The Rice University Design Alliance and the American Institute of Architects, Houston Chapter have a timely idea: challenge designers and architects to design an energy efficient and sustainable small house for under $99,000. Even better still, the house must take into account the hot and humid Houston weather and will be donated to a low-income family. This challenge, known as The 99K House Competition, received 182 entries from around the country. Considering the negative......

Recently Brett Zamore of Brett Zamore Design LLC has been raking in the Architectural accolades, and we can't help but agree. The Houston resident and Rice alum is featured in this month's issue of Metropolis Magazine, along with this last week's very own Houston Chronicle. The buzz is about Brett's eco-twist on modernist prefab housing. It appears that at long last, Brett has solved a significant problem to kit home design -- shipping. It......

On the second Sunday of every month, the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA) offers a guided walking tour of an architecturally and/or historically significant neighborhood in Houston. This coming Sunday will see the GHPA leading a tour around The Binz, a neighborhood just to the northeast of the lovely, verdant Museum District. The Binz was built at the same time as Rice University and originally served as faculty housing for many of the school's professors.......

We're not entirely sure what to think about this week's shelterporn home, a contemporary North Montrose model. Is it a house with a beautifully clean and modern exterior? Why yes — but what's inside is even more interesting, not least because it features (gulp) shiny black ceilings. No, really. The shiny ceilings, it turns out, are ebonized maple which, for better or worse, matches the floors in most of the house. It's good, in......

The Brochstein Pavilion, Rice University's newest set of facades on campus, will open tomorrow for a sneak-peak preview for Rice students, faculty and staff. It will be open to the public starting Friday April 25th and promises to offer guests a wide range of tasty (though probably spendy) treats including coffee, snacks and sandwiches. The Broch. Pav. is situated smack in the middle of a central courtyard between the back of the Fondren Library,......

::Houston Mod + RDA Present Gwendolyn Wright:: Houston's Impact on Modern Architecture Lecture + Book Signing Professor of architecture at Columbia University, Gwendolyn Wright, will be in town tonight to discuss her new book and explain how Houston has played a part in the development of modern architecture. The lecture will take place tonight, Wednesday, April 9th @ 7pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Brown Auditorium. A book signing and refreshments will follow the......

Hear the talk: The Rice Design Alliance (RDA) kicks off this year's annual architecture tour today with an illustrated lecture from distinguished photographer Richard Cheek, nationally recognized for his landscape and architectural photography. Adding to an already long list of accolades, Mr. Cheek was most recently published in Houston's newest architectural compendium, The Country Huseses of John F. Staub (Texas A&M University Press), penned by our very own Stephen Fox (reviewed previously by the......

Charles Waldheim, visiting Cullinan Professor at Rice, and Associate Dean and Director of the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Toronto, will be at Anderson Hall on Rice's campus Monday, March 10th at 5:00pm. Professor Waldheim is known for his pioneering work in landscape architecture, and urbanism. He is editor of the Landscape Urbanism Reader, Post-Fordist Public Works, has published numerous articles, and spoken and lectured at major US and international universities. Now,......

Devoted Shelterporn readers will remember that one of our pipe dreams is to live on North or South boulevards. The beautiful old homes on those streets have a special place in our heart, but we also drool over some of the more modern construction — this 1998 South Boulevard house included. The house, designed by Jay Baker, isn't totally traditional or modern; whatever it is, though, we like it. Downstairs, the living areas are......

Yeah, yeah, we know — Shelterporn has slacked off, and in recent weeks you've had to look for your own dream real estate listings. We're awfully sorry to have put such a burden on you and are making a Chinese New Year's resolution to be more regular. We'll do better at keeping up with Shelterporn, too. All of which brings us to the home we couldn't ignore: the Frame house, located off Memorial and......

The Chron picked this up a few days ago, but we feel it's worth a second mention. The Rice Design Alliance in conjunction with the Houston Chapter of the AIA announced two Houston architects, Murphy Mears Architects, (Kirby Mears, Walter Murphy, Kyle Humphries, Jamie Miller, and Gina Lyons) and Stephanie Eugster as finalists in the recent 99K House Competition. The finalists were selected out of 182 entrants proposing a sustainable, affordable house that addresses......

We’ve been walking around Rice Univeristy recently and couldn’t help but notice literally tons of construction. It turns out that Rice is currently undergoing an explosive period of development, adding roughly one million square feet of built space to its already 3.7 million square foot campus by 2009. This is pretty impressive as is, but we were more than a little surprised (knowing that universities are businesses like any other) that Rice was recently......

Today, Friday the 18th, our very own Mayor Bill White invites us all to check out the newest addition to Houston’s growing fleet of Green Buildings. Firstly, the fact that anything environmentally conscious is happening in Houston nearly knocks us off our rockers, but now the Mayor’s behind it?! And extending invitations ta-boot! This all just might be a little too much to believe so go see for yourself. Make the Mayor proud. When:......

Today the Rice Design Alliance kicks off this years spring lecture series 30N 60S: Latin American Architecture Revisited with guest speaker Francisco Liernur. Proffessor Liernur is Chair of the School of Architecture at Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Princeton, Sci-Arc, and Columbia University. His books include Writings on Twentieth Century Architecture in Latin America and Architecture in Latin America 1965-1985. Following lectures will focus......

The Country Houses of John F. Staub Stephen Fox Color Photography by Richard Cheek Texas A&M University Press Houston Texas – 1930’s. By the first quarter of the 20th century, Houston had made a dramatic evolution from the dusty southern outpost of the late 19th century into (basically) the city we know today. Industry was in full swing and there was a growing class of socialites moving into town, the Weiss’s, Farish’s, and Dow’s......

