Tag: Modern Design

Homes for Sale
07/14/10 12:34pm

Hidden Modern: Wylie Vale’s Katy Best

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Houston Architects, Interiors, Katy
12 Comments

Mod tracker and photographer Ben Hill believes this early-fifties Ranch is the best house Houston architect Wylie W. Vale ever designed in Katy. It’s a little less country — and features more rock — than this Swamplot reader favorite he designed a mile southeast, on Woods Hole Ln.

This 3,345-sq.-ft. single story, which sits on an acre of land near the center of the original town, has been on the market since mid-June, for $375,000. The home was originally built for former mayor Arthur Miller. And it was still in the family when Hill took these photos last year:

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Homes for Sale
06/28/10 2:41pm

North Post Oak Courtyard Mod: When Townhome Didn’t Mean Stairs

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Houston Architects, Lafayette Place, Memorial, Townhomes
13 Comments

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?

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Condos
05/20/10 11:24am

What You Can See Naked from the 26th Floor: A Clean Look at the Warwick

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Condos for Sale, Hermann Park, Highrises, Interiors, Museum District
6 Comments

How does the city look after a long, heavy shower? If you’re stepping out to grab a towel in the north-facing master bath of a 26th-floor unit in the Warwick Towers on Hermann Dr., maybe something like this. Which will lead you to the little perch below, one of the nicest we’ve seen set up for someone who’s naked, dripping wet, and maybe trying to get a little work done:

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Comments
05/14/10 1:39pm

Comment of the Day: Why That Midcentury Modern House Has No Garage

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Home Design, Quicklink
6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THAT MIDCENTURY MODERN HOUSE HAS NO GARAGE “The lack of enclosed garages on Post-war Modern homes has more to do with architects designing homes around the occupants and their lifestyle – in other words, the car was provided a resting place (sometimes covered, sometimes not) but the garage was likely seen as an excessive element to the Modernist spirit. More significantly, the consumer culture – a.k.a. conspicuous consumption – was not as rampant in the 1950’s and 60’s as it became in the 70’s, 80’s and beyond. All one needs to do is to review total square footage dedicated to storage/closets in Modernist homes in contrast to contemporary homes – this exercise is further validated by looking at storage/closets in pre-WW2 homes. Tiny. Take a look at a typical contemporary garage and you’ll find a plethora of things [previously] not commonly found in a garage prior to 1970. The garage has primarily become a storage room – and in its worst case, even the car is pushed out of its designated shelter. To live modern is to live with the essentials.” [JAH, commenting on Behind the Westminster Wall, Still Modern After All These Years]

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Home Design
05/13/10 12:16pm

Behind the Westminster Wall, Still Modern After All These Years

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Homes for Sale, Huntleigh, Memorial
31 Comments

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?

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Homes for Sale
04/09/10 6:25pm

When Meyerland Went Mauve

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Houston Architects, Meyerland
11 Comments

Just a couple rungs down from the top of the market in Meyerland is this 17-year-old fantasy on Braesheather, designed in 1993 by architect Mark Mucasey. The richly painted stucco home just a block south of Brays Bayou and two blocks southwest of the 610 Loop features a 3-car attached garage, 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, and several interior hues you may not have encountered recently:

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Houston Architects
04/07/10 5:00pm

Hometta Explains the Crazy Kitchen Lady: No Carrot Cutting, Just a Little Architectural Air Guitar

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Modern Design, Online Resources
1 Comment

Hometta’s Ann Chou has an answer for all of you Swamplot readers still wondering about those bizarre arm motions one of its characters was making in the promo video for H-Town, the online small-home plan-sales company’s new virtual environment. She was just — you know — chatting!

Amid the feedback on last Friday’s release of the H-Town preview has been a seemingly recurring question. “um – what is that lady in the kitchen doing?” asked a commenter on ArchDaily. Over at Swamplot, someone described the lady in the kitchen as a “humanoid” that “has taken to some sort of repetitive carrot cutting activity with a roll of drawings (presumably architectural drawings).”

They are indeed architectural drawings belonging to our architect avatar, the firstborn in a cast of characters from which you will choose when H-Town goes live. Then, you too will be able to gush with your fellow avatars about 48′ House’s U-shaped kitchen!

So that’s how you gush in H-Town?

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Home Design
03/30/10 12:37pm

Hometta’s Virtual H-Town, Where All the Houses Are Small and Modern

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Houston Architects, Online Resources
9 Comments

From online small-house-plan hawkers Hometta comes this video preview of H-Town, a virtual neighborhood where versions of the company’s modern home designs (several of which are from Houston architects) will always be open for visitors. If the preview bears more than a passing resemblance to Second Life, that’s because it uses OpenSimulator — an open-source Second Life-like 3D environment simulator.

H-Town isn’t modeled on Houston, explains Hometta’s Ann Chou — the H stands for Hometta. The small island features sidewalks, roads, a plaza, a gallery, and a market for Hometta’s small line of “Etc.” products the company also sells plans for, such as Collaborative DesignWorks’ 3×3 storage system:

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Home Design
03/19/10 12:24pm

Weekend Preview: A View from South to North in Southgate

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Houston Architects, Interiors, Southgate
17 Comments

Yes, there’s a straight shot from that outdoor fireplace in the back of this house all the way to a walled-off courtyard in the front. And it’s all lined up for you from the back patio: Kitchen, Dining Area, Living Room, and front yard beyond. If you took down that front wall you’d have a better view — past a row of oaks and some bushes — of the Rice Stadium parking lot across the street. The address is 2239 University Blvd. in Southgate.

