Saturday shelterporn

We've said before that we're fans of the architecture of John Staub, the man who designed homes for many of Houston's rich and famous between the late 1920s and early '60s. Staub's 1930 house for Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hanszen (the same Harry Hanszen for whom a college at Rice University is named) is one of Staub's premier picturesque romantic designs — a rambling, Norman-style home based on a medieval chateau Staub had seen outside Lisieux, France.

The house — originally an L-shaped design, but now more of a U thanks to later additions by William Furbush (which were reportedly overseen by Staub himself — shows Staub's skill at arranging interior spaces, here with a big living room and dining room on the first floor flanking an unusual triangular entrance hall. One corner turret contains a magnificent cantilevered stone circular staircase, while another encloses a garden room off the living room and a sitting room for the master bedroom upstairs. The living and dining rooms and two of the bedrooms were originally arranged to overlook gardens designed by landscape architect Ruth London (who also designed the East Garden at Bayou Bend across the street), but now they look out on a courtyard between the original house and its new wing. Ah, progress.

Unfortunately, the price of the Hanszen house isn't listed, but considering that it's a huge house on a large piece of upper-tier River Oaks land, we're guessing it's higher than we can count. Bedrooms: six. Bathrooms: six. Square feet: 14,000.