Tag: Landscaping

Featured Posts
03/03/16 10:15am

Swimming Through an Italian Baron’s Expanded River Oaks Holdings

by
Homes for Sale, Interiors, River Oaks
9 Comments

2115 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, 77019

A natatorium nestles in the center of this $17.9 million home, once owned by Italian-born Cullen oil-heir Baron di Portanova. The 1968 house was expanded to more than double its size in the 1970s to enclose the backyard after the baron was unable to buy a famous Manhattan club for his wife as a birthday present.  The 21,500 sq. ft. mansion has also reportedly hosted an extensive cast of characters, including a helicopter drop-in by James Bond (as played by Sir Roger Moore). The home contains 8 bedrooms, 9 full baths, and 3 half baths, and was listed on HAR in 2014 for 4 days; it was relisted in May of 2015 with a $1 million price drop.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Pool Party Pad
, , , , , , ,
Featured Posts
03/01/16 1:45pm

Views of America from Behind a Shadyside Wall, Yours for $18 Million

by
Homes for Sale, Interiors, Shadyside
4 Comments

2 Longfellow Ln, Houston, 77005

A piece of Americana comes standard with this 1921 collaboration between architects Harrie T. Lindeberg and John F. Staub, who would later go on to design Bayou Bend. This Georgian-style home north of Rice University contains a copy of the wallpaper mural Views of North America by Jean Zuber (which can also be found in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House).  The $18-million pricetag nets you 5 bedrooms, 5 full baths, and 3 half baths.  The 12,808 sq. ft. home is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and comes surrounded by a pool, a carriage house with an additional apartment, and plenty of leafy greens to cover the view from across-the-street Hermann Park.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Take a Peek
, , , , , , , , , ,
Featured Posts
02/16/16 9:15am

Tropical Getaway off Gessner Rd. Offers Fun and Games

by
Homes for Sale, Interiors, Spring Shadows
12 Comments

2930 Kenross St., Houston, 77043

Double or triple your fun with 3 bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, and 3 bars in this Spring Shadows home.  Multiple covered patios and balconies surround the backyard pool, which is itself surrounded by an impressive collection of flora and faux-fauna. This 3,067 sq. ft. of vibrant colors and unique finishes was initially listed for $495,375 in December 2015. The price was dropped in January and again in February to the current asking of $399,999.

Bonus points: Can you spot all of the dinosaurs roaming the property?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Welcome to the Jungle
, , , , , , ,
Featured Posts
02/01/16 12:15pm

Where the Koi are Hanging Out During the Japanese Garden Redo in Hermann Park

by
Hermann Park, Parks
5 Comments

Japanese Garden, Hermann Park, Houston, TX 77005 Japanese Garden, Hermann Park, Houston, TX 77005 Delicate pink surveyor’s flags echo the magenta of the early cherry blossoms in Hermann Park’s Japanese Garden, where maintenance, new features, and a new gate are under construction. Sections of the 5.5-acre space are currently sectioned off by orange construction fencing, and many of the larger water features (including the one pictured in the top photo) are temporarily in rock garden mode.

The Hermann Park Conservancy’s website estimates wrapping up the first phase of the renovation project this summer. Currently, the koi that inhabit some of the garden’s ponds are set up in temporary housing along the eastern edge of the park:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Fish in a Barrel
, , , , ,
Featured Posts
01/13/16 10:00am

West 8’s Botanical Mile To Fly High Over Sims Bayou, Funnel Visitors into Garden Parking Lots

by
Glenbrook Valley, Proposed Developments
15 Comments

Renderings of Houston Botanic Garden at Glenbrook Park Golf Course, Glenbrook Park, Houston, 77017

Now available: Dutch landscaping and design firm West 8’s master plan for the Houston Botanic Garden, complete with preliminary renderings of the future-former Glenbrook Park Golf Course (south of Park Place Blvd between I-45 and Galveston Rd.). The drawings include details of the so-called Botanical Mile walk-and-drive-way (shown above posing in Downward Dog over Sims Bayou): an arboreal bridge along the single-file parade of exotic trees is intended by the designers to serve as a new symbol for the city of Houston, better known currently for its general aversion to being outdoors.

According to the master plan document, the Botanical Mile will stretch along the western side of the garden and serve as the main entrance: visitors will enter the park from Park Place Blvd. and drive the length of the property to the parking lots, in the process crossing onto and back off of the large island created by a meandering limb of Sims Bayou:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Rooting Over Glenbrook Valley
, , , , ,
Quicklink
12/04/15 4:45pm

Dutch Museum Embraced By Its Swampy Surroundings

by
1 Comment

DUTCH MUSEUM EMBRACED BY ITS SWAMPY SURROUNDINGS Meanwhile, in Werkendam: The Biesbosch Museum in the Netherlands now appears to have merged with the extensive wetlands of the surrounding national park, following renovations this summer that blanketed the building’s sloping exterior with grass and herbs. The new vegetation flows directly into the landscape of the Museum’s created island (developed as part of the extensive “Room for the River” initiative, meant to address severe flooding in areas of the low-lying nation).  The Museum’s new exterior creates the illusion that sections of the landscape have been peeled up to form the building’s wedge-shaped exhibition spaces. [Dezeen]

, , ,
Houston Architects
10/10/13 10:35am

The Menil Shows Drawings of New Cafe, Entrance Sequence

by
Menil Collection, Montrose, Museums, Parking, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
10 Comments

Architecture firm Stern and Bucek has come up with this rendering of the Menil Collection’s new cafe, part of the free museum’s long-planned expansion of its Montrose campus. The design for the cafe — which is yet to be named but will be run by Greg Martin (of Cafés Annie and Express and Taco Milagro) — appears to adapt and elaborate upon the gray bungalow at 1512 Sul Ross St., on the other side of that path from the Menil Bookstore; this is the same site, says a press release from the Menil Collection, that architect Renzo Piano originally had in mind for a similar amenity. So there’s that. Whatever it’ll be called, the cafe, it appears, will split the difference between the museum’s main entrance and the parking lot off W. Alabama.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , ,
Landscape
09/30/13 4:30pm

Whose Is the Ugliest Yard of All?

by
Lawn Care, Quicklink
1 Comment

WHOSE IS THE UGLIEST YARD OF ALL? The DIY Network is looking for some telegenic eyesores to feature in its groundskeeping soap opera, Desperate Landscapes. Know any? Unfortunately, the call for entries for yards that star contractor Jason Cameron spends 2 frantic days trying to make a bit more presentable doesn’t appear to be a chance for you to get revenge and tattle on your neighbors: To be on the show you’ve got to denigrate — er, nominate your own yard. [Jay TV] Photo of yard on 2000 block of Rainbow Dr.: Allyn West

, , ,
New Construction
08/14/13 5:00pm

The Natural Spaces Being Built into the ExxonMobil Campus

by
Proposed Developments, Spring, Springwoods Village
34 Comments

Here are some new renderings of the spaces between the buildings on the ExxonMobil campus under construction in Springwoods Village. The Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker reports that the 20 or so office buildings that will constitute the 385-acre campus will be organized around “a central three-acre commons” much like the one, designed by Houston firm PDR, shown here. The commons, explains Zucker, is “modeled after great public squares found in Europe and the U.S.”

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , ,
Montrose
07/19/13 2:00pm

Keeping One Montrose Tree in Reserve

by
Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Trees, Westmoreland Historic District
9 Comments

KEEPING ONE MONTROSE TREE IN RESERVE The developer of those spur-side homes planned for this Westmoreland lot between Marshall and W. Alabama St. says that the old live oak shown in the photo isn’t going anywhere. In fact, Arpan Gupta tells Swamplot that a 1,410-sq.-ft. reserve area — as one commenter notes on the site plan — is being established around the tree’s “drip line” to set aside a park that not just the homeowners will be allowed to use. Additionally, explains Gupta, architecture firm Knudson and tree service Arbor Care have both been employed to take protective measures — mulching, fertilizing, fencing, etc. — during the “stress of construction.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West

, , , , ,
Landscape
06/14/13 10:00am

The Menil Selects Landscape Architect, Closes In on Campus Expansion

by
Menil Collection, Montrose, Museums
6 Comments

The Menil Collection has picked a landscape architecture firm, and the museum says that the long-awaited master-planned reshaping of its 30-acre Montrose spread will get going this September. The firm belongs to Michael Van Valkenburgh, who’s done some tinkering previously at Harvard Yard and Pennsylvania Avenue. Apparently, the first item of business he’ll tackle here is the parking lot off W. Alabama: “[It] really needs attention,” Menil director Josef Helfenstein tells the Houston Chronicle. “It’s the first thing you see.”

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , ,
Hermann Park
05/14/13 11:30am

Sketching the Growth of the Hermann Park Garden Center

by
Museum District, Parks, Proposed Developments
16 Comments

This is what Hermann Park says it would like to look like when it turns 100 next year: This drawing of Centennial Gardens from Chicago landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt shows the blossoming of the current 15-acre Garden Center that’s between the museums and golf course along Hermann Dr. Looking forward to its centennial in 2014, the park conservancy has also recruited Peter Bohlin, the architect behind the Highland Village Apple Store, to design a new entrance:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , ,
Comments
04/22/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day: Can’t Facepalm

by
Landscape, Quicklink, Streetscapes, Trees
22 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: CAN’T FACEPALM “No palm trees please!! Why do people still think it’s a good idea to plant them in a non-tropical, urban location? They provide little to no shade, take forever to grow, and aren’t particularly pretty.” [John, commenting on A New South Downtown ‘Garden District’ of Really Wide Sidewalks]

, , ,
Bellaire
03/27/13 3:00pm

San Jacinto Stone To Reopen at Wholesale Gardens in Bellaire

by
Buying and Selling, Openings and Closings
4 Comments

The new home of a new San Jacinto Stone is being set up here, behind the begonias and bamboo shoots at Wholesale Gardens in Bellaire. The stoneyard, dating to 1947, closed at 195 Yale St. at the end of last month when longtime owners Sarah and Don Hunt sold the 8-acre property near the Washington Heights Walmart to a commercial developer. Greg Thompson, owner of the landscape architecture firm Thompson + Hanson that runs Wholesale Gardens, says that the Hunts agreed to sell the San Jacinto Stone name — and the remaining inventory, too, after that February fire sale.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , ,
« Previous Page Next Page »