1704 Kipling St., HoustonNot all recipients of the 2008 GHPA Good Brick Awards will be able to attend this Friday’s historic-preservation awards banquet at the River Oaks Country Club, but some will have better excuses than others. Ken Rice, who along with Sarah Goodpastor will receive an award for the renovation of a 1930 brick duplex at the corner of Kipling and Dunlavy, won’t be able to make it because he’s currently serving a 27-month sentence in federal prison for securities fraud.

Yes, that’s former Enron Broadband CEO and architecture patron Kenneth Rice, who already helped lessen his sentence by testifying against other Enron executives in two separate trials after his 2003 guilty plea. Rice agreed to forfeit more than $13.7 million worth of cash investments, real estate, cars, and jewelry as part of his plea agreement. His sentence included a $50,000 fine.

Rice, 48, could end up serving less than half of his prison term, though.

His lawyers say he hopes to enter a drug and alcohol treatment program available to nonviolent federal inmates that, if completed, could shave up to a year from his term. In addition, federal inmates can reduce their prison time by 15 percent with good behavior. With those two combined, Rice could get out of prison in 11 months.

After the jump, details and photos of a project Rice is likely hoping will count towards that good-behavior credit.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/30/08 12:35pm

House on Cedarspur Dr. in Spring Valley, Houston

Robert Boyd rides north of I-10 and snoops around more Spring Valley homes in his latest bike tour. Highlights: The Voss mess, a cool carport, and the recent retail-Modern pad pictured above.

Photo of house on Cedarspur Dr.: Robert W. Boyd

01/29/08 4:00pm

Family Room of 403 Westminster Dr., Houston

A reader reports that the Frame House, a fifties-Modern classic tucked off Memorial Dr., is up for sale for a cool $3 million. Designed by Houston architect Harwood Taylor in 1960, this is about as close to a Case Study House as Houston ever got — and it perches just about as close to Buffalo Bayou as you’d ever want a home to get. Its recent restoration from a mid-eighties whitewashing earned the current owner, his architects, and builder a local preservation award.

If you’re a fan of this kind of Modness, the best news of all is that you don’t have to pay to play: An open house is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, February 17th. If you’re not a fan, you can visit and imagine how it would all look with crown moulding and a nice, traditional pitched roof.

After the jump, a few more details about the home, plus a demonstration of the real value real estate agents can bring to a fine listing like this.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/29/08 11:15am

Plan of Top Floor Gramercy Tower Suite Penthouse of Turnberry Houston Tower Showing 9 and a Half Bathrooms

Do you experience the urge to urinate frequently? Do you suffer from recurring bladder infections? An enlarged prostate? And one more question: Do you have $8.5 million burning a hole in your (probably moist) pocket?

Well then, you’re certainly going to pee in your pants when you see the exciting floor plans for the two “Gramercy Tower Suite” penthouses on the top floors of Houston’s 34-story Turnberry Tower! Yes, this will be the height of luxury: 11,860 sq. ft. of living space on three separate levels of an Uptown highrise; an additional 3,535 sq. ft. of terraces; 4 bedrooms plus a Den, a Guest Suite, and a Staff Room for live-in help; a Media Room, two Lounges, and a 2-story Great Room; a private elevator entry; your own private pool and cabana; and so much more.

But forget all that. What makes this little pied-à-terre special is that even if all that space perched high in the sky (and the at-least-jaw-dropping panoramic views) gives you an unmistakable urge to evacuate, you’ll only be a few shuffling paces away from a toilet: Each unit comes with nine-and-a-half bathrooms. And if that’s not enough, there’s plenty of room to add more!

Read on for more of the scoop on where to poop: floor plans for the top two floors, with more porcelain palaces clearly marked. Plus: a closeup of Swamplot’s favorite Turnberry penthouse pit stop!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/23/08 11:52am

House on Winningham Ln., Spring Valley, Houston

What makes Hilshire Village and Spring Valley different from the rest of the Memorial Villages?

Both these Villages are north of I-10, which for Memorialites is sort of the wrong side of the tracks. Indeed, if you look at the household income of 77055 in the year 2000, the zip code that encompasses Hilshire Village and Spring Valley, it is $36.7 thousand. The average household income in 77024, which consists mainly of the southern Villages, is $82.6 thousand. The two northern Villages, however, are probably far closer to the Southern Villages in terms of wealth. It’s simply that as you go north and east from Spring Valley and Hilshire Village, you enter more working class neighborhoods, with lots of Hispanic and Korean immigrants. They may not be rich, but they are strivers, and the area North of I-10 on the Westside is, I think, getting wealthier and more middle class.