Here are a few books Houstonist thinks your friends and family won't use for doorstops (that's the fruitcake, right?). Everyone likes a good read, or at least a smart-looking book to sit on the nightstand. Give these a try. And shop at your local independent bookstore -- they can give you even more recommendations, and probably a good cup of coffee as well. Fun, mostly fiction books for people who are... Houstonians and/or architecture......

If you remember the last time we featured a house in Shelterporn — longer ago than it should have been, we know — you'll remember that we have a thing for modern houses. So, naturally, we were drawn to this Montrose contemporary, a three-year-old house designed by architect Scott Ballard. The defining feature is the barrel-vaulted roof, which not only gives the house a unique silhouette but also creates some pretty impressive interior spaces.......

Perspectives 159: Superconscious, Automatisms Now December 14, 2007 – March 9, 2008 Opening reception December 13, 2007, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Sigh. This is Houston's last hurrah with Senior CAMH Curator Paola Morsiani, and we are sad. Having been with the CAMH for over eight years, Morsiani is heading north to become Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, an internationally renowned encyclopedic museum in the midst of a $258 million renovation and expansion.......

Candlelight Open House at Bayou Bend Dec 7, 2007 5:00 PM at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has been hosting Candlelight Open House nights at their Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens on Friday nights. This Friday night is your last chance to go to the open house and tour the property in all of its holiday season glory. The central figure in Yuletide´s Holiday Heroines is......

Looking for a little green space to stretch out those overworked holiday shopping legs? Check out Mosaic on Hermann Park's one acre, 7th floor amenity deck, as they host Hermann Park Conservatory's Urban Green for a Holiday Al Fresco event. Tonight's party will feature cocktails and canapes poolside, and all proceeds will benefit the Hermann Park Conservatory. Tickets at $30 and can be purchased at the door. We were bummed to learn this week that......

The Biomimicry Guild and the AIA Committee on the Environment will host a lecture this Wednesday (12/05/07) on Biomimicry its uses and applications. Dayna Baumeister, PhD, and co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, will give the evening lecture which will then be follow by two workshop sessions on Thursday and Friday. For those less familiar, Biomimicry is "a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and imitates them to solve human problems." But wait, aren't......

It's party time! Folks in Tanglewood had a picnic-style party to celebrate the demolition of 5506 Russett St. (5537 got it too), where the owners are going to build a new home. It was an eerie farewell complete with champagne, snacks, and the oohs and aahs of the little kiddos when the bulldozer smashed into the roof of the 5,500 square foot teardown. Is anyone really trying to sell this house? The person who......

Finding new homes for old homes While these were listed as demolitions, it may only be partial - both 2506 Morse in Montrose (picture) and 347 W 27th in the Heights had steel beams outside waiting to lift and carry them away. While house moving isn't unheard of in Houston, we are (pleasantly) surprised, and also curious about where these smaller homes will end up since we all know the current trend is "build big"......

Meyerland's Carousel House came crashing down today - the property's new owner Marvin Granit decided to hurry up and get it over with, just a day before Thanksgiving. The house has been an interesting architectural fixture in Houston since it was built by Robert Cohen in 1964, and has had a resurgence of attention since the previous owner John O'Quinn put it on the market. We featured the endangered home in late August, the Chronicle's......

Deconstruction... ...of the environmental kind - not the more erudite nature of Derrida or even deconstructivism (a la Gehry) - is taking place this week in Briargrove and Rustling Pines. 6219 Del Monte (picture) and 306 Wilchester (picture) will soon be upgraded to two stories, stucco, and granite counter tops, but pieces of the old houses seem to have been taken off for recycling. While we're not thrilled about perfectly fine houses being tossed out,......

A rumble in the medical center If you live in the Southgate area, you were either violently awoken by the sound of exploding dynamite around 7:10 this morning, or you were standing on Travis St. witnessing the destruction of the Crowne Plaza Hotel by Cherry Demoliton (just like its near neighbor in June 2006). The building was recently appraised at a high value and was only about 34 years old, which is one of the......

Houston Mod Board members Jason Smith, Robert Searcy, Ben Koush, Michael Brichford, and Stephen Fox were included in an article in Tribeza magazine about Houston's modern architecture. The article highlights Smith's renovation of his William Jenkins-designed home in Willow Bend, and also touches on Houston Mod's mission and goals of education and awareness of Houston's modern architecture. “It’s really a waste,” laments Searcy. “We are filling our landfills with works of art—and replacing them with......

Kipling St. cleaned up a bit by Peter Brown Kipling Street, just behind the Alabama Theater/Shopping Center, will be a little more flat this week. 2136 and 2140 Kipling (pictures) are set to be demolished, and the current owner of the two properties - built in 1925 and 1938 - is listed as at-large man #1, Peter Brown. While there are no apparent plans for the land, we assume that they will not be the......

Last week the AIA hosted their annual home tour, and tomorrow the Downtown Houston Alliance is giving folks a chance to see residences in some of Houston's most historic and moneyed buildings. The Live Downtown Home Tour is from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, November 3rd. Stops on the tour include Commerce Towers, The Beaconsfield (not the Savoy across the street!), the Four Seasons, Hogg Palace (no, not this place), and several other loft properties.......

::Live Downtown Kick-off Party:: Before you have to battle the Spoon vs. Girl Talk decision tonight, stop by an event that doesn't require you to choose between your two favorite children. Ok, maybe missing Spoon isn't THAT life changing. We'll be at Girl Talk. Tonight, in preparation for Saturday's Live Downtown