WAZ

Does anyone know about the architect named in the HAR posting, Allen R Williams? I am impressed that the agent is suggesting remodeling this place; although it seems unlikely given the neighborhood.

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

All I can say is wow! That house is great.

It's a shame they're building those hideous out-sized fake French chateauxs down the road.

To me that's just as bad as the blighted, crime ridden apartments down the road from my home.

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

I've always wanted to say "Puig's Penultimate Plat". It's my own neighborhood - Larkwood in Southwest Houston.

Larkwood was developed by Robert Puig immediately before he did the famous Memorial Bend subdivision. Many of the same architects were at work here, and it's mod after mod in this neighborhood. They're available at 1/4 the price of anything in Memorial Bend - thanks to the schools (Sharpstown) and less-than-neighborly apartments nearby.

The house on Reamer is a foreclosure, but from what I can see is remarkably well kept for what it was. It desperately needs a new roof (and someone's got to get rid of that hideous car port thing obscuring the Mod-ness). But for the price, you can easily do a new roof.

The AP reported last week that George W. and Laura Bush have moved to a "a 1959 ranch-style brick home that sits at the top of a quiet cul-de-sac in a wealthy Dallas neighborhood. Bush waved to a jogger as he rode by, and the jogger waved back."

Sounds like a Mod from the description.

Does anyone know more?

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

Wish I could do it myself, but residential design is not my specialty. A few names to throw out there:

Gordon Wittenberg, AIA (Wittenberg Oberholzer Architects)

Glassman Shoemake Maldonado

Natalye Appel

There are lots of others, but these three come immediately to mind.

Good luck!

When I was doing research in the Houston Chronicle from the 1950s, I found lots of ads for the Lake Alaska campground/park in Angleton.

Does anyone know where this was, and what became of it?

i'm all for it!!! imo this comment alone makes all the sence to support it

I'm also an architect, and I'm all for it, too!

There's a hidden benefit to having a ban on lawn parking. If it's enforced, older, closer-in neighborhoods like mine will get more police. The cops will come by to ticket cars and 'bingo' there'll be a cruiser on our street. That alone makes all the sense to support it.

Community activists will be up in arms, just watch. Turn into race card issue. Here we go again.

In my neck of the woods, the community activists are the ones fighting for the ban. I'm one of them - if you consider a civic club President a 'community activist.'

People who stayed in a neighborhood and fought for it aren't racists. Real racists fled for the exurbs at the first sight of a minority in their neighborhood. They don't call it "white flight" for nothing.

Whoa! What a minute! ... I just asked to see pictures! So far, nothing. Until then... the text description sounded kinda trailer park, to me.

...and then rsb says that it is easier cleaning... since when was it a requirement to hose down backsplashes to clean them? It gets a little wet around the sink area... but what kind of cooking are you doing in your kitchen where you have to clean all the backsplashes?

Judge my kitchen for yourself.

I did this whole kitchen for $8k. That includes the appliances, flooring, paint, all new cabinetry, and fixtures. I'll bet you could drop $8k on a glass tile mosaic backsplash alone if you did it wrong. The stainless on the walls cost me around $150 and an afternoon of light labor.

That's all I was saying before.

If you want something less traditional looking you could go for just a big sheet of stainless cut to fit.

Which is exactly what I did here.

Lowes (and I presume Home Depot) sells stainless steel sheets meant to be installed behind stoves. Buy a couple of those. Cut to size. Install with construction adhesive.

You do have to be careful about warping, and making sure you cut it straight and even is key. But it gives you a nice look for way cheaper than you can get any kind of glass mosaic tile.

Hello all,

My name is Craig Malisow, and I'm a reporter with the Houston Press. I'm looking into writing a story about the history and current status of the old Days Inn, Savoy, and Central Bank(?) buildings. So far, this forum has turned out to be a great resource.

Can anyone help with more info about current owners, building conditions, etc? I'd especially like to hear from anyone who's spent time inside the buildings.

Besides contacting me here, you can reach me at craig.malisow@houstonpress.com, or at 713.280.2481. I don't think the local media have done an in-depth exploration of why these buildings have basically been allowed to rot all these years, and I'd like to talk to all the players involved.

Thanks,

Craig

Good luck in your story!

You could also look the Plaza Apartment Hotel on Montrose Boulevard.

