11/24/10 4:44pm

What’s it like inside the only house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright ever built in Houston? The latest edition of the Houston Architectural Guide describes the 1954 Usonian — designed by the master architect for local insurance executive William Thaxton — as “so perverse that it has engendered several sets of alteration intended to make it more livable.” The concrete-block structure featured parallelogram-shaped bedrooms with “claustrophobic proportions.” Among the later additions meant to correct the faults of the “willful and contrary” work of America’s master Modern architect: ionic columns and pineapple-shaped finials on the corners of the roof.

Oh, but all those little problems with the home at the end of a cul-de-sac in Bunker Hill Village have long since been fixed. Author Stephen Fox notes the Guide description was written well before the home’s most recent transformation, designed by Bob Inaba of the local architecture firm now known as Kirksey. In the early nineties the home’s new owners contracted them to wipe away earlier add-ons, then create a long, tall U-shaped annex that hugs the 1,200-sq.-ft. original structure, forming a courtyard with the swimming pool at the center:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

11/23/10 10:48am

THIS WEEK IN NATIONAL MAGAZINE LINKBAIT Using a formula that factors in cost of living, mortgage and utility payments, median home price, and median property tax, Bloomberg Businessweek’s website has declared Hunter’s Creek Village to be the most expensive suburb in all of Texas. (And of course, they’ve named the most expensive burbs in all 49 other states too.) Median home price in the 4,819-resident city: $865,500. [Bloomberg Businessweek, via Prime Property]

10/06/10 1:27pm

Early renderings are out for the next round of construction — promised for 2011 — at CityCentre, Midway Companies’ mixed-use assortment on the former site of the Town and Country Mall. The 3rd and 4th office buildings in the complex will together be called CityCentre 3, and they’ll go on the leftover patch of grass just west of the Hotel Sorella, sidling up to Beltway 8. Like the others, the two new 6-story buildings will feature retail space on their ground floors: more than 33,000 sq. ft. out of a total 250,000. The feeder-road view:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/30/10 11:59am

This Fonn Villas cul-de-sac saltbox backs up to the Town & Country Candlewood Suites. That puts it within range of the afternoon shadows of CityCentre‘s taller buildings. Inside, a lot has changed since 1964: A recent kitchen renovation includes an eat-in island where seated family members can watch a wall-mounted TV, monitor the wine closet or powder room, or just stare out the window if they don’t feel like talking to each other. The place was listed just last Friday, for $559,000.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/10/10 2:29pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE JERRY J. MOORE MEMORIAL HOUSTON CHATEAU JUNKYARD “Spoke to demo contractor and all structures will definitely be demolished, but finishes (both exterior and interior) will be salvaged and sold to be reused.” [Jonny A, commenting on Is Jerry J. Moore’s Friar Tuck French Palace Ready To Be Demolished?]

08/09/10 3:10pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SECRETS OF THE METRONATIONAL DEATH STAR — REVEALED! “Could this be an air traffic control tower for getting the Chemtrail plane patterns accurately placed in skies… for desired weather pattern chemical fallouts… aluminum oxide, barium oxide and ethylene dibromide… very harmful to us. No one is allowed to go to these top five floors all owned by MetroNational Bank (who own the whole building plus more). The rest of the floors 28 and under are doctors offices and hospital. I thought that was a bit odd. It just looks so much like an air traffic control tower… but with no airport near-by… then one must ask…”what in the air.. are they controlling… if not planes landing?” Possibly Chemtrials floating? I invite any comments. Please research Chemtrails first. I am not a conspiracy theory person nor do I believe in UFO’s, ghosts, or [Morgellons] disease.” [CLD, commenting on There Will Be No Tours of the Death Star, and Other Details About the Hospital in the Belly of the Memorial Hermann Tower] Photo: Tony Sava

08/09/10 1:57pm

Scheduled to open a little later this month amidst the mixed-use toniness of CityCentre: Yet another bistro-patisserie-tearoom-bar-coffeeshop-library-flower shop and performance-space hybrid, this one called Flora & Muse. Financing for the new venue comes in part from Turkish television star BaÅŸak Köklükaya (you may know her as Findik from “Uy Basuma Gelenler”). The store promises a “whimsical, neo-Victorian interior” designed by Laura Umansky (her Laura U Collection is on Westheimer near Hazard). Chef David Luna, formerly of Shade and Canopy, at last steps out from beneath all those overhangs to develop the menu for the mini-mixed-use mashup, which will include a 1,200-sq.-ft. patio.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

08/06/10 8:12am

Even Later Update, 1:05 pm: A city permit official tells Swamplot she’d assume from the way the permit is written that it covers the demolition of all 3 structures on the property. But the inspector who wrote the annotation can’t be reached today.

Later Update, 10:01 am: All right, this is a little weird, but we’re going to have to retract the confirmation below. A demolition on this site is scheduled, but it’s possible it does not include all the structures.

Update, 8:50 am: We’ve confirmed it. The entire French estate (well, this one) is coming down.

As one version of the legend goes, in the mid-1960s strip-mall mogul and multi-millionaire Jerry J. Moore had this 18th-century château disassembled and shipped from the French countryside to Friar Tuck Ln. in Houston’s Sherwood Forest, where it was painstakingly rebuilt, brick by brick. Except, of course, Moore wasn’t the home’s original owner by more than a decade; and 8 years ago when he first tried to sell it (at first for $18 million, then $12.5 million), the real estate agent was careful to describe the 3-story concoction as a miniature “residential scale” reproduction of the French mannerist Palace of Fountainebleau outside Paris, as envisioned by local architect Armon E. Mabry. Oh — and the little Memorial-ish palace isn’t made of brick, anyway. Its exterior is limestone.