The home was designed by Strasser Ragni Architecture’s Erick Ragni and his wife, Emily Sing. It’s theirs.

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Glenbrook Valley
03/12/10 6:21pm

When Houston Mod Met Sims Bayou

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Homes for Sale, Renovations
36 Comments

What’s the difference between a swank terrazzo-floored Modern home from 1959 or 1960 on a large swath of land somewhere on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in Memorial . . . and one overlooking Sims Bayou in Glenbrook Valley?

Couple million, easy. But . . . Sims Bayou, really?

Okay, so the house at 7711 Lakewind St. doesn’t have quite the same design pedigree (or furniture) as the Frame House — nobody seems to know who designed or built this place. But what do you expect for $359,000?

Uh . . . how about something where the vinyl siding has already been removed? Can we get that?

Sure!

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Comments
03/05/10 3:45pm

Comment of the Day: What It Takes To Fix Up a Midcentury Mod

by
Quicklink, Renovations
8 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT IT TAKES TO FIX UP A MIDCENTURY MOD “A house of this vintage and vernacular requires a fairly specific buyer possessing a working knowledge of the systemic underpinnings of a home. The first priority will be to upgrade electrical systems, HVAC and plumbing (below grade) – this assumes the aforementioned has not been upgraded within the past 10 years or so. . . . Equally important is the roof and with a flat roof, extra care has to be taken to ensure proper water shedding and flashing details. Next is insulation (particularly with respect to a flat [roof] as there is no plenum), this will involve removing all of the gyp. bd. at the ceiling in order to access the area in question. New electrical wiring can then be run as well as HVAC ducting, followed by high efficacy insulation. Of course, work on all of the above items will result in potential new discoveries such as dry rot, termite damage, non-compliant items per current codes, etc. Expect to reasonably expend $100K for the items noted. This is before you can consider updating the bathrooms, kitchen, new lighting, etc. As there is no garage (not a deal breaker but lack of covered parking could be), consideration should be towards erecting a architecturally harmonious structure on the driveway side of the home. Project is not for the faint of heart but in the end, well worth the effort and potential rewards. This house would likely qualify as a City of Houston Historic Landmark and if pursued, could potentially also include the related tax breaks.” [JAH, commenting on More Backstory on That 1960 Walnut Bend Mod: Nobody’s Screwed It Up Yet]

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Historic Preservation
03/04/10 2:08pm

More Backstory on That 1960 Walnut Bend Mod: Nobody’s Screwed It Up Yet

by
Homes for Sale, Renovations, Walnut Bend
14 Comments

Thinking long and hard about that unloved $160K 1960 Mod on Olympia Dr. in Walnut Bend featured here earlier this week? Real estate agent (and Swamplot advertiser) Robert Searcy has a few thoughts:

Due to the presence of pets, unfinished projects and other work needing to be done, (plus the absence of the mod furniture you see in the pictures), it all combines to make the home show less than ideal. Architecturally, however, it is one of the more dramatic in that price range and someone could pull it together. Mod houses are almost ALWAYS a project. This one is no exception. Most either need to be brought up or if they have a higher level of maintenance then they typically require “undoing.” That means going in and taking out inappropriate alterations done in the name of updating and putting back in more architecturally compatible finishes. This is often times a more difficult and more costly process than a straight up restoration. Especially if the seller wants more for the house initially because of their “updates,” which in reality are nothing more than bad choices that architecturally “dumb down” the house to look like every tract home in Katy.

This house needs work, but doesn’t really need the “undoing” factor. It is priced well and the location is not bad.

And he sends in part of the program for the 1960 Parade of Homes:

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Homes for Sale
03/02/10 10:43am

Scouting Report on a Walnut Bend Mod

by
Walnut Bend
16 Comments

“What a weird, cool house” says the reader who wrote in to clue us in on this 1960 Parade of Homes “townhouse” in Walnut Bend built by Robert Pine. The owner, who claimed to have rescued it in 2007 from the previous owner’s planned second floor addition and “tons of Home Depot upgrades,” put it up for sale last summer, after chatting it up a bit to Midcentury Mod fans on HAIF.

The $199,000 asking price only lasted a few months. Since last September, it’s been available for $159,900. Why hasn’t it sold?

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Brookesmith
02/16/10 4:16pm

Houston’s Unhappy Hipsters

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Home Design, Houston Architects, MacGregor Terrace
13 Comments

Sure, it’s a big break when local architects and designers get their work published in Dwell, but who knew that an appearance in the modern design magazine might ultimately be seen as just a stepping stone on the path to even greater fame? That’s right: With the recent appearance of the Unhappy Hipsters blog, Dwell‘s design stars will at last be able to reach a much wider circle.

Most photos on Unhappy Hipsters are taken from the magazine. But yes, the captions are changed — just a little bit — so that the work shown can reach a larger and perhaps more appreciative audience.

Already, two teams of Houston designers have been featured on the blog. A reader writes in to report that the photo above, showing the owners of Numen Development’s shipping-container house on Cordell St. in Brookesmith, was featured in a recent Unhappy Hipsters post. Except instead of the original caption from Dwell, which described the front porch, the species of grass on the lawn, and the bent-steel shade above, we have this:

Not on the grass, Sweetie. Never. On. The. Grass. See how much fun Daddy is having?

Who else is appearing on Unhappy Hipsters?

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