That building sat vacant and rotting for years, before finally being renovated into the "Tradition Bank Plaza." I wonder what the players on that project have to say about the three Hotels.

back on topic.

sorry if this has already been covered but just giving some insight on the mall. they foreclosed on tracy suttles about a year or so ago. the note holder is actually a group of 150 or so people.. think of it as a group of out-of-state average joes, that are not real estate savy, and its nothing more than a passive investment. in order for them to sell, they need a 100% approval vote. from what ive been told (couple of months ago), several groups approached them but nothing panned out.

sorry to say but i dont believe anything will happen anytime soon...

Thanks for the insight!

I never thought anything big would happen soon at the Sharpstown Mall. It's going to deteriorate for another few years at least before something big happens.

Alas.

Send me your favorite classic modern architects and the specific project

National/ Worldwide:

Frank Lloyd Wright - I actually really like his Prarie houses even though they're from before your time period.

Le Corbusier - Monastery at La Tourette

Richard Neutra - His case study houses in California are awesome.

Mies Van De Rohe - Almost everything he did was solid.

Walter Gropius

Local to Houston:

William Floyd

William Jenkins

Harwood Taylor

MacKie & Kamrath - actually out Wrighted Wright in a few buildings, IMO

Hugo Neuhaus

There are a litany of others. But these are all that come to mind without referring to books.

Yet, you want to destroy establishments that try to bring in people with money, and that actually employ people ? Sure, that makes sense. I suppose you'd be ok with it, if it were a Smart Car dealer ?

Woah there.

I'm not saying Stewart Cadillac should shut down altogether. And for me it has nothing to do with a green agenda or Smart Cars. I was looking at it from a purely urban-design standpoint.

Stewart Cadillac's buildings are run down. Not shabby chic mind you, they're just run down. And they have a lot of land that they're under-utilizing it by storing cars on it.

Initially, I thought that maybe Stewart Cadillac should be relocated. The more I think about it, the more I think renovation could do the trick.

They could sell some of their land to drum up funds, and renovate their facilities on the rest.

I'm thinking something like what Momentum Volkswagen did near Greenway Plaza. Stewart Motor Cars did it, too, over on Old Katy Road. They built a multi-story parking garage for their cars. Instead of spreading out, they built up.

It's a model that I think is fully appropriate for Midtown.

Of course, in today's economy and with GM bearing the brunt of it, I don't see anything like this happening in the near future. So, really, it's kind of moot.

What a waste of real estate! This prime location has been relegated to a parking lot for Bloatmobiles.

Tear it down!

I agree. I used to work right around the corner from there. Stewart Cadillac is increasingly inappropriate in that Midtown neighborhood.

Before they knock down Stewart Cadillac, though, I hope they do something about the Career and Recovery Resources buildings nearby.

They've got drunks urinating in a doorway and then plunking down and going to sleep in their own urine. Heroin addicts shooting up right on the sidewalk in plain view of everyone. Crack heads walking into businesses and asking for jobs while casing the place. It's scary.

I know I'll take flak for what I just wrote. Everyone talks about how great it is to provide services for the homeless, and rehabilitate drug addicts. Certainly it's a noble cause. But nobody ever thinks about the impact those facilities can have on neighborhoods. Midtown is a perfect example of why they should start.

I'm of the view that surrounding areas will come back if the Sharpstown Mall can be addressed. I would let those work themselves out.

I wish I hadn't written that.

It is what I want to believe. I want to think that by Sharpstown's location, the surrounding location will come back if something big is done (like fixing the Sharpstown Mall). But I'm really not convinced that it will work out that way. It may take some intervention into the apartments to get the commercial portion of Sharpstown turned around.

I will add, though - it is unrealistic to expect all the apartments in Sharpstown to be demolished. Nor is it needed. Only a small portion of the apartments in Sharpstown are so bad they need to be demolished. Another portion is marginal, and could be OK if they were put under new ownership and management.

The single biggest problem Sharpstown has is the low income apartments along Gessner, Bellaire, Fondren and behind Sharpstown Mall. If those went away, Sharpstown could enjoy its hay-day once again.

I get a lot of grief from people, generally who have no clue about the area, its history, or the real crime states either, for defending Sharpstown. I live in Sharpstown and will more than likely always live here until I can afford to spend 3mil on a lot and move to Rivercrest.

Right now I'm looking at a lot on the NW side of the Golf Course and even looking at a couple condos on the Golf Course, but since I have to worry about the old folks I live with, that might not happen.

You're right. People think "Sharpstown" and they immediately think "apartments and criminals and bad schools, Oh My!" it blinds them to all the good things about Sharpstown.

