Willowisp

Here's 843 W. Friar Tuck now. Enjoy - the house of your sarcastic dreams.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=8677021

Sorry, I'm a little upset today with this revisiting of the Cohen House and the Formica House. Formica was nearly saved, but I don't know if it can be. I don't know if ANYONE can make the numbers work on this house with a bank right now and no one's coming in with a cash purchase. That's 2 buyers they've had and lost.

We also had to come up with an endangered top 10 at the Houston Mod Board meeting last night. Oh what fun that was...

Any suggestions?

By the way, that's just the first page of the article. There's more to it...

Welcome to the board, Hurley. I've got a feeling you have hours of reading past posts in your future if you want to find all of Houston Mod's architectural gems.

Jason

this was the second issue of atomic ranch i've picked up, your reference to HAIF is what broght me here. house looks awesome!

It's confusing to me too. The "persona" page is just supposed to have the introduction on it and the page below will have the rest.

http://www.chron.com/channel/realestate/co...houstonmod.html

And then like Marmer said, the archives are on the right. I'm definitely not that good at organizing it.

My suggestion is to go back to the first post and read it chronologically, which basically means backwards.

#10 Meyerland Parade of Homes by Burdette Keeland on Jackwood St.

#9 The Ginzbarg House by William R. Jenkins in Bellaire

#8 Sammy Finger House by Lars Bang on N. Parkwood Dr

#7 Bill Jenkins

Just bumping this thread again. I know I'm inconsistent with writing the blog, so if you haven't read it in awhile I've posted a couple of things. I'm almost done with the top 10 so I'll be needing some interesting new topics to discuss. Ideally I want to try to expose modernism and mod houses to people who might not otherwise appreciate it like we do on this message board.

Jason

Here's an even crazier but good idea. RDA/Cite should buy this house and have Rice Students restore it and publish the results in Cite. Now there's a full circle moment for you. RDA is very much into the small, efficient, green house and something tells me they could afford it and write off any losses that doing this kind of thing might present.

Maybe Houston Mod will someday be able to do something like that, but not yet.

At the Gwen Wright lecture (at the MFA) the MFA Bookstore manager and I were really pushing the "buy one now because when they're gone, they're gone" aspect. I guess they have the few remaining copies.

Houston Mod is keen on a reprinting, possibly with an epilogue or something lamenting the destruction of the main house described in the book so I was possibly out of line suggesting the pdf idea.

Speaking of Barthelme, in the new Cite there's a mention of a story in which Barthelme was hired at UH in 1962 and then Jenkins and the rest of the professors didn't want to work for him. Can anyone tell the whole story of that?

Jason

The MFA-Houston book store had copies of the catalog Donald Bartheleme: A modernism suitable for everyday use, 1939 - 1945 last week. I think they are $20.00 there. Their bookstore is very well stocked with a wide variety of art and architecture books. It is located in the newer brownish boxy building, not the wonderful Mod building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The bookstore is just inside the ground floor entrance on Binz/Bissonnet Street.

As far as Brazos and other bookstores we are all sold out. However, we may have a few copies left at our events. Or, those may be sold out as well (Spaceage will probably know). Only 250 were made and I think it was not until all were sold that it was a breakeven venture (of course we're non-profit).

We have discussed at Board meetings doing a second printing, but nothing is in the works as of yet.

Perhaps we should make a pdf version for research purposes. I'll ask about that.

For browsing, I know it's at Rice and probably UH, maybe at the Downtown library.

Jason

anyone on the mod board know if there are any remaining copies of a modernism suitable for everyday use?

several months of calls to brazos have yielded nothing but continued promises to order a copy.

Funniest joke ever posted on this forum!

Some crows just tore down the mod birdhouse and put this in its place:

Thanks a lot everyone! It's a real honor to be included in Atomic Ranch. It's hard to imagine something much more exciting than that for the house. Plus now Jake will probably become a world famous dog. He's already demanding longer walks.

I'm planning on scanning it into a pdf but haven't gotten around to it, and I'm sure Jim and Michelle would rather everyone subscribe as that's the way they make their living...

Seeing the article has gotten me excited and refocused on getting deeper into the Jenkins "ouvre", so expect to see quite a bit more regarding Jenkins in 2009.

As for credit, yes, I have to give credit where it's due (it's great to see this forum mentioned as well as lottaliving) and one person not mentioned in the article was BenH who did a lot of post production for Jill on the photos...

Jason

Wasn't that just for sale a couple of years ago (at a higher price)?

Maybe our realtor friends can bring up more pictures from the last time it was for sale.

Wait, you just bought/rented a house and you haven't shared it with us?

Jason

I just saw this on lottaliving, had to comment.

There is a foreclosure at 7826 Westwind Court, and I'm in love with the idea of what it could be. See it here . I had no idea that this place existed, but I see it as easily looking like a tame version of John Lautner's Harvey House which is one of my favorite houses in Los Angeles.

Thought I would share. I would be all over this if I hadn't just gotten a new place.

Hi all,

You really need to get out and see these, especially the one on River Point. If you don't recognize it, my avatar is of a close up of the gate of this house!

The "backyard" of this house is a forest. It's incredible to look out on. If you ever went to the (demolished) Caudill House or Preston Bolton's house, then you get the idea. There's a screened in porch that looks out to the forest area.

Jason

The date is not confirmed yet, but I went to see it yesterday and it is beautiful. It's small though, and not as "open plan" as you might expect. The setting is woodsy to say the least, but no "back yard" really, just a forest. Jake (my dog) would not appreciate that.

Jason

Glad to hear it, please let us know what day it will be as I would really like to see this house.

Houston Mod is in touch with the realtor to do a Mod of the Month here in August, but I'll be over there today to check it out.

