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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Tag: Homebuilders
The attorney for Lakes of Avalon Village developer Robert A. Hudson is now saying that economic conditions make it “unlikely” that Lennar Homes and J. Patrick Homes will build on homesites in the path of a new proposed route for Segment F2 of the Grand Parkway in Spring.
But there’s no need to give up hope entirely: Lennar and J. Patrick apparently encountered few difficulties building and selling 60 homes sitting on the new highway’s earlier proposed route, in a different portion of the same subdivision. The developer’s stated reluctance to repeat the trick means the homebuilding market must be pretty tough now.
The new route would swing around the homes that have already been built and into not-yet-developed areas of Lakes of Avalon Village and neighboring Willow Trace.
What’s a failed homebuilder to do when it hurriedly goes belly-up . . . but still has a huge chunk of inventory on hand?
Welcome to the Royce Builders Already-Gone-Out-of-Business Home Sale!
How’s it work? Well, if you’re a lucky real-estate agent, you receive a mysterious message with a couple of attachments listing the more than 300 homes in the Greater Houston area the . . . uh, former company still has available! In 49 different neighborhoods around town! And all at discount prices!
Included with the list: a map of the neighborhoods Royce graced (shown above), demonstrating the company’s vast exurban spread.
Of course, the email message doesn’t come from Royce Builders, because Royce is . . . no longer with us. (And, to judge from the comments coming into Swamplot from recent Royce buyers, employees, and vendors, it is sorely missed!) The list comes instead from an email address on the h-smith.com domain. That hyphen, of course, stands for “ammer.” Didn’t Hammersmith Financial, Royce’s sister mortgage company, also go out of business?
But the property list is so much more fun than a collection of random way-far-out addresses:
From the website of Top View Builder — builders of this 6,017-sq.-ft. home at 5607 Whitehaven St. in Bellaire — under “Company History”:
Founded in 2007 by four well-rounded partners, the company is desitned to set the benchmark of excellence.
Maybe helps explain the bloated look, too.
- About us [Top View Builder, via Swamplot inbox]
- 5607 Whitehaven St., Bellaire [HAR]
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!
A couple of tipsters are telling us that Royce Builders is back in business, only a little more than a week after shutting everything down! Members of the Speer family, say our sources, have started up a new company with about 10 employees in the same Royce Builders building on Beltway 8, in the space formerly occupied by Royce’s sister company, Hammersmith Financial.
Even more fascinating is the name of the new company, which one of our sources says is Vestalia. If that’s true, it’s a terrific choice! In ancient Roman mythology, Vesta was the virgin goddess of hearth and home. How appropriate!
Well, sort of. Vestalia is actually the name of a holiday that celebrated Vesta. Wikipedia provides the . . . uh, gory details:
On the first day of the festivities the penus Vestae (the curtained sanctum sanctorum of her temple) was opened, for the only time during the year, for women to offer sacrifices in. Such sacrifices included the removal of an unborn calf from a pregnant cow.
Can’t wait to hear what sort of business this new company will be!
- Vestalia [Wikipedia]
- Previously in Swamplot: Royce Builders: It’s All Over But the Refunds, Staff and Paperwork Reduction at Royce Builders and Hammersmith Financial, Royce Builders Watch, The Real Reason Royce Builders Home Sales Were in the Toilet, Royce Builders: So Hard To Say Goodbye, Royce Builders Sales Staff Update: Never Mind the Rumors, Sell Sell Sell!, Royce Builders Death Spiral: Juicy Details!, We Have Layoffs: Heads Roll at Royce Builders, The Rumors Circling Around Royce Builders
Royce Builders has finally shut down. The company slipped out somewhere between gusts of Hurricane Ike, leaving only a note on its website.
Looking for an earnest money refund? Try Royce’s handy new sounds-like-spam Gmail address! But do it before October 1, because . . . well, just because.
Got a home warranty issue? Well then, just . . . read the warranty!
A reader comments:
My concern is for the people who closed on one of their poorly built homes in the last 365 days. Royce was the backer of the new home warranty for the first year of ownership and now they are gone. My friends who used to work for them tell me there are thousands of unfinished warranty requests that were never completed or even addressed. I wish all the home owners good luck on getting things fixed. At least they will have the Two to Ten Waranty beginning in the second year (if Royce paid the premium).
Royce’s happy farewell message is after the jump!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pf-c5jVm1g 400 330]
Pay no attention to that dying possum by the side of the road! Lou Minatti takes a bike ride through a neighborhood of new Royce and Centex homes in Katy and finds lots of building going on — and plenty of “sold” signs!!! But . . . is anybody actually living here? And uh, some of those signs look awfully familiar — from a ride through this same area back in May.