HBU is in Sharpstown. It's a university with an $80 million endowment, a new President, and big plans for the future.

Memorial Herman Southwest is in Sharpstown - a major hospital with a Level III trauma center that could well go to Level II in the near future.

There are three golf courses with easy access to Sharpstown - one public course and two private country clubs.

Most of all, though, is Sharpstown's location and price. If you look for houses in other places with that short a commute (Memorial, Bellaire), you're looking at $300,000 lot-value-only fixer uppers. You can buy something perfectly livable in Sharpstown for $100,000.

But to get back to the Sharpstown Mall. My experience is that people who live in houses in and around Sharpstown, don't shop at the Sharpstown Mall. I live just outside Sharpstown myself, and I drive by the Sharpstown Mall every day. But when I want to shop, I go to Meyerland Plaza. That was the impetus for my dream.

Its Sharpstown's destiny to accept the poor, the criminal, and the illegal. If it doesn't harbor them, then that means yet another marginal, on the edge neighborhood, will have to suffer.

The poor, the criminal, and the illegal already are ruining other neighborhoods. There was a cop who lost his life off West Tidwell in Northwest Houston. Alief is terribe. West Bellfort is horrible. Highway 6 near the Westpark Tollway and Beechnut is starting to go downhill in a big way. So is the FM1960 area.

Cities are dynamic things, and it is never one neighborhood's "destiny to accept the city's poor, criminal, and illegal."

actually recent studies that HONESTLY looked at the issue have disproven this theory

all recent studies have shown when you spread out the ghetto all you do is spread out the ghetto and tear down neighborhoods that were marginal or even decent further towards a ghetto

this is why section 8 and programs like it are so despised by anyone that has lived in an area that has section 8ers

I believe that. I've seen it first hand.

On a grand scale, the only answer to the apartment problem is to stop subsidizing new low-cost apartments. Instead use those subsidies to renovate or demolish problem apartments and replace those demolished with mixed use developments and parks.

But I digress.

There is a retractable-roof mall in Dubai. There is a proposal for a retractable-roof mall in Phoenix AZ.

The Sharpstown Mall was Houston's first indoor, air conditioned shopping mall. It would be fitting to renovate it into Houston's first mall with a retractable roof.

Not that I think a developer would be willing to put up that kind of money in Sharpstown. At least, not just yet. It's sad. Sharpstown is in a great location, but its reputation still scares investors away.

If you tore down Sharpstown Mall, where would TV Johnny go? His grills are world-renowned!

You said "grills" and I had to Google TV Johnny. I thought maybe TV Johnny cooked up some mean cheeseburgers on his grills. But you meant "grillz."

That's the dichotomy of Sharpstown. There's the Sharpstown Mall and the apartments near it - where people have grillz in their mouths. And then there are the single family neighborhoods of Sharpstown - where people like to cook on grills.

:-) (or should it be :-( )

There was just another shooting at the Sharpstown Mall.

It raises the question: should the Sharpstown Mall be torn down?

Lots of people think it should. But being an architect I can't help but dream big. In the vane of what I wrote in the "How Would you Change - West Loop/ Galleria/ Uptown" thread, here's my pipe dream for the Sharpstown Mall.

1: Shut down the Sharpstown Mall as we know it, and do a gut renovation along the lines of what they did at the Memorial City Mall. A cool gimmick could be to give it a retractable roof.

2: Demolish part of the property and turn it into a park.

3: Build a train that runs express from the Sharpstown Mall to the Galleria and Uptown. (In my dream it stops at that Uptown Transit Center I was talking about in my West Loop/ Galleria/ Uptown post).

4: Gut and re-skin the Jewelry Exchange building and turn it into first-class office space.

5: Build new high rise condos, luxury apartments, and offices in the air rights over part of the mall parking lot. Connect them to the mall and through there to the new Uptown train/BRT. Market them at prices between 75% and 85% of similar offices/apartments/condos in Uptown.

I'm of the view that surrounding areas will come back if the Sharpstown Mall can be addressed. I would let those work themselves out.

OK, I'll end my pipe dream here. Reality is that I guess the Sharpstown Mall should be torn down - but as an architect I am a dreamer.

