Anybody See These Strange Mods?

[marmer]

Just saw this on Swamplot. It links to this guy's blog:

http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/2008/01/bi...ters-creek.html

Of particular interest are these photos.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/217059...33b34bc.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/217060...f0ef229.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/217060...8465e4a.jpg?v=0

Here's a Live Search cap of the circle house on Hunter's Trail.

[musicman]

very jackie gleason-esque

[KatieDidIt]

very jackie gleason-esque

Isn't that the one in forclosure?

The house on Shasta is my absolute favorite house in Houston. IT looks like a Virginia farm.

Edited January 7, 2008 by KatieDidIt

[musicman]

Isn't that the one in forclosure?

my link was jackie gleason's house in NY. he was all into outer space/aliens/etc hence the very futuristic feel. definitely lived the big life.

[KatieDidIt]

my link was jackie gleason's house in NY. he was all into outer space/aliens/etc hence the very futuristic feel. definitely lived the big life.

sorry, meant the previous house in HUnterwood, the one in the picture.

[marmer]

Isn't that the one in forclosure?

The house on Shasta is my absolute favorite house in Houston. IT looks like a Virginia farm.

I don't know anything about this circular house on Hunter's Trail. The "House of Formica" on S. Rice at S. Braeswood is based on hexagons rather than circles and that's the one that is in foreclosure.

[musicman]

sorry, meant the previous house in HUnterwood, the one in the picture.

LOL my bad.

[RWB]

Thanks for mentioning my blog and linking to it. How did you get that other photo of the curved house? What is "Live Search"?

I try to post bike rides with photos as often as possible--with an impossible goal of riding on every street in Houston eventually... So check back occasionally.

--Robert Boyd

http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/

[marmer]

Welcome to the forum, RWB!

Windows Live Search: http://maps.live.com/

Important: It only works with Firefox or IE, not Safari, or Camino, etc. In large metro areas like much of Houston and other cities, you can get 3D "birds-eye" views which, in some cases, are better than Google Earth. This was a screen cap from one of those birds-eyes at maximum magnification.

I checked out the bike rides on your blog. I too enjoy biking through interesting neighborhoods and I enjoyed your pictures. I'll keep checking back -- I liked what I saw!

PS -- I couldn't find anything earlier than Bike Ride photos 6. Are they archived anywhere?

[BenH]

Just saw this on Swamplot. It links to this guy's blog:

http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/2008/01/bi...ters-creek.html

Of particular interest are these photos.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/217059...33b34bc.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/217060...f0ef229.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/217060...8465e4a.jpg?v=0

Here's a Live Search cap of the circle house on Hunter's Trail.

Willowisp and I have been there and know the owner. It's Dr. Davey Lieb's house, and he's a member of Houston Mod and has been to several of the events. We're supposed to shoot it at some point. Dr. Lieb designed it himself in 1972. He says it's supposed to be like a flower. It has fifteen rooms in the two wings. This house is also mentioned in the guide, but not pictured. Stephen Fox described it as being influenced by Bruce Goff. And it's not moderne, it's organic or Wrightian.

The other houses:

Ivy covered house with all the trees in front is the Thrash Mansion, by Preston Bolton I believe.

The house with the single pyramid is 108 Timberwilde, otherwise known as the Greer house by Richard S. Colley. I've been inside and shot a ton of pictures. Underneath the pyramid is a courtyard designed to be like a greenhouse. One of the more magnificent places in Houston.

Edited January 8, 2008 by BenH

[RWB]

I checked out the bike rides on your blog. I too enjoy biking through interesting neighborhoods and I enjoyed your pictures. I'll keep checking back -- I liked what I saw!

PS -- I couldn't find anything earlier than Bike Ride photos 6. Are they archived anywhere?

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know why you couldn't see earlier than "ride 6"--I couldn't either. But I have fixed it now, so if you go to the blog (http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/) you can see all the rides. If you want to skip all the non-neighborhood exploration posts, you can go directly to: http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/search/lab...uston%20Streets

To be honest, I'm a little bored with exploring well-to-do Memorial suburbs. But I do want to finish off the last two villages, Hillshire and Spring Valley, before trying something completely different--a working class neighborhood, or an area with mainly commercial real estate...

