Raymond Brochstein Home At 407 Thamer Cr.

[Willowisp]

My weekend started by docenting at 403 Westminister. As soon as I walked in, I knew I had picked the right house. It really was fantastic, like it was right out of a 60's movie. They aren't done furnishing it, but what they had was pretty incredible, like the hugest marble tulip dining/conference table I've ever seen, and those outdoor rope lounge chaises from the case study houses, and other mod furniture that was off my radar...

This house had walls of glass everywhere and it all looked out to the most pristinely beautiful view of Buffalo Bayou that I've ever seen. You really forget where and when you are. I was glad that I got there early as a docent because it wasn't as crowded. I stood in the master bedroom for my shift. I also got to meet an architect named Charles Burgess who was a docent. He worked with William Jenkins, so it was amazing to meet him.

After this house I ran home and picked up my wife and we got out to 3 more houses on Saturday.

266 Pine Hollow Circle, 1972

P. M. Bolton Associates, architect

Mr. and Mrs. Bolton still live in the house, and it turned out to be my wife's favorite on the tour. It had very high ceilings and brick columns and glass walls in the bedrooms and looking out the back of the house. It also had a very cute kitchen painted pink. The left side of the house had all the bedrooms and they all had glass walls looking out onto a side yard which was basically the woods. As for furniture, I remember a couple of Eames Lounge chairs, one of which was particularly cool because you could tell they really use it! Also, they had tulip stools, which I asked Travis and Karen about later and they said Knoll never did stool height chairs, so they must have been Burke. I thought those were really neat.

250 Pine Hollow Circle, 1953

Wilson, Morris & Crain, architects

http://texasarchitect.org/ta200509-essay.p...e8752cf985dfbbc

Another cool wall of glass was in the back of this house. All the foliage outside protected the houses from the heat of the sun, not that it was hot this weekend, but it was sunny. You never got the feeling the sun was beating down on you like you do in our house with the big tree that died... Anyway, they had a cool funky fabric Womb Chair, some Barcelona chairs, and all kinds of interesting collections like old helmets and masks.

We also hit the house on Kuhlman, but it wasn't really my style, though I think it is more indicative of the type of mansion that will be built on the Bayou in the future.

407 Thamer Circle, 1974

Raymond Brochstein, Anderson Todd, and William T. Cannady, architects

The next day we made it to Thamer Circle which had quite a bit of interesting furniture. A lot of it seemed to be either Nakashima or in that style. The architect/owner of the house has his own furniture company.

The newer houses went by in a flash, except for the "treehouse" on Logan Way which was pretty incredible, though a little scary from the flights of stairs. Still, it showed how much you could do with a small amount of space. Ah, and they also had a Womb Chair!

The docent party was a lot of fun and it proved to be in another Mod house with lots of style. I don't know how one gets into collecting modern art, but the owner of this house had some great stuff.

Jason