Hi, My name is Sam; I live in a small sub-division of Houston named "Highland Heights" which is in between Oak Forest & Acres Homes. Unfortunately we have no homeowners association; long story short, I live next door to a home that is literally falling apart. This house has many issues including: junked cars, hungry un-tied pit-bull dogs, over gown grass & weeds, seriously un-kept trees that wrap around power lines and interfere with properties next to it including my own. Well a few weeks ago when hurricane Ike hit, two of those un-kept (V-crotch shaped) trees fell over into my yard damaging fences, knocking out my power & phone lines, and leaving a big mess for me to clean up. I have managed to clear at least one of the trees using a hand saw and a rope but there remains one tree that's about 3 to 4 stories high and is leaning dangerously towards my house and can fall on to it at any given time. I did some digging up and found out who the owner of the property is but I don't know if I should call him or her directly or seek legal assistance. I have emailed two real estate lawyers but neither one has returned my emails and my insurance says that they can not help me until the tree actually falls on to the house. I am afraid that if the tree actually falls on to the house that someone might get seriously hurt or killed plus I have children living in that house. If you have some advice or know of someone that can help me, please let me know. Thanks.

- Email 311@cityofhouston.net

- CC that email to your local councilman's office (city council website http://www.houstontx.gov/council/index.html)

You should attach a photo to your email. A picture says 1000 words.

I've gotten good stuff done in my subdivision in Southwest Houston this way. We had a rent house with overgrown grass, a collapsing and graffiti-defaced fence, and a tree half-fallen on the roof. Within a month of the call to 311, the major problems had all been addressed. Now that the tenants have moved out, the landlord actually appears to be renovating the interior now.

In the long term, I'd suggest getting involved in your local Super Neighborhood Association. I'm looking and I can't tell if you're in SN06 (Acres Homes) or SN 45 (Northside/ Northline) It's a great place to meet our City's movers and shakers (City Councilmen, the Mayor, Chiefs of PWE, etc. etc.) You may not be allowed to hold office in the Super Neighborhood without having a Civic Association or HOA, but you can attend meetings.

My wife and I are closing on a little "Pottery Barn ranch" across the street from this house this month. This is a charming block, and next door to this house is a pristine MCM that is still occupied by the original owners. Even though this house needs some work, it is a forclosure and could probably be had for an even better price than is advertised. My wife and I would love some cool new neighbors, so if a Mod project house is something that is appealing to you, PLEASE come take a look at it before this piece of history becomes another rental!

You already have some very cool neighbors - me. I bought and renovated something similar 1/2 mile west of there 2 years ago.

I share your hopes, though. We need more people to buy Mods here and renovate them. There are some incredible houses in the Robindell area - just waiting to be found.

Good luck!

Not sure why you keep saying this. I suppose it is because you cannot believe that people would actually disagree with you. We understand, and we disagree. We even have fences of our own...with GATES (I built mine myself). Knock yourself out trying to change the ordinance. Hey, if you can convince the city to mow the ROW for you, even better. We are simply disagreeing that it is a bad ordinance, or that the city should repeal it. Most of us actually like it. Otherwise, no one would mow any of the ROWs. That would be worse.

I was saying that because you appeared to be purposely obfuscating my argument in your effort to disagree with it.

I don't think Ordinance 10-451b is a bad ordinance on the whole. I'd like to see paragraph 10 in it reworded slightly - so that the City mows on streets that are behind houses and not easily accessed from them. That's all.

Actually, even if they didn't reword the ordinance; even if the City just started mowing in the areas I've refered to, I'd be happy.

I notice you won't tell us what thoroughfare it is. I wonder why?

worse.

For the record, the road in question is Fondren.

Finally, the last thing I'll say. My neighborhood and the others in the local Super Neighborhood are trying really hard to change it. But for now, in this neck of the woods, gates create a security concern.

Because certain people are still misunderstanding me, I'll re-iterate: I am NOT saying the City needs to mow ALL rights of way in the City Limits. I'm only saying it should mow those rights of way that are PUBLIC ROADS and that are BEHIND HOUSES and SEPARATED BY FENCES.

Residents in this subdivision are great about mowing on the right of way in front of their houses. We're great about mowing the side streets at corners. But the road behind the fence out back? Not so much. And unlike some here, I don't blame them. I wouldn't climb a fence and throw a lawnmower over it either.

The last thing I'll note is that the fences weren't put there to avoid the ordinance. That ordinance came AFTER the fences were up. Sad that leaders in the neighborhood didn't catch it when it went to vote, but that's history.

Reality is such that the Civic Club will probably wind up fixing the problem. But Ordinance 10-451b really ought to change.