Willowisp

My instant thought was The Munsters! 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

http://www.classictvhits.com/munsters/house.html

The replacement looks like it is being built for the Adams family branch from New Orleans. I wonder if a hand will grab the mail in the mail box?

1313 Mockingbird Lane.

"one-way-in and one-way-out street that dead ends into a beautiful large culdesac over the Bayou."

That one way in and out street ends in a cul de sac full of town homes. Sounds like it would be crowded every day getting out of your little street.

Sorry, I don't always take good notes when I go "chronicle diving". I have no idea what the date on that article was. Must have been early 50s, as if that narrows it down. I made the copy for the rendering of the Gonzalez House! Of course Ben reads all around the rest of the page and sees more cool stuff.

The same year #48 Tiel Way was built. The rendering for that house was featured on the same page as this article.

Here's a quick update on the April 25 tour.

We will be visiting the interiors of the following houses:

Weintraub

Jenkins 2

Barnes

Godine

AND the exteriors of these:

Ginzbarg ("peek in")

Brier ("peek in")

Guarino

Huvard

Parade of Homes House

Jenkins 3

Parc IV & V Apartments (if time permits)

Knight (if time permits)

The tour will be a very packed 3 hours of fun on a bus and at the houses with fellow modern enthusiasts.

RSVP to info@houstonmod.org with your choice of 10am or 2pm - about half the slots are spoken for already. Don't wait to RSVP! RSVP now and pay by check through the mail.

The book will be $15 at the tour, and then $20 after that.

Thanks,

Jason

Are there things you can reuse? It might help you to economize if you can reuse some of your wood. Then again, I haven't seen it.

When we do our kitchen, I'm going to try to reuse as much of the old kitchen cabinets as possible. They're in good shape, but are just boring. Part of the doors have a faux wood grain look to them. I'm hoping to get rid of that entirely. If I were to completely restore my kitchen to the original specs, it would give me about half the cabinet space that I have now. The original owner wanted more and more cabinet space so she tore out all the old stuff. I would have to be better organized, but we would manage. There's too much junk in the junk drawers and a cabinet full of plastic bags that should go to be recycled.

There's a lot of talk about kitchens on lottaliving.com. Some people like ikea there. Ikea is certainly more modern than home depot.

Jason

Do I curse you or thank you? This is my new drug and you are my dealer. Between this and

https://www.historicaerials.com

my free time is gone.

Ha, ha - anyway - great find! This should obviously be linked by Houston Mod.

We need to figure out if one can share his "lightbox" with others. It would make things easier to name the lightboxes and share them.

I even feel like I would love to buy some of these and feature them framed in my home.

We got in. The realtor says the family would love to see the house saved, but that just doesn't happen these days in that neighborhood. You should see the monster going up across the street.

Here's the living room. I believe the room outside was taken in as a sun room.

Here's the dining room.

Cool Pella accordian door

Classic window

Bathroom, all original

Front Door. My next door neighbor has a front door similar to this.

In conclusion, I felt like there was an excellent chance this was a Bill Jenkins design, but no one knows for sure. The owners were not the original owners, having moved there in the early 70s. Tracking down original owners sons/daughters could be done, at least maybe if they have unusual last names...

There was even what looked like it could have been a possible pond that had been filled in with quikcrete. It felt like a sister house to my own house in some ways. I hope if (when) it does get torn down, they will let me salvage some of the original fixtures.

That's one of the most depressing things I've heard in awhile!

Maybe the realtor will be receptive to my passion/obsession and let us in.

Thanks for the info. This will likely be less productive than I hoped. But at least there are lots of windows.

Jason

There is no key at the property to enter the house and the showing instructions ask that no one try to enter the house since it is a "lot only" sale. Else, I would meet you over there to take a look.

In my Jenkins research I found this little street. Turns out 11718 Longleaf was by Jenkins but was either torn down or altered and "remodeled" in 1982 according to HCAD. When I went over there I found this house as well thinking it could be Jenkins or Floyd. I mailed the owners of both houses last year but got no reply.

Today on a whim I typed longleaf into HCAD and sure enough this house came up. Not a lot of pictures, definite teardown possibility, especially considering the listing. I may drop everything tomorrow to get a look at it if I can get a realtor friend to meet me over there.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

Just thinking about this house today. It's down to $850K now. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Thanks for this! I've never seen that article. Reminds me I should scan some things in... Someday.

Jason

Riverside Mods (Magazine article): http://www.foursquaredesignstudio.com/arti...sideterrace.pdf

Attn Moderators: Maybe some of these riverside mod links can be combined.