Thanks BenH for the info on the houses!

[BenH]

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know why you couldn't see earlier than "ride 6"--I couldn't either. But I have fixed it now, so if you go to the blog (http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/) you can see all the rides. If you want to skip all the non-neighborhood exploration posts, you can go directly to: http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/search/lab...uston%20Streets

To be honest, I'm a little bored with exploring well-to-do Memorial suburbs. But I do want to finish off the last two villages, Hillshire and Spring Valley, before trying something completely different--a working class neighborhood, or an area with mainly commercial real estate...

Thanks BenH for the info on the houses!

You're welcome, and I wasn't trying to sound snooty with the comment about the style of Dr. Lieb's house. Where is the house with the multiple pyramids? I've never seen it before and have no idea who designed it.

I haven't been through your blog completely and don't know what you've covered, but I'd personally like to see what's inside Farnham Park, if you haven't alredy snuck in there. I'm especially interested in anything remotely modern, and the addresses. Though there is a guard shack there, it is evidently a public street (there is no private drive sign and no gate to keep people out). They tried to remodel the guardshack a few years back, which made a big stink that caused some counselman to say that Farnham Park is a public street and the guardshack shouldn't be there.

The following is more information than you probably wanted to know:

The white stucco house on Kirkwick you mention is a 70's design by Phillips & Peterson

The 'screened' property at 402 Flintdale you mention is Dr. Roark's house, designed by MacKie & Kamrath. It's basically a Frank Lloyd Wright style Prairie house from what I've been see through the foliage, but I've never actually been up the driveway. I've never seen pictures or plans, and Reagan Miller (who wrote his thesis on these architects) told me he's never seen it either.

If you go back down to Arrowwood Circle, take a right at the first turnoff you see, and go all the way to the end. You'll see a gabled post modern house covered in dark gray stucco that is one of Howard Barnstone's later houses. "It has one stunning,

very Barnstone-esque space, the master bathroom, a glass-lined corridor projecting out from the body of the house along the crest of the bayou slope." -Stephen Fox

The odd house next door is supposedly by Roger Rausbach and was on HAR forever. I also asked Stephen about the large estate you photographed and he thought that it was designed for a Hines VP named John Hill by Charles Tapley. It was evidently published in House Beautiful or House & Garden.

The wild postmodern house on Pine Tree with the red trim is fairly recent and was designed by either Fernando Brave or Brand & Allen.

Before you leave Memorial, don't forget to do Tynewood and Sherwood Forest, especially Littlejohn Lane, Friar Tuck (and the private drive Longbow; there are some great mods down that road.), Buckingham, Sandringham, and Carnarvon. Carnarvon has the only house in Houston by Alden B. Dow.

Try Riverside Terrace for a change of scenery.

I like and appreciate what you're doing. There's a few things in there I haven't seen before, so I plan on doing some investigating soon.

Edited January 8, 2008 by BenH

[RWB]

Where is the house with the multiple pyramids? I've never seen it before and have no idea who designed it.

I haven't been through your blog completely and don't know what you've covered, but I'd personally like to see what's inside Farnham Park, if you haven't alredy snuck in there. I'm especially interested in anything remotely modern, and the addresses. Though there is a guard shack there, it is evidently a public street (there is no private drive sign and no gate to keep people out). They tried to remodel the guardshack a few years back, which made a big stink that caused some counselman to say that Farnham Park is a public street and the guardshack shouldn't be there.

Before you leave Memorial, don't forget to do Tynewood and Sherwood Forest, especially Littlejohn Lane, Friar Tuck (and the private drive Longbow; there are some great mods down that road.), Buckingham, Sandringham, and Carnarvon. Carnarvon has the only house in Houston by Alden B. Dow.

Try Riverside Terrace for a change of scenery.

I like and appreciate what you're doing. There's a few things in there I haven't seen before, so I plan on doing some investigating soon.

Thanks.

As for the yellow and green "pyramid" house, it is literally the last house on Ripple Creek. I think it's either 322 Ripple Creek Dr. or (less likely) 311 Hunter's Trail St.