Robert Boyd returns from his latest bicycle tour — through Memorial’s northern outposts — with photos of his finds: wobbly Metro bike racks, shed-roof seventies Modern Memorial classics, ivy art, creekside barbecue, Tae Kwon Do parking-lot attendants, low-calorie McMansions, plus a couple of misplaced Victorians and a faux Adobe.

Photo of house on Winningham Ln.: Robert W. Boyd

01/18/08 9:05am

Four Homes by Legend Homes for Sale in Bear Creek Meadows

The wave of foreclosures sweeping over neighborhoods at the outer edges of town has . . . an upside!

Remember back when these neighborhoods were new — like, four years ago? Well, for buyers it’s just like those good old days all over again . . . only cheaper! That’s right: if you’ve settled on one builder model, you can be pretty picky about which upgrades and finishing touches you really want — even though the builder has moved on.

If you’re shopping for a home in Bear Creek Meadows in Katy, for example, you’ll find the four distinct residences pictured above listed on MLS. That’s right, those are four different houses. But they’re all the same model — The Cairns, Plan 509, by Legend Homes — and they’re all resales!

Which one is right for you? Clockwise from top left, the contenders are: 19411 Billineys Park Dr., 19606 Ballina Meadows Dr., 19906 Brisbane Meadows Dr., and 19510 Buckland Park Dr.

After the jump, a look at the differences between these four newish but back-on-the-market homes!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/15/08 9:55pm

Entrance Patio, 3840 Willowick Rd., River Oaks, Houston

A reader writes in to report that a house discussed recently on Swamplot had also been featured in Architectural Digest last October. And so it had! But really, they called it “Trapezoidal Transcendence”?? Whatever. Swamplot had the guts to call it what it really was: A River Oaks teardown.

Oh, well — there’s no accounting for taste. Unless, of course, you consider demolition a form of judgment:

By the way, that amazing modern house in the Tall Timbers section of River Oaks is definitely toast.

In this case, apparently, the decision of that judge was final.

01/11/08 8:33am

House Made of Shipping Containers at 206 Cordell St., Houston, Under Construction

That house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith looks like it’ll be ready for delivery soon. Yes, this was a spec house — and yes, there already is a buyer.

Last year, Numen Development owners Katie Nichols and John Walker used shipping containers to construct the Apama Mackey Gallery on 11th St. in the Heights — because the gallery owner wanted a structure she can move when the property owner kicks her off the land. But the house Numen is building on Cordell looks like it’s going to be around for a while. It comes with its own, uh . . . doublewide lot, and it’s right across the street from a meat-processing plant.

After the jump: drawings, models, and an earlier construction photo of this neat little three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,851-square-foot package!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/10/08 2:42pm

3840 Willowick Rd., River Oaks, Houston

Here’s the problem with these sleek houses on full-acre lots in River Oaks: They’re selling for too damn cheap! The gorgeous land at the southern boundary of Memorial Park fronting Buffalo Bayou at 3840 Willowick — hogged by this eighties-modern home designed by New York architects Stonehill and Taylor — got swept up for between $45 and $57 a square foot at the end of August.

At that price, wouldn’t your head be spinning with the themed-towering-mansion possibilities? Bring on the demo and stucco crews!

Well, the stucco and foam cornice pieces will probably take a while, but the big machines with the giant claws are on their way, according to this morning’s demolition report.

Photos, plans, and details of the house-that-got-in-the-way — including some fine examples of how to distract from a River Oaks land sale — after the jump:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/13/07 10:10am

Villas of Antoine Ad

Houston is such an international city! If you’ve been here a while, you’ve probably already found Tuscany in Houston and Hong Kong in Houston, and perhaps also Charlottesville, New Delhi, Versailles, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Dubai, Atlanta, and maybe even some Lubbock in Houston as well.

Well, here’s a new one: Now you can discover Barcelona in Houston too. And it’s in Spring Branch!

Fortunately, for those of you tired at the thought of all that around-the-world-in-eighty-themed-apartments travel, this little bit of the Spanish Mediterranean comes in the familiar form of a Houston townhome six-pack: two rows of bright yellow tightly fit stucco-coated boxes facing a bare concrete driveway.

So really, it shouldn’t seem so foreign after all.

