Tag: Modern Design

Homes for Sale
11/10/11 3:59pm

Back After a Break: William Jenkins Mod in Willowbend

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Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design, Willowbend
4 Comments

After a fall cleaning and October vacation, this 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Willowbend jumped back into the market over the weekend. The price is still $259,900, but that’s down $15K (in 2 jumps) from its original ask back in May. It’s a roughly L-shaped 1955 mod wrapped around a pool and fitted onto a cul-de-sac extension by William Jenkins, namesake of UH’s Art and Architecture Library, near several other homes he designed. Busy South Post Oak Blvd. is just beyond the back fence, but inside all is cool and quiet:

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Houston Architects
11/07/11 11:54am

Preston Bolton Goes Out Through the Skylight

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Houston History, Modern Design
No Comments

The godfather of Houston’s high-ceilinged modernists passed away last Wednesday at the age of 91. Preston Bolton moved to Houston in the days before air conditioning, after serving in a field artillery unit during World War II. An architect of many distinctive homes in the area — first in partnership with Howard Barnstone, and later on his own — Bolton was also a cofounder of the Houston Ballet and an early supporter of many other arts organizations. Among the homes designed by Bolton featured on Swamplot over the past few years: This elegant single-story townhome on a street that bears his name in Lafayette Place, and his own Buffalo Bayou-side home on Pine Hollow Ln., which is still listed for sale.

Photos: HAR (266 Pine Hollow Ln. and 519 Bolton Pl.)

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Disaster Aftermath
10/25/11 2:05pm

La Porte’s Mod Sylvan Beach Pavilion Should Be Ready To Party Again Late Next Year

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Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, La Porte, Modern Design, Renovations
12 Comments

The Sylvan Beach Pavilion, a dancehall and conference hall on Harris County’s only public beach — with a 10,000-sq.-ft. glass-walled ballroom overlooking Galveston Bay — has been boarded up since its pummeling by Hurricane Ike in 2008. But thanks to a $3.6 million grant awarded last fall by the state Dept. of Rural Affairs, the modern building at Sylvan Beach Park is now headed for restoration to its original 1956 glory (above) — with a few tweaks directed by the architects at Kirksey to gussy it up for weddings, quinceañeras, local meetings, retirement parties, and other La Porte events. Construction is scheduled to start early next year and take 9 months.

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Comments
10/20/11 11:42pm

Comment of the Day: The Design Shopper

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Lancaster Place, Modern Design, Quicklink, Retail
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DESIGN SHOPPER “Call me crazy but I believe architectural style and design matters. This is why I’ll be doing my grocery shopping here and not at my boring Garden Oaks or Heights Kroger.” [MericaRulz, commenting on Meanwhile, on the Former Site of the Wilshire Village Apartments]

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Homes for Sale
10/14/11 2:44pm

An Allen Bianchi Rivercrest Stone Showcase

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Interiors, Rivercrest
39 Comments

Listed earlier this week, for $3.8 million: This 3-story home, designed in 2008 by Houston architect Allen Bianchi for the president of a stone supply company. That would explain the more than 20,000 sq. ft. of stone surfaces attached to the house, including the limestone cladding outside. The 4-bedroom, 5-1/2-bath block sits on 3 3/4 gated acres on West Rivercrest, just a few mansions south of Briar Forest Dr.

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Apartments
10/03/11 8:13pm

Comment of the Day: Houston Mod Lovers’ Googie Condo Collective

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Buildings for Sale, Buying and Selling, Comments, Houston Landmarks, Modern Design, Quicklink, Upper Kirby
2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON MOD LOVERS’ GOOGIE CONDO COLLECTIVE “OK mod lovers, this is your ONE BIG CHANCE. How many of you have commented on Swamplot that you would love to buy that about-to-be-torn-down mod home if you only could afford it? Six of you guys put your heads together and buy this place. You can each have a 1,000+ SF condo unit in an iconic building in a great neighborhood for less than $125,000 per person.” [Bernard, commenting on Penguin Arms, Houston’s Only Googie Apartment Building, Is Now for Sale]

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Apartments
10/03/11 5:07pm

Penguin Arms, Houston’s Only Googie Apartment Building, Is Now for Sale

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Buildings for Sale, Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Modern Design, Upper Kirby
31 Comments

Arthur Moss’s 1950 Penguin Arms Apartments at 2902 Revere St. behind the Kirby Dr. Whole Foods is now on the market. Sadly, no pix showing the condition of the interior are included with the listing, though the agent’s reference to “lots of deferred maintenance” — along with the comments of a former tenant — should provide a clue. What gives this unique building its Googie cred? Well, a photo of it was included in the original 1952 House and Home magazine article that gave the style its name (amidst complaints about its “orgiastic” and “organic” features, of course). Penguin Arms “looks like something that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for George Jetson,” Chron columnist Lisa Gray declared a few years ago. These days, that’s considered a compliment.

