the cafe, it appears, will split the difference between the museum’s main entrance and the parking lot off W. Alabama.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

09/27/13 2:30pm

Architect Kenneth Bentsen designed quite a few institutional buildings in Houston, including Phillip Guthrie Hoffman Hall and Agnes Arnold Hall, shown here, at the University of Houston campus. Other buildings to Bentsen’s name include the Texas Children’s Hospital Complex and the Houston Summit (which is now, of course, Lakewood Church). As an architecture student at UH, Bentsen worked with Donald Barthelme and Howard Barnstone and began his career in the ’50s at MacKie and Kamrath. He ran his own practice here from 1958 until 1991. Bentsen passed away this week on Tuesday, September 24.

Photo: University of Houston

09/04/13 3:30pm

A megasized 1920 “cottage” in the gated community of Shadyside has knocked a couple mil off its asking price; it’s now at $8.9 million, compared with the $11.5 million in its March 2013 debut. All the home’s chimneys atop the steep-and-shingled faux-thatched roof signal a plethora of stately fireplaces inside. Most of the blaze is outside, however, when the extensive gardens surrounding the property are in bloom (at right).

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/23/13 3:45pm

To see the Mods of the Month this time, you’ll have to head out to Lake Jackson. One of the 3 featured homes has already gone Option Pending, but this one, a few miles off the Nolan Ryan Expressway at 530 Circle Way St., is still available at $179,900. Designed by Houston architect Allen R. Williams, who began his career working with John Staub, the 1954 3-bedroom, 2-bath mod sits on a creek-edged property near the Lake Jackson Intermediate School.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/15/13 4:00pm

Mark your calendars! The implosion of the big brick box that used to shelter Macy’s and Foley’s has been scheduled bright and early: It’ll go down at 6:10 a.m. Sunday, September 22. The Kenneth Franzheim-designed department store at 1110 Main St. has already suffered some selective chunkage, and it looks like serial crusher Cherry Demolition will be in charge of setting off the final charges.

Though Cherry is pretty experienced with this sort of thing, the building’s proximity to the light rail line seems to have spurred Metro into some serious contingency planning: Internal documents show that Metro has set up alternative service for anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks in case something goes wrong.

Here’s the plan: The trains will stop running on the evening of Friday, September 20, to give Metro plenty of time to remove poles, wires, brackets, supports, etc. A contractor has been hired to “Utilize Containers,” says those documents, and build a wall around the water spouts and decorations at the Main Street Square station catty-corner from the building. Meanwhile, Metro will be double-checking its insurance policy.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY