Aug 15 Mod of the Month- Open House 2-4 PM - now demolished

[SpaceAge]

Mod of the Month

Sunday, August 15th, 2010 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Houston Mod invites you to join us this Sunday, August 15th (2:00-4:00 PM), for Mod of the Month. A wonderful house designed by architects MacKie and Kamrath currently for sale will be open for touring. The house is located in the Sugar Creek subdivision just off the Southwest Freeway near the South Dairy Ashford/Sugar Creek exit. This is a free event.

818 Sugar Creek Boulevard, Sugar Land, Texas 77478

Sugar Creek, Section 4

MacKie and Kamrath designed this house for Henry Alvin Lott, owner of a large general contracting firm that built the Astrodome and many other commercial and government buildings in Houston.

In this 1975 custom design, MacKie and Kamrath adapted a Wrightian vocabulary for a large 4 bedroom house on a golf course. Unique details include masonry with raked mortar joints, strong horizontal lines, built-in planters and custom cabinetry. The house is sited on a large hillside lot facing the water allowing unobstructed views of the golf course. Original blueprints will be available for viewing.

Kamrath's biographer wrote: "The work of MacKie and Kamrath Architects is a testament to one individual's singular belief in the philosophy and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright. Though never a member of the Taliesin Fellowship, Karl Fred Kamrath faithfully explored the precepts of Organic Architecture as few disciples did. Kamrath, along with partner Fred James MacKie, introduced Wright's style of modernism to Houston during a period of intense urban growth in the 1940s and 50s. The breadth and quality of this work earned the firm numerous awards and extensive local and national recognition. Kamrath employed the vocabulary of 'Organic Architecture' with great skill and expanded its use to large and diverse buildings such as the M. D. Anderson Cancer and Research Hospital, Temple Emanu El, and First Pasadena State Bank."

HAR Link

Support future Mod events by becoming a member of Houston Mod.

Houston Mod publications will be available during the open house including:

High Style in the Suburbs, The Early Modern Houses of Architect William Jenkins, 1951-1958.

Houston Mod is planning several members-only events. If you need to check your membership status, please e-mail info@houstonmod.org

See you there,

Houston Mod

Houston Mod was recently recognized with a third "Good Brick Award" from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance for the Mod-of-the-Month open house program.

[sevfiv]

Unfortunate:

Courtesy of a Swamplot reader who spied the wreckage, we now have photo confirmation that the recently renovated former home of Astrodome builder H.A. Lott, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright devotee Karl Kamrath in 1975, is currently being smashed to pieces. That’s the steel frame of the north end of the house being mangled above. And we have a video, too! Not of the demolition — but of the sleek-looking home itself last year, when it was on the market for just over a million bucks.

http://swamplot.com/battle-over-swank-sugar-land-supermod-won-by-komatsu-excavator/2011-07-27/

[RooCab]

I just drove by....it makes me sick!!

[sevfiv]

Another update from Swamplot and a comment from the seller:

http://swamplot.com/ball-of-mangled-steel-slowly-taking-place-of-noted-sugar-land-mod/2011-08-02/

[RedScare]

Reading this thread and finding that I couldn't care less that this home was demolished, it occurred to me the real damage done by the Mayor's ramrodding of the Houston historic ordinance against the will of the overwhelming majority of homeowners who must live with the rules imposed by the ordinance. Hundreds, even thousands, of homeowners who previously cared deeply about preserving old homes simply for the love of the architecture, or the comfort that these homes provide, no longer care. In the past, I might lament the destruction of this home, as it cannot be replaced. Now, having been ordered by the government how to preserve or remodel my old home, the fun has been taken out of it. Instead of researching how to best achieve my remodel without destroying the look of the house for the joy of it, I must do so in order that the government will not cite me for violating the law. It is not the same.

Whenever I see an an old structure destroyed to the screams of so-called preservationists, I think of the thousands of supporters they lost in pushing that ordinance. Sadly, I almost enjoy it as a form of kharma, or schadenfreude. If ever the law of unintended consequences applied, it does so here. Instead of preserving history, the preservationists made many former supporters enemies, and forced many others to rush to demolish old structures before the Mayor decides to expand the "historic" ordinance to include their property. This can only hasten the demise of old structures that preservationists sought to save.

[rbarz]

Another update from Swamplot and a comment from the seller:

http://swamplot.com/...mod/2011-08-02/

I made an offer on this house that included the option to restrict the deed so that it could not be demolished or substantially remodeled. The sellers did not care because the Realtor told me they have a standing offer at $750,000 from someone who wants to tear it down... looks like they just waited for the offer to go up $50,000.

[sdmarc]

I made an offer on this house that included the option to restrict the deed so that it could not be demolished or substantially remodeled. The sellers did not care because the Realtor told me they have a standing offer at $750,000 from someone who wants to tear it down... looks like they just waited for the offer to go up $50,000.

It was clear from the bad remodel that the owners did not understand what they owned. Shame on them for walking this one down the path to destruction.