I got this in my email box this morning and thought I'd share. Mod Squad and former Mod Squad members are having their houses shown on the tour this year. It should be excellent.

As many of you may already be aware, this year RDA's annual architecture tour will feature 9 houses under 2000 square feet. The tour will be held on March 28-29 from 1-6 each day. Visit rda.rice.edu for more information about the tour.

In collaboration with the tour, we will be holding a Civic Forum next Thursday, March 19th, to discuss some of the challenges and rewards of building small. Representatives from the mortgage banking, development, and government sectors will discuss some of the issues that necessitate the trend towards smaller, more efficient houses. Architects and homeowners participating on the tour will be in the audience to ask questions and stimulate discussion related to their own projects.

This event (as with all our Civic Forum events) is free and open to the public. It will be held at the Brown Auditorium, MFA,H at 7 pm.

We hope to see you on the 19th, and again on the tour!

Ha ha, if it's in Robindell, just call it a William Floyd and no one will argue with you. That's my over-simplistic view of it. There are a dozen houses in Robindell that I want to know the architect of. I know 2 are possibly Jenkins, including the one next door to this one that's for sale and one on Reamer, but I don't know anything else about those houses... There are a couple on Braeswood at the entry to the subdivision that really catch the eye.

It won't be easy to find out the details unless there are some oldies with good memories over there. Oldies, is that politically incorrect?

Jason

A little provenance would be helpful (if any exists). Is there a suggestion of a particular architects body of work? Is there a home owners association with records that could shed light on this home?

The neighbor a few doors down from me has this.

It was brand new and got torn down by Ike. They replaced it with the same stuff. I think it is hideous, but to each his/her own. Even before Ike, some of the panels got knocked down. I guess the installation wasn't done properly.

I also wonder if it will show dirt really easily as well.

Jason

Since when does polyvinyl cloride

The help will be much appreciated. Do you work there over the summer too? If so we can definitely collaborate.

Another thing that would be great would be an archive of all the Houston houses that appeared in all those magazines. I've got a bunch of xerox copies that I've found over the last couple of summers. Most of mine were found through that big green Avery index, but I know that's not all that's out there.

The reason all my research isn't on our website yet is just time and sometimes a lack of vintage photos. We need to pay our respects to more of the "lost moderns", but time has been a factor. We also worry a little about copyright, but I don't think it will be that big a deal. If someone wants us to take an old photo down we will.

Thanks for the offer!

Jason

I would be willing to help in this effort. I teach at UH, so I also have access to all of their architectural magazines. In fact, I have spent many, many hours poring over issues looking for specific locales in Architectural Digest, et al.

Whoa! I was just at the house yesterday to talk to the owner again about our tour (April 25, RSVP to me!). For this house we will do an exterior tour and walk around the back of the house. It has seen some changes, but it is still great.

Jason

OK, dudes. I just looked up historicalaerials.com. I'd never heard of it until recently. I am officially addicted. There's a place on Stella Link called The Positive Image where I bought a print of a photo of Willowbend in 1959 that is a great resource for this kind of thing, but involves a lot of digging and help from the owners there, where this you can just browse. Thanks for the link!

Jason

About the Triton 101: historicaerials.com shows it clearly under construction in 1964, what appears to be the "finned" roofline in 1973, and it's not clear but it looks like a remodeling (would that be de-"fin"-istration?) has happened by 1981.

Now that was a strange building. Just goes to show there's always something weirder out there. ;-)

I've seen that same kind of "lizard-scale" shingle/siding on a fairly conventional two story house in the Mandell/Alabama area. I'll look again next time I am over that way.

The new Cite magazine has an article on the Jack Tar Motor Inn in Galveston that had an addition by Price.

I tried to get a few shots of that, but there was a function going on the day I took all these, and security was out in the street. Price also did the Sealy & Smith Professional Building (demolished) and a few others that I can't remember at the moment.

Houston Mod is looking for volunteers who have the time to search out plans and architects there in Meyerland. It will be my main project this summer. I've got a growing list of addresses that will be researched.

My other project is to scan in vintage magazine photos to share.

Jason

I found these two and thought they were interesting. Meyerland seems to be full of great moderns!

Mod on Lymbar

Mod on Birdwood

Any clue on the architect? It's not on memorialbendarchitecture.com

This house looks well taken care of, but it does straddle the line. A lot of modern types may not find it modern enough and the traditionals may find it too modern. I see potential in it, but I would be hard-pressed to undo all that's been done.

