BenH

The house at 54 Briar Hollow Ln. is completely gone. Demolition looks to be recent, and luxury condos seem to be pending. 65 Briar Hollow is still there, as is an unidentified mod across the court.

Many of the photos in the Guide do not look like they were taken with permission. I say this because a lot of the houses are photographed from non-favorable locations and angles, usually from the street or sidewalk. Frequently the text describes exterior details which are completely obscured. I imagine it would be a difficult task to get permission for all the single-family houses in the book, let alone all the other structures. I could be wrong, but did they even try?

Marty

Marty is very right on this one. Case in point is the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Memorial. It doesn't look a thing like the guide photo, and by that time the house had probably been restored.

Another, really annoying thing that will hold up documentation is the infamous "Private Street" sign. These are popping up more and more throughout the city, (although I can't see how it's possible without a guardhouse and gate). If we're going to do this kind of a project, we need to work with homeowner's and neighborhood associatations and basically be patient. There are tons of mods in gated neighborhoods (see the one on memorial across the bayou from the Mayo Hill school of modeling, also not in the guide), and we need to get into those places, if possible.

Anyone you know, any connections you have, start asking questions, especially older folks who've lived in Houston a good long while. They may have alot of information, or they may know someone who does.

I grew up in around that area and my mom built a house in Riverbend when I was in high school. It is surrounded by some great looking mods. She's since moved closer into town since she works at DePelchin and attends church downtown.

Two friends of mine rent the big mod at the end of River Glyn (the one on the left, as you drive into the circle) and I've stayed in the house during a college retreat. Very cool, elegant place with dark brown wood everywhere, shelves built into the walls and in the garage, etc. Everything upscale mod. That's another house, along with the one across the street, that doesn't appear in the guide.

Yes, I didn't want to write it out...

Actually, Ben Koush wrote a pretty extensive guide for his thesis. I don't know how many copies of it are out there and I don't have one, but I saw it at his house and it was thick like the Stephen Fox Houston Architectural Guide.

What I would love to see compiled would have as many as feasable chapters/bios on the most important architects with lots of pictures of their houses, inside and out, along with short blurbs on as many houses as possible. I'd see it as a compilation with many writers taking on their favorite architect. I could do the Jenkins article for example and ask Michael B to do the one for Floyd and Memorial Bend, Ben K to contribute chapters on Donald Barthelme and Harwood Taylor, which of course might repeat a lot from his catalogues, Stephen Fox on Barnstone which is in the book, Ephemeral City, RPS on Glenbrook Valley, Spaceage on Houston's Landscape Architects, etc... Basically, everyone could contribute a little bit of their favorite passion. I would really love to be able to reprint old articles on some houses from the chronicle and Better Homes and Gardens and things like that, but I have no idea on how realistic that would be...

I'd love to see a coffee table book along with an online version of the book. Houston Mod is working on documenting houses online right now.

This is a quite feasable project for 2008, so if you are interested just brainstorm on it for now and think about what you might like to contribute.

That sounds like something that needs to be happening. My project is for a photography class but I'm normally a writer. Ideally, it would begin with Wright's Thaxton House, the houses in Riverbend and Memorial Bend, and McKie and Kamrath's work. I live in the same house as one of my chief sources. My father worked for Kamrath, Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, Barnstone while he was rennovating some the Staub houses in River Oaks, moonlighted for Clovis Heimsath (sp?) in college, amongst others. He also delineated a bit for Skidmore and his mentor was Ralph Anderson, Jr. Basically, he was right in the middle of everything this board finds cool about Houston, so I've got good places to start.

I wasn't being critical with that comment about the guide. Every organization has politics. But there is likely another factor we're over- looking about inclusion: the current owners won't allow it. This house in Tanglewood couldn't have been simply overlooked, it's too weird for that. A friend of mine (he was a home builder for 25 years) apparently knows the owner and says they were "characters", or at least the man of the house was. How many more people like that are there? I would venture quite a few wealthy people don't want architecture buffs walking by, parking in front of, or taking pictures of their homes. A man I met over at Kamrath's Memorial Drive Church who was from Chicago who said that the folks in Oak Park have a terrible time with people knocking on their doors or trespassing because they don't know that many of the Wright houses there are privately owned.

There may be (as we have found since this post began) a major lack of documentation. Does anyone know what architects were actively building homes in Tanglewood from 1950 to 1965? Apparently Cook acquired the house in the eighties and the current owner acquired it in 2003.

What guide are you refering to? If you write a book, count me in with my Lucian Hood Mod!

That would be the Houston Architectural Guide.

I have seen it driving through the neighborhood and wondered why it wasn't in "the guide".

It just goes to show that someone could write a pretty extensive book about the interesting mods in Houston...

Interesting that you bring that up. There are tons of houses out there that aren't in the guide at all. I've heard that the AIA (not just the Houston Chapter but every chapter) is quite the political animal. If you aren't someone, you don't usually get much attention. Again, just what I've heard.

I'm working on a project through next semester that will hopefully document some of the lesser-known mods throughout town, with a little more information about the architects who designed them. Maybe, if I'm lucky and can find someone to publish, it'll turn into a book.

SpaceAge sent these to me. More shots of the mystery house.

Notice that the house spans the entire block.

Alright, any guesses? The other side has the driveway. I could see past the gate and there seems to be some remodeling or restoration going on. The whole neighborhood is that way too, so I didn't look too conspicuous snapping pictures from a filthy black truck.

The owner is listed as a William L. Cook or Cook, Linton. Can't really find any other information aside from that.

Notice that the house spans the entire block.

Alright, any guesses? The other side has the driveway. I could see past the gate and there seems to be some remodeling or restoration going on. The whole neighborhood is that way too, so I didn't look too conspicuous snapping pictures from a filthy black truck.

Pictures! We need pictures!!!

I know, I'll see what I can cook up later this afternoon. It's such a strange house that I would think someone would have pictures up on some forum by now.

Hello everyone, I'm new here, so if this is a well-known house and I just missed it. Has anyone seen the house on Brown Saddle Rd. in Tanglewood that looks like a submarine coming out of the ground? It's a long, thin mod from the 60's or 70's and was probably done by one of the better known architects in town. The owners have or have had in the past a classic Ford Thunderbird. That's all the info I've got.