After the jump: some of the same scenes, 4 months ago!
Is this art too? Plainview’s townhouse transition spreads south of Fairview. Here’s a plain view of the soon-to-be-former duplex at 2420 Hazard. It’ll hurt — just a little bit.
After the jump: more photos spell out the story for you. Plus: A new back patio!
What’s in the Swamplot inbox? More fun news and comments about Royce Builders and mortgage-y sidekick Hammersmith Financial:
According to a source all sales was finally let go yesterday. . . . Subdivisions have been completely stone cold. In addition, Hammersmith finished up last Friday. Between both, lots of shredding going on. The remainder of Royce is in the Hammersmith offices as well. Also, many who may be interested, [Royce Chief Operating Officer James] Hunter’s last day was a week ago Friday.
For any buyers out there who feel the have been defrauded by Royce, all they need to do is contact the Consumer Fraud Division at 713-755-5836. This is the DA’s office and there is the possibility that criminal charges may be filed if Royce knowingly defrauded consumers, but they MUST make the call.
A little bit more on the shredding:
This too-cute-for-Disneyland drawing depicts Allegro Builders’ new Wild Wild West-y development at the northwest corner of Studewood and 10th in the Heights. It’s going up just north of Allegro’s headquarters building, which is home also to the Glass Wall restaurant, and is known for its vaguely-historicist facade of valet-parked SUVs.
A few vans may front the new building at 1001 and 1003 Studewood, but it’ll only be in 2 spots of handicapped parking: The main lot is in back. That’ll likely be a relief for local filmmakers, who are no doubt eager to film Universal Studios-authentic spaghetti-western-style gunfights off those front balconies.
All of which makes this new retail-with-office-above confection an ideal location for Robert Gadsby’s new restaurant, Bedford, named after the chef’s birthplace in . . . uh, England.
After the jump: The interior is gonna be . . . modern!
ROYCE BUILDERS WATCH “They have been moving the remaining 11 [employees] down to the first floor. . . . They told them it has to be done this week. Also, they were seen moving stuff out of the building and loading box trucks. Only two remaining project managers and one remaining sales counselor have been spotted.” [Swamplot Inbox; previously]
What caused last week’s big implosion over at Royce Builders? And what’s happening now? A Swamplot informant tries to clue us in with this rich, extended view of the company’s problems:
Fact #1: Lavish spending by all of the Speers. At any given time one of two Bentley’s, Ferrari, Escalade or sports cars belonging to the family would be parked at the office. Shawn Speer and his wife Shonna were known for bragging about their lavish spending. Certainly, if you’re making money spend it, but when times are tight they were the only ones still spending money like water.
Fact #2: Example: Shonna told another employee about $30,000 shopping spree to New York and only a purse and few other items were on that steep tab.
Fact #3: As employees were crying and leaving Shonna and her best friend and manager Nicki K. were talking about moving forward with their new clothing line. This conversation opened up speculation that monies had been moved to accounts in Nikki’s name for this purpose.
Oh yes . . . there’s more!
A few commenters on the Home Builder Implode-O-Meter website refer to a unique regular participant in Royce Builders sales meetings: a barking toilet seat.
What’s the story here? A Swamplot tipster explains the innovative sales-motivation tool . . . employed by recently released Houston Division head John Zunker:
If anyone else mentions the ‘rubbing of the toilet seat’, that is true by the way. Bizzarre riitual he drempt up- when the meeting was at a close, he has a toilet seat with his face painted on it. The employees would rub it while chanting… Royce, Royce, Royce. Has nothing to do with their financial problems, but thought it was bizarre.
Huh?
Another report on that Royce Builders sales meeting earlier this week:
I was in attendance at the infamous “Forget the Rumors and sell, sell, sell! [meeting.] We all thought the meeting was called to thank a dedicated and hard working group of sales people. Never once did the Speers humble themselves to utter a thank you for any contributions. We were asked to continue to sell the inventory, but they could not tell us where we would close the home nor how we would get paid. They had Countrywide Sr. Loan Officer Shawna Oakley present because we were told that all the sales on the books at been transferred to her. This did not make a bit of sense because the homes still have liens. We were told the bank was in control out of one side of the mouth and then told that they were trying to find another Title Co. It is no secret that Stewart Title out on Bay Area Blvd. is up to their ears in legals.
We all felt that the Speers should have just told everyone goodbye. The building is basically empty, there are 2 construction workers, 1 accounting person, 1 hr per son and the poor girl answering all the dirty calls and giving callers the runaround. Hats off to Fox’s Mr. Carey for trying . . . to report the truth about Royce Homes.