Jason

Thank you, Ben!!! This document really pulls it all together! WOW! I didn't expect to find this today.

I just came across the ad for this apartment complex when I was researching at Rice in the microforms. If you're driving down Richmond, it's worth a trip down Cummins just to see the place. If you have a good imagination and squint, you can envision what once was. Jenkins (or at least his firm) designed the apartments down the street, and there are lots of other small mod buildings around that area to see.

I didn't read closely enough to note if you mentioned it, but Cite Magazine had a good article way back on Houston Organic Architects, and there's something in the Cite Book, but this is even more thorough. I made a copy and can find it in my files.

Jason

The Triton 101 Apartments

Thanks for making this an important topic!

This house was on the AIA tour, but I don't know if that's what you're talking about. I'd recommend them as well.

http://www.mc2architects.com/residential/johnson.htm

And don't forget...

Stern & Bucek

http://www.sternbucek.com/

Carlos Jimenez

http://carlosjimenezstudio.com/

Who did the house that was on the most recent AIA home tour, located in the heights on ? 1/2 Street, on a huge lot?

Anyone know?

Ben - great rundown and list!

My first reaction is to say I wouldn't want to see new construction in these areas if possible. There are plenty of amazing houses already standing in Meyerland.

But if you find a lot already scraped then I guess you can't go backwards anyway.

M+A will build my house if I ever have the desire to leave my current home (not likely). I also really liked the Strasser/Ragni on the last AIA tour. That house was beautiful. MC2 (is that right?) are also fantastic at modern.

Are you going to be in town at the end of March? If you go on the RDA tour this year you will probably find several architects you like.

Could we have a "sticky" with Ben's info at the top of the forum? We do see this type of question quite a bit.

Jason

Well, sorry if this has been asked many times over. I'm moving back to Houston from Boston. We're looking for an architect who specializes in modern design to help us create our home. Any advice? Or suggestions?

Some useful information:

- West U, Bellaire, Meyerland

- We seek a 9000+ sf lot

- 5 Bedrooms in 4000sf or less

- Seeking firm to manage the construction process, too

- We've been through this process before, see Boston Globe, One Sweet Condo, http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/kitchen_redo1104/; not bad for 975sf

Thanks,

Kim

I would love to buy this house and land. I would love to own 3 acres (to retire on), even in that part of Pearland. I just love the idea of owning a big property like that. But we are weary of our commute as it is and we're in Willowbend! 10 minute drive to drop my wife off at the Galleria and 20 more down to Sugar Land against traffic where I work and that's about my limit for driving. We're doing it all with one car right now. Talk about living in the 50s...

I've got my fingers crossed for this house. I bet if one did some digging they would find a good story behind this house, possibly with the name Floyd attached. Or maybe it's one of those magazine houses, like a Better Homes plan book house.

Jason

I'm really not associated with it. Just, while the McLean Road bridge was under construction for four months last spring and summer, I drove by it every day on my way home from work. I rarely see houses like that in Pearland, and I noticed it was for sale. It looks architect-designed to me, though I don't think the banana-yellow paint scheme is particularly flattering. My interest is just that I'd hate to see it torn down and the area redeveloped. If I was in the market for a house, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I've lived in Pearland since 1990 and my house isn't too far from here so I'm pretty familiar with the area. Mykawa and Brookside can be sketchy but I think there are plenty of nice wooded lots in Brookside that have nice houses too. There are a lot of trailers in Pearland, including a few on Mykawa just south of here. When we bought our house, I raised the trailer question and the sales agent told me that there are trailers within two miles of almost every house in Pearland.

Hi all,

I will post more info about the William R. Jenkins home tour here in the near future, but I just wanted to start the thread now to tell you all to make sure you save the date. If you've been missing my presence on the boards lately, this is why. I've been pretty consumed with this tour and book.

Here are the basics:

On April 25th, during the Lawndale Modern Market, Houston Mod will be renting a bus and driving to many of William R. Jenkins early houses. Some of these houses will be open for the first time. Some will be open for the first time in years. Some will be exterior tours and some will be interior. The tour will last about 3 hours. Refreshments will be served at the final home on the tour (10920 Willowisp).

A full color publication discussing Jenkins and the houses (with new photographs by Benjamin Hill) will be available for $15.

Tour:

Member price = $20

Non-Member price = $30

Join Houston Mod at the individual rate, get the book and take the tour = $60

Payments will be accepted through paypal or by cash or credit at our functions leading up to the date. Space will be limited so make sure you reserve your spots by emailing info@houstonmod.org.

I'm hoping for full participation from each and every one of you!

Jason