Musuem District

2 Waverly Court

This was Sy Morris's of Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson house. It belongs on hmod, but I don't have enough info on it yet. The back looks out on a pool. The house is just a few blocks away from MFAH.

Neighbor #1 - Unknown Architect

10914 Willowisp Drive

My next door neighbor's house is just about impossible to shoot a photo of, but I swear to you, there's an amazing house in there! What you're looking at is the ivy covered garage. The front door is to the left of that, but it's pretty hidden. To the left of the front door is a wall that hides the courtyard and swimming pool. A wall of glass faces the pool. The house is very Miesian with a Neutra flair to it. Minor alterations have been done to the interior of the house, but the kitchen is original and will serve as the inspiration for us if/when we do our kitchen back to the 50's. It also has terrazzo flooring. The rumor on the architect of this house is that Jenkins's students or people that worked for him designed it. I'm hoping I can find out someday. When I do I think I'll put it on Houstonmod.org. Or I may just go ahead and do it without the architect's name... Sure would like to figure out a good angle to get a photo of the house. Well, I guess you hardly ever see the Stahl house from the front do you?

Willow Meadows Unknown Beauty

4710 McDermed

I pass this house when I walk Jake to the park. I always wonder who designed it. I've got no clue, but think it's probably William Floyd or William Jenkins. However, I think if it were Jenkins, the Jenkins daughter who lives nearby would know and would have told me. I have met the owner and been in for a tour and it has a great courtyard that can be reached from 3 rooms - think of a bracket shape - [ on the left of the bracket is the informal living, on the bottom is the formal living, and on the top I believe is a bedroom. The house was not overly altered inside.

My Story

10920 Willowisp Drive

My story (just posted this on HAIF, but thought I'd have it here too):

Two and a half years ago, I just wanted a house in Houston (not the burbs) with a lot of glass and I knew about what I wanted to pay for it. It was that desire that led me into the whole world of modern and Houston's moderns specifically. I didn't know any architects names, but liked the idea of owning a house with a well known architect behind it. After that, I discovered several very innovative Houston based architects from about 50 years ago, as well as architects around the US from that era that really fascinated me. One of them happened to be Philip Johnson, the architect of my favorite building when I was a kid, Pennzoil Place. Then I found out that some of the Houston architects knew and learned from Philip Johnson and it really became fascinating for me. I realized that they don't make 'em like this any more. A lot of the houses I am most interested were custom houses, but I also like the ones like in Memorial Bend that were often "on spec" ranch houses with a lot of modern flair to them, or modern for the masses like you find in California's Eichler Houses. Houses of this era used space efficicently for the nuclear family. I believe today's homes don't do it as well.

There's a bit of nostalgia and sense of history to it, and there's also a desire to get back to a craftsmanship that you don't see in houses these days. I know my house is well built. Friends of mine live in new houses. They are not all that bad, but not great either. I like to visit them, and they are new and lower maintenance than my house. But with my house there's really a feeling of accomplishment. You would get that feeling from restoring a craftsman too, but the craftsman wouldn't have the glass walls and links to Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone, Hugo Neuhaus, Harwood Taylor, and Anderson Todd that my house has and that the Memorial Bend houses have too. Now if you can go to the Farnsworth House, the Glass House, the de Menil House, the Gordon House, the Frame House, the Owsley House, and even the Caudill House in Memorial Bend and they don't move you, then I guess we just don't have the same sense of style and we can agree to disagree.

The houses Michael (from spacecitymod blog) is documenting are important, especially because there are so many moderns or at least modern influenced ranches in a small area, and they are extremely threatened as far as I'm concerned. Maybe a lot of people won't ever "get it" and it will get worse for the neighborhood and then the houses will be gone. Of course this is also his neighborhood and all the more reason to take pride in the homes.

I lived in an 1870 house for several years with my parents. I actually think my mom would have disliked my house, but she'd love that I'm happy in it and that I have a sense of pride in my home and its decor. My dad would love that the architect got his masters at A&M and he'd enjoy sitting on my strange and less than comfortable (to him) sofa to watch the bamboo grow from inside.

A lot of modern houses like are intentionally deceptive from the facade. They are private from the front and their flash is often on the back of the house. I have a great sense of anticipation when going into a mod for the first time, just wondering what is going to present itself.

Jason

Introduction

218 Pine Hollow Drive

I really liked what Michael Brichford is doing with his spacecitymod blog so I decided to start my own. Mostly I will be putting up photos of houses and other architecture and writing about them. I plan to have a section on my neighborhood, Willowbend, Willow Meadows, Willowbrook, and Post Oak Manor.

I do some photography and writing for houstonmod.org, but not all of the houses I photograph get on the site, either because I don't have enough information on them yet and/or because they aren't quite "mod" enough. So I will start to house those house pictures here. Hope you enjoy them and make any comments on them if you know information on the houses.

Here's a great example. I learned from reading William Jenkins's scrapbook (small newspaper article) that this house is was designed by him, but I have no further information and I haven't knocked on the door yet. I know I need to do that at some point and ask for a tour.