After the jump, more pics!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/11/07 1:22pm

9602 Moonlight Dr., Meyerland, Houston

One detail glossed over delicately in Lisa Gray’s colorful tale of the decline of Meyerland’s Carousel House, featured in today’s Chronicle: The abandoned home’s apparent awful stench. From a few would-be visitors, posting on HAIF:

The owner told me that everyone he’s taken in there has gotten sick soon after coming out. Apparently it is REALLY nasty in there. I may swing by and get some new filters for my mask.

and

i could smell “the smell” just standing in the driveway

But hey, the interior shots from just a few short years ago make the house look super fab! Built in 1964 by owner Robert Cohen, the Modern gem merited a Texas magazine feature story in 2003. Just four years, one ultra-rich attorney, one shady personal assistant, countless hookers, umpteen heroin hazes, and a couple of dozen missing exotic cars later, the house on the corner of Moonlight Dr. and Braesheather appears headed for an almost-certain but certainly difficult demolition. (15,000 pounds of steel, anyone?)

After the jump, highlights of the home from its heyday, excerpts from the sordid and fetid tale of its fall from Modern grace, and a photo of the far more up-to-date carousel that just might be built in its place!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

11/14/07 4:04pm

3740 Willowick Dr. in River Oaks by Architect John Staub

A 1955 River Oaks “country house” designed by John Staub appears on MLS just days before architectural historian Stephen Fox’s book on the Houston architect appears in bookstores. Mere coincidence? Or brilliant upper-end home-marketing technique?

There’s a slight price difference between the two: The Country Houses of John F. Staub lists for $75, though Amazon.com whacks 37 percent off of that. No telling if the sellers will accept a similar discount off the $7.495 million asking price of 3740 Willowick.

The house overlooks Buffalo Bayou and features four fireplaces, three bedrooms, and six full and one half baths — all in a single story. Yes, it looks like some ranch-house flavor got mixed in here. There’s a garden loggia and lots of trees, plus a three-car attached garage. It’s a 5,532-square-foot home on a quarter-acre lot.

The book is 408 pages long and comes in hardcover. It features photographs by Richard Cheek, and will take up just three-quarters of a square foot on your coffee table.

After the jump: the not-so-ranchy interiors.

Of the house.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

11/07/07 5:31pm

Sunken Play Area at the Frame-Harper House, Houston

Texas Architect magazine features a home that shows what the famous postwar Case Study program of modern steel houses might have looked like if it had landed on bayou banks in Houston instead of L.A. hillsides.

Of course, what was cool in the fifties wasn’t especially appreciated in the eighties. The home’s second owners

removed the terraced landscaping and painted the entire house white, including its darkstained walnut paneling and load-bearing walls of pink Mexican brick. They filled sunken terrazzo soaking bathtubs in children’s and parents’ bathrooms with concrete. They removed the lacy, cast-plaster screens separating the living and dining rooms designed by Gloria Frame’s father, Joseph Klein, and the unusual turquoise St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets with their little shiny stainless steel legs. In the main living areas they covered over a series of recessed light coves in the ceiling depicted in superb photographs by Ezra Stoller, which were published in House & Garden in September 1961. They also replaced the original copper roof flashing with galvanized steel flashing that had rusted to the point of failure by 2004 when the house’s third owner, Dana Harper, persuaded them to sell it.

After the jump, more swank pics from Harper’s expensive restoration of this cool modern home off Memorial Dr.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/18/07 10:00am

32124 Skyway, Waller

If you’re looking for something just a little sleeker than the typical country-home-with-hangar featured here earlier this week, you might want to try the house right next door: It’s newly remodeled, sportier, and there’s still plenty of room to park your airplane, just steps from the Living Room. Best of all, though, you can bid for it on Ebay.

A completely remodeled home and new airplane hanger located in the beautiful country side of Waller Texas, just 20 minutes from Houston. Located in the Sky Lakes Subdivision this gorgeous home and hanger that backs up to the taxiway and leads out to the long grass runway allowing you the access to fly your plane at a moments notice.

Great, but 20 minutes from Houston?? Oh, right—by air. The house has three bedrooms and two baths in an open plan: 2330 square feet of living space, plus a 2000-square-foot hangar.

Hurry! There’s only about a week left to place your bids. Or buy it now for $274,900. Our quick fly-by photo tour begins after the jump.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/10/07 11:14am

32102 Skyway, Waller

It’s just down the street from the golf course and from Skylake Airport in Waller. A three-bedroom, two-bath house with an attached woodshop, listed at $249,900. Oh, and you can probably fit several of your airplanes in the hangar. The current owner has three in there, plus a helicopter.

After the jump, more pictures of this lovely airport home, including . . . an aerial view!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/08/07 10:00am