Some interesting and random updates (I'm thinking primarily of the granite in the kitchen, very incongruous to the cabinets, and the ugly tile in the bathroom), but a gorgeous house nevertheless. The entrance is stunning. I love the back view and the little study with tiny fireplace.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...showtopic=14676

Here's another related thread.

Hello board -

I live in the Heights in a 1995 renovated bungalow. I want out! What I want to do is buy a lot in the Heights somewhere and build my own mod type home...one level...about 2200 sq ft. Thing is - I don't have an architect in mind nor do I have the experience in doing this. What advice is out there? Is anyone else in this position or gone through this? If so, I would appreciate all advice or comments!!

Mike

I don't know about a happy hour, but my band (Alkari) is playing at Warehouse Live later that night!

Look us up on myspace if you're interested...

Jason

Where is Vicman with his school info? Is there a happy hr prior to this?

Sorry, I didn't mean to say not to consider it. It was definitely one of the most important things we considered when we bought here. When they told us it hadn't flooded in Allison despite being right next to the bayou, I felt like if we ever flood, then everyone is flooding.

All I'm saying, at least in our area, is that huge holes have been dug to remedy possible flooding situations. Of course, new development (oh boy) is going in not far from us (other side of S. Main) and that may offset some of the efforts.

I agree with the thought that this is not a flip house and the buyer will have to live there awhile to make it financially viable. Boy does that sound familiar.

Jason

I too downplayed the flooding issue a while back when I found a mod house that had flooded during Allison. On this very forum I was told by several people that if you'd ever had your house flooded, it's something you would NEVER want to have to go through again. It is now something that I definitely consider.

I think if you search Arthur Moss on here you will find some more buildings that he did. I also have an old newspaper ad of another apartment complex that I need to upload. It still exists, but has been given a major facelift. It's on Cummins lane, and is next door to a rather large Bill Jenkins designed apt. complex which has also been given that dreaded facelift treatment.

This building is probably one we should cherish while we still can.

Jason

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have been curious about this address for a few months now (I have a good friend on Steel St. and pass it all the time). In the nearly three years since those photos were taken this building has really taken a downhill slide. Too bad - it's some very neat architecture.

And he made it sound like the non-original tile had already been in place for awhile before 2000, but I could be wrong.

Other non original things were that they had moved the master bedroom to the back of the house and turned one of the small bedrooms into an office. I liked the master in the back, but felt the office room and other bedrooms weren't quite right and needed some rearranging to make more sense. And the flooring that wasn't original needed replacing in my opinion.

But that wall of glass!

I believe this house is open again this Sunday if you can make it there on your way or on the way back from the "Glenbrook Valley Festival".

We will also hold it open on July 27th as a mod of the month!

Jason

It flooded during Tropical Storm Alison. Mark Barvin said that his mother put about $60,000 into fixing the damage. It looks like its still in great shape.

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

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Isn't the general consensus on the house that it was beautiful until the latest owners got ahold of it?

As for flooding, is the question how many times did it flood ("how many past issues are there to fix?"), or "do you think it will flood in the future?"

There's been debate about future floods and how the county is trying to remedy future flooding. I'm probably naive but I think they are doing a lot as far as new detention ponds etc. I guess I'm just saying I don't live my life worried that my house is going to flood.

All this is coming from someone who really wants to see the house saved though so take it for what it's worth...

Jason

If it's not going up on HAR then pics here would be great (essential). I don't know about anyone else, but I upload them to my photobucket.com account and then take the "img" link from there and put that on here. It's kind of a hassle, but it works best for me.

If you don't want to do the photobucket account, you can pm me and I'll give you my email address and then just send the pics to me and I'll upload them to my photobucket account so everyone can see the house and maybe the right buyer will show up.

Thanks,

Jason

Thanks for this great info.

The addresses and properties are unusual over there. I got lost trying to find the Sheer House when I tried to find it!

If you look at this map:

http://www.hcad.org/iMaps/Tiles/Color/5058D9.pdf

it appears that 612 and 620 have a tiny sliver of property that extends out to hedwig, giving them hedwig addresses, though they face Long Timbers Lane. What this suggests to me is that it was all one (huge) property at one time.

The rest of the addresses are 600, 608, ____, 624, 630, 638 - so they almost follow a pattern of 8.

It says on HCAD that 612 was built in 1970 (possibly after Mr. Sheer's passing, part of the property was sold?) then years later the rest of 616 Hedwig and was sold, divided and demolished with the road Long Timbers going in and the rest of the properties being built? The oldest of Long Timbers Ln appears to have been built in 1984 according to HCAD. Now that's the deepest I think I can get into it tonight... I've been told that sometimes builders change the addresses if they can to avoid confusion with the old house or to get a fresh start on a property.

Suffice to say, I would love to see some quality pictures of the house.

Jason

616 Hedwig, the address of the Sheer house from the 1964 tour, has completely disappeared from HCAD records. The 1966 Cole's directory shows Dr. Daniel E. Sheer and Diana J. Sheer living there and having their telephone first connected in 1964. By 1969, only Diana is listed at the address. The 1992 directory shows the address to exist but the information is not listed. Another mystery to solve...

Daniel E. Sheer received the B.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, in. 1943, and the Ph.D. degree from University of Michigan.

Daniel E. Sheer, neuropsychologist, Professor of psychology and Director of the psychology laboratory at the University of Houston, took his undergraduate training at Johns Hopkins University and his graduate training at the University of Michigan, where he also worked in the Laboratory of comparative neurology.

The Tharp House at 8218 Mallie Ct.

I think we're getting close to getting pics of all that still exist!

Maybe we can find out the date of that Houston Chronicle article... Here's the best pic I took of the day.