Tag: Houston Architects

Condos for Sale
05/21/14 3:30pm

More Ups and Downs in a Court at Museums Gate Condo in Montrose

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Home Design, Interiors, Montrose
13 Comments

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In the up-and-down maze of the 1985 postmodern Court at Museums Gate complex in Montrose, one of the 3-story units has been on and off the market at a variety of price points since last summer. Yesterday, the plaza-entry condo popped up again in a re-listing (with sharper photos) by a new agency. The asking price, $370,000, is where things stood earlier this month when an April 2014 re-listing terminated, having reduced its $385K price tag for 2 days. Back in July 2013, the unit debuted at $276,000, then tracked its price upward with the market through the end of the year. The property last sold in 2011, for $168,517.

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More Montrose than Museum
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Comments
05/20/14 12:00pm

Comment of the Day: City of Studied Knock-Offs

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Houston Architects, Quicklink
5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: CITY OF STUDIED KNOCK-OFFS Escher Saarinen“The Gulf Building is perhaps the closest of the copies of Eliel Saarinen’s Second Place Entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower. Do a Google search and see for yourself. Not sure most will agree, but I think it’s pretty cool. We have a Saarinen design in our City, but we don’t. The building was designed by Alfred Finn and Kenneth Franzheim. It’s a lot like all of our ersatz Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that were actually designed by MacKie and Kamrath.” [ZAW, commenting on Available Now, for a Limited Time Only: Views of a Downtown Art Deco Classic] Illustration: Lulu

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Featured Posts
04/28/14 4:00pm

1929 Estate Showing Off ‘How Braeswood Was Supposed To Have Looked’ Now Available ‘As-Is’

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Old Braeswood
15 Comments

2215 Glen Haven Blvd., Old Braeswood, Houston

Minus the air conditioning and other newfangled add-ons, an old Old Braeswood property looks every bit the manorial English estate architect Carl Mulvey intended when he designed it back in 1929. The property, located in a section of the neighborhood falling east of Greenbriar Dr., was listed “as is” last week with a $1.15 million asking price. Inside, there’s plenty of time-burnished woodwork.

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Carl Mulvey’s Gables Galore
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Featured Posts
04/23/14 11:15am

A Vaulted Scott Ballard Design in First Montrose Commons for $1.22 Million

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First Montrose Commons, Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Montrose
11 Comments

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Beneath the glulam arches of a 2004 contemporary home designed by Houston architect Scott Ballard, living spaces line up in an open floor plan (top) with double-stacked windows fore and aft. The east-west property in First Montrose Commons near the HSPVA campus was listed last week, but recently upgraded its listing photos. It carries has an asking price of $1.22 million.

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Let’s Roll
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Afton Oaks
04/14/14 3:45pm

An Afton Oaks-Area Townhome with a Local Design Pedigree Reappears on the Market

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Townhomes
2 Comments

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One of the contemporary townhomes with courtyards in a 7-property subdivision dubbed West Lane Place was under contract last month but returned to the market a week ago with an asking price of $575,000 — $10K higher than the previous listing. The listing identifies the townhome’s designers as some form of the firm once known as Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson — also known as the architects of the Astrodome. Courtyards, it says, are by landscape firm McDugald-Steele. The 1982 property is tucked between Afton Oaks and the railroad right-of-way east of Newcastle.

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Steel Away
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Discovery Green
04/11/14 1:45pm

The Second Convention Center Hotel, a Marriott Marquis, Is Going Up Starting Now

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Downtown, Hotels, New Construction
18 Comments

Proposed Marriott Marquis Hotel, Downtown Houston

A groundbreaking ceremony today is marking the construction start of the new $335 million Marriott Marquis hotel on Walker St. and Crawford next to the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown, which will face the existing Hilton Americas hotel across Discovery Green. The newly updated rendering shown below confirms that the hotel will be the first institution anywhere to sport an island shaped like Texas in one of its lower rooftop pools:

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On Discovery Green
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Featured Posts
04/10/14 12:00pm

For $8.1 Million, Would This River Oaks Hiram Salisbury and John Staub Estate Be Torn Down for 2 Newer Mansions?

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, River Oaks, Tall Timbers
9 Comments

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One of the storied properties in the Tall Timbers niche of River Oaks quietly arrived on the market this week. Restrained and almost dainty in its design by the then in-demand architect Hiram Salisbury, the 1941 main building features columns and balconies accenting a brick exterior. The east-wing addition in 1950, meanwhile, was by another go-to architect: John Staub. The resulting work by 2 premier architects blended in one estate sits on a large lot measuring more than an acre and a half. All that land can be subdivided, “for 2 building sites, already approved” by the River Oaks Property Owners association, the listing says. The asking price is $8.1 million.

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Twice as Nice
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Deer Park
04/07/14 4:00pm

A Crisp, Seventies Irving Phillips Custom Contemporary in Deer Park, Air Hockey Included

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors
7 Comments

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Crisp cutouts and angled volumes designed into a 1974 custom contemporary in Deer Park give light, air, and views multi-level pathways throughout the tilt-topped property. Architect Irving Phillips, who designed this structure long before moving on to Montrose-area monuments and assorted condo towers, also opted for a fair amount of redwood, as evidenced by the ceilings (top) and sun-baked planks finishing the home’s exterior and privacy fencing (above). A week ago, the well-buffed home appeared on the market with a $295,000 asking price.