But that’s limestone quarried in France, “assembled with precision by French craftsmen,” Martha Turner Properties agent Marlene Rhoden explained to the Houston Business Journal in 2003. And the slate roof tiles — those came from France too!

Whatever its old-world pedigree, the home received a demolition permit on Thursday. Whether that permit covers turning the entire 12,734-sq.-ft. estate into rubble or just the whisking away of its 26-car air-conditioned garage — where Moore stored a tiny portion of his considerable antique-car collection — public records don’t say. But no renovation work has been permitted on the property, and the sewer line has already been disconnected. 

Maybe the chateau is just being carefully packed up for a move to Phoenix or Atlanta, or a return trip over the pond? Nice try, but the demolition contractor hired for the job isn’t exactly known for his careful disassembly work.

It sure looks like this is it. How’d such a classic Houston real-estate legend come face-to-face with such a classic Houston ending?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

06/28/10 2:41pm

Tucked into the Memorial townhome ghetto in the upper left armpit of the West Loop and I-10, you’ll find this 1970 number designed by Preston Bolton. Bolton, who believed in tall ceilings way back when they were stuck in last place and nobody thought they had a chance, stuffed 3 courtyards into this 2,616-sq.-ft. single-story townhouse plan, and placed it on a street where everybody knew his name. The home went on the market last week, listed at $325,000. Interested in a brief tour?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

05/13/10 12:16pm

Back on the market for what looks to be the first time in a couple of years: This 1959 garage-free number on Westminster Dr. in Memorial, just a couple doors down from Chimney Rock. The house was designed by Houston architects Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson — just a few years before the company drew up plans for the Astrodome.

What? No giant west-facing windows in front? And what’s behind door number 1, anyway?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

04/07/10 12:46pm

Robert Boyd snaps this photo of the new mural on the side of the parking garage for the Fountains at Memorial City condos. The 13-story building is under construction at Gaylord and Bunker Hill, next to the new Cemex headquarters building just east of Memorial City Mall. Writes Boyd:

The mural . . . is nothing especially clever or innovative, but it looks nice and it’s a lot more than most builders do for their parking garages. And it works well with the real trees in front of it.

Photo: Robert Boyd

03/29/10 2:02pm

What inside info does Swamplot have to spill about this 6,648-sq.-ft. mansion on more than an acre off Memorial Dr. in Bayou Woods?

Absolutely none. Really: We don’t know a thing about it.

Okay, okay — nothing other than . . . uh, publicly available information. And this little reader comment last week that tipped us all off. Yeah, you read it too!

“Vinny Ocean” is selling his Memorial mansion. It is now listed at [$]3.5M. How much would YOU offer knowing that some mouthbreathing NJ thug might not know Palermo sold it and no longer lives there? I’d knock 3M right off the top. You really oughta amble over to HAR and take a look at this place – over the TOP!

Who’s Vinny Ocean?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

03/04/10 11:49pm

So many pretty close guesses in this week’s game, but we’re awarding the prize to the player who came the closest of all. Flake, congratulations! You’ve just won a one-year individual membership in the NGG’s longtime sponsor, the Rice Design Alliance!

Is this place really (as commenter Phil put it) the “MOST. INNOCUOUS. HOME. EVER.”?

Have a look and judge for yourself. There’s no harm in that.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/15/09 2:11pm

A reader writes in to report finding “arguably Houston’s best version of McKim Mead & White’s famous Low House, with maybe a little Brady Bunch pizazz thrown in:”

Complete with the classic Memorial-area window wall facing the back yard. Bet MM&W never thought of that!

It’s this 5-bedroom 1964 home on a little more than half an acre in Bunker Hill Woods, which snuck on the market for $780,000 at the beginning of this month. Plus, raps the listing agent, pecky pickled cypress paneling in the Family and Living Rooms:

Estate property built by architect for himself. Owned by one family exclusively. . . . Floor in gmrm recycled from Rice U science lab as well as lower cabinets in garage.

Never mind the Game Room floor. Where’d they get that bathroom tile?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/02/09 1:17pm

New westside restaurant doesn’t face onto a parking lot. Chaos ensues:

The dining room of Straits, the swank new Malaysian restaurant at City Centre, looks chaste and serene in its Web site photos. So I was dumbstruck by the maelstrom that greeted me on a school night the week before Thanksgiving, when the restaurant felt more like a thunderous Vegas nightclub.

The bulk of the floor plan was given over to bar/lounge seating, and outdoors–looking upon the grassy City Centre mall plaza ringed with fire pits–tented pavilions held still more tables for the cocktail crowd. A live band on an outdoor stage blared R&B standards as ice-blue holiday lights swayed, wind whipped the fire-pot flames high and merrymakers clustered on the chilly lawn.

“It looks like the Devil’s Playground out there,” murmured my dinner guest as he found me at a table beside the sleek open kitchen. We were both a little shellshocked. Judging by the avid crowds, far west Houston, out by I-10 and the Beltway, has been hungering for a capital-S-Scene, and the restaurant- and bar-heavy new City Centre development has provided one readymade.

Photo of CityCentre courtyard: Misha Govshteyn