I avoided entering Farnham Park because I assumed it was a gated community, and there was always a guard there. Frankly, I've been curious about it for years, so I will definitely try to enter it given what you say. Let's hope the guard isn't a shoot-first-ask-questions-later guy.

Of course I eventually intend to ride through both Sherwood Forest and Riverside Terrace--both are among my favorites to drive through. But my interest in doing these rides is not merely to observe interesting architecture. It's also to learn about a place--to record sociological, economic, and artistic observations, and also to uncover places where people have done things interesting or unique. So some variety will really help me keep my interest up. There are vast unknown low-density industrial areas of Houston that I'd like to check out, for example.

[marmer]

Try Riverside Terrace for a change of scenery.

I like and appreciate what you're doing. There's a few things in there I haven't seen before, so I plan on doing some investigating soon.

Yeah, what he said. I would recommend Southampton and the Banks/Milford area, too, for tree-lined streets and an interesting mixture of original 30's houses and recent post-mods.

Thanks.

As for the yellow and green "pyramid" house, it is literally the last house on Ripple Creek. I think it's either 322 Ripple Creek Dr. or (less likely) 311 Hunter's Trail St.

The Lieb house is 311 Hunter's Trail, I believe.

[BenH]

Thanks.

As for the yellow and green "pyramid" house, it is literally the last house on Ripple Creek. I think it's either 322 Ripple Creek Dr. or (less likely) 311 Hunter's Trail St.

I avoided entering Farnham Park because I assumed it was a gated community, and there was always a guard there. Frankly, I've been curious about it for years, so I will definitely try to enter it given what you say. Let's hope the guard isn't a shoot-first-ask-questions-later guy.

Of course I eventually intend to ride through both Sherwood Forest and Riverside Terrace--both are among my favorites to drive through. But my interest in doing these rides is not merely to observe interesting architecture. It's also to learn about a place--to record sociological, economic, and artistic observations, and also to uncover places where people have done things interesting or unique. So some variety will really help me keep my interest up. There are vast unknown low-density industrial areas of Houston that I'd like to check out, for example.

There isn't a much more interesting place in regards to history than Riverside Terrace. Have you seen the movie about it? I think it's called "This is our home and it is not for sale". I haven't seen it yet, but the story is really interesting.

Good luck with the guard at Farnham Park. Is that neighborhood in Piney Point Village or one of the others? I'll e-mail somebody at their city hall and find out the facts on whether or not it's public or private.

[Willowisp]

The Lieb house is one of the most interesting and esoteric houses I have ever seen. I knew it from the arial pic in that first post. I thought "Ahhh, yesss. I know that house!" That's another one I have to get around to putting online. It's hard to get a definitive picture of though.

Jason

[rps324]

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know why you couldn't see earlier than "ride 6"--I couldn't either. But I have fixed it now, so if you go to the blog (http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/) you can see all the rides. If you want to skip all the non-neighborhood exploration posts, you can go directly to: http://robertwboyd.blogspot.com/search/lab...uston%20Streets

To be honest, I'm a little bored with exploring well-to-do Memorial suburbs. But I do want to finish off the last two villages, Hillshire and Spring Valley, before trying something completely different--a working class neighborhood, or an area with mainly commercial real estate...

Thanks BenH for the info on the houses!

Riverside has some great houses. There are a lot of old deco to mid-century modern commercial buildings in the east end.

[BenH]

Update for you: The house with the multiple pyramids was originally a flat-roofed 50's mod designed by Lars Bang, an architect that just passed away. Bang also designed the weird pyramids. Evidently the clients and current owners are Russian, and commissioned Bang to make the additions. Info comes from SpaceAge. If you look closely, you can see the original house underneath.

[sevfiv]

Update on Swamplot about the Hunter's Trail home:

http://swamplot.com/buffalo-bayou-flying-saucer-house-is-now-yours-free-with-2-39-million-purchase-of-hunters-creek-lot/2015-12-15/

[plumber2]

There is mod on the tip of Bolivar peninsula built in the early 70's that is also rumored to be influenced by the Jackie Gleason house. The Van Luezen home at 322 Overton.