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Redbox Location
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Adaptive Reuse
04/07/14 11:00am

‘Renovation’ of Menil Bungalow into Menil Café Will Be More Extensive Than Originally Planned

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Demolitions, Houston Architects, Menil Collection, Montrose, Museums, Renovations, Restaurants
5 Comments

Construction of Bistro Menil, 1512 Sul Ross St., Montrose, Houston

Construction of Bistro Menil, 1512 Sul Ross St., Montrose, HoustonWhatever the original plans were for the partial demolition of the gray-painted 1940 bungalow that sat across the street from the Menil Collection and across the footpath to the West Alabama St. parking lot from the Menil Bookstore, they appear to have been exceeded. A reader sends in these photos of the construction site at 1512 Sul Ross St.; they show that the woodframe structure intended for “adaptive reuse” into a new Bistro Menil according to a design by Stern and Bucek Architects has been removed entirely.

The Menil had announced plans for the bungalow-to-bistro conversion at that spot last October, in concert with an upgrade of the parking-lot path into a “new campus gateway” designed by landscape firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. “In keeping with the emphasis on sustainability that is a keynote of the landscape design,” read a Menil press release, “the Menil’s café is designed by Stern and Bucek through the adaptive reuse of one of the bungalows that define the character of the Menil’s campus.” The press release also noted that the Menil’s architect, Renzo Piano, had originally proposed putting a café in this exact location. Since named (via a contest) Bistro Menil, the arts institution’s first eating spot is set to be run by Café Annie, Taco Milagro, and Café Express alum Greg Martin.

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Leaving Only Footprints
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Art
04/01/14 5:15pm

Menil Collection Taking Bill Stern’s Art, but Trying To Sell His Museum District House for $1.475 Million

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Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design, Museum District, Museums
16 Comments

1202 Milford St., Museum District, Houston

1202 Milford St., Museum District, Houston

The few interior photos included in the listing of William F. Stern’s house at the corner of Milford and Mt. Vernon show the 1990 structure stripped of most of its furnishings — but with much of its famed artwork still on the walls. Are those paintings museum-quality, though? Certifiably, it turns out: Stern, who passed away a year ago from pancreatic cancer, willed the house and its artwork to the Menil Collection. The Menil is accepting all the art into its collection, but put the house on the market last month — with an asking price of $1.475 million.

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Paintings Without a Home
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Featured Posts
03/20/14 1:30pm

The Sleek Mod Tom Wilson Hid Behind a Southampton Street’s Mysterious Brick Bowfront

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Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Southampton
12 Comments

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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).

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By the Bay
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Featured Posts
03/12/14 3:00pm

John Zemanek’s Hyde Park Texas Asian Concrete Block Home Is Available for Lease

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Home Design, Homes for Lease, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Interiors, Montrose
20 Comments

1117 Peden St., Hyde Park, Montrose, Houston

1117 Peden St., Hyde Park, Montrose, HoustonIf 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.

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At $3K a Month
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Featured Posts
03/12/14 1:30pm

Menil Collection Predecessor on Rice Campus Is Headed for the Fourth Ward

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Houston History, Institutional Buildings, Rice University
14 Comments

Martel Building, Former Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston

The Brown Foundation has agreed to provide funds for Rice University to disassemble the corrugated campus building once known as the Rice Museum and reassemble it on a site in the Fourth Ward, the school’s student newspaper reports. A story posted last night by the Rice Thresher‘s Jieya Wen doesn’t precisely identify the intended new location of the building, but art professor and photographer Geoff Winningham tells her that plans are being developed to turn the metal-sided structure into a public art center on its new site: “The building was designed so that it can be disassembled and moved in parts,” he tells Wen. “The university has agreed to allow [the] building to stand for a couple more weeks [in order] to come up with the actual plan for moving the building.”

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A More Public Art Center
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Demolitions
03/11/14 10:45am

Protests Delay Planned Demolition of Former Rice Museum, May Mean More Gentle Dismantling, Reconstruction Elsewhere

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Rice University
1 Comment

Former Rice Museum, Rice University, HoustonAn excavator may now be parked onsite, but alumni objections have prompted officials at Rice University to delay demolition of the 45-year-old corrugated metal building identified as the “Art Barn” — but known for decades as the home of Rice’s School of Continuing Studies, and before that the Rice Museum. The university’s plan “is still to remove the building from campus,” a spokesperson tells Swamplot. But exactly what form that removal might take is now apparently up for discussion. Officials now plan to “explore a couple of options for removing the building.”

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‘Stay of Execution’
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Featured Posts
03/10/14 3:00pm

What’s Happened to This $895,000 Riverside Terrace Home Designed by John Staub

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Riverside Terrace
23 Comments

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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:

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Check Out the Garage-Door Bathroom
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