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Buildings for Lease
09/28/11 1:40pm

The Last-Ever Sale at Harold’s in the Heights Is Over

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Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Heights, Modern Design, Retail
9 Comments

The new owners of the Heights building at the corner of 19th St. and Ashland that for 61 years housed the Harold’s in the Heights men’s clothing store have wasted no time in advertising the modern structure for lease or “redevelopment.” The Chronicle‘s David Kaplan reports that a partnership led by local development firm Braun Enterprises bought the property from the family of Harold Wiesenthal last week; a flyer for the 13,600-sq.-ft. property, which comes with a parking lot in back, hawks restaurant or retail space in chunks as small as 1,750 sq. ft. The glass-front building includes a 3,000-sq.-ft. second-story office space. Harold’s closed its doors for good in August.

Photo: Braun Enterprises

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Churches
09/26/11 11:05am

Central Presbyterian Demo: The Cross at Rest

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Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Historic Preservation, Modern Design, Proposed Developments, Religious Institutions
4 Comments

And now another Swamplot reader sends in this curious photo from this morning, showing the collapsed box formerly known as the Central Presbyterian Church on Richmond Ave. between Cummins and Timmons — and demonstrating to those of you who might have worried that the collapse of the 1962 building’s modern steeple could pose some threat to Richmond Ave. traffic that there was never anything to worry about. Everyone is safe. The congregation has decamped for the St. Philip Presbyterian Church just outside the Loop on San Felipe; the land is being cleared for apartments; the giant cross is at rest.

Photo: Eric Nordstrom

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Apartments
09/23/11 6:19pm

The End Comes for Central Presbyterian

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Churches, Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Modern Design, Proposed Developments
8 Comments

Reader Brian Thorp sends in a couple of photos documenting the final hours of what he’s now labeled the “holiest” church in Houston — it was, at least for a time today. The Central Presbyterian Church at 3788 Richmond Ave. was designed in 1962 by Astrodome architects Wilson, Crain, Morris and Anderson; it sits on the site where the Morgan Group is ready to build a new apartment complex. By 9 am this morning (above), the church had developed a few punctures in its side. By noon, much of the dust, and a good portion of the church’s walls, had cleared:

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Homes for Sale
09/15/11 1:55pm

A William Floyd from the Pine Hollow Modern Showcase

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Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design, Pine Hollow
8 Comments

This home nestled on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou north of Woodway and just outside the West Loop has made brief appearances in the MLS for the last 2 fall seasons. This time, though, the price is almost $200K lower. It’s a 4-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath open-plan home designed by William Floyd in 1954, sporting a few obvious updates and alterations. The 3,519-sq.-ft. home is now on the market for $1,299,000; it’s just a few doors down from the home fellow architect Preston Bolton built for himself on Pine Hollow Ln. 16 years later.

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Galleria
09/13/11 12:12pm

As It Is and Was: Preston Bolton Single-Story Townhome Near the Galleria

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design, Townhomes
16 Comments

Also in the brand-new listing for a single-story “patio home” designed for the original owner by Preston Bolton off Yorktown: photos of the 2-bedroom, 2-bath pad from closer to its 1971 debut. If the now-empty home and its original blue kitchen don’t convey quite the air of Watergate-era sophistication you were looking for, try picturing yourself relaxing, internet-free, in the included black-and-white views. The 2,630-sq.-ft. home’s roof, AC, electrical panel, and water heater have all been replaced recently, but almost everything else is still as it was:

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Bunker Hill Village
09/08/11 2:43pm

Lost Mod in Bunker Hill Village, $800K

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Modern Design
8 Comments

Note: Update below.

The hip roof on this 1958 modern home in Knippwood is only 7 years old, but whether it had a different shape originally isn’t clear from the outside photos — they stand back from the building on its 17,120-sq.-ft. lot. There’s no seller disclosure available, and the place is being sold “as is.” What will you find inside?

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Apartments
09/06/11 9:39am

Mod Richmond Ave. Church Ready To Fall for New Apartments

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Churches, Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Modern Design, New Construction, Proposed Developments
21 Comments

Construction fencing has already gone up around the Central Presbyterian Church at 3788 Richmond near Greenway Plaza, a reader reports. The Modern church campus was designed in 1962 by Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson — just a few years before the same local architecture firm set to work on a small project called the Astrodome. Two years ago the congregation moved a couple miles northwest to merge with the St. Philip Presbyterian Church, just outside the Loop on San Felipe. Houston Mod fans have been trying to save the vacant church from demolition ever since.

But the church buildings won’t be sticking around for long.

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Braeburn Valley
08/26/11 6:49pm

Fixing to Sell: Braeburn Valley Mod

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For Sale by Owner, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design
16 Comments

This Lucian Hood-designed Midcentury Mod across the street from the Braeburn Country Club in Braeburn Valley hasn’t exactly been listed for sale anywhere yet — well okay, the owner has shown it off on HAIF. But Jason Jones says he’d be willing to part with it for, oh, $298,000. After he finishes patching and painting and getting it all ready for sale, that is. Over the last 5 years, Jones says, he’s done a bit of foundation work and put in a new 3-phase AC system and a new roof, but the home is still sporting the same 3 bedrooms and 2 baths it started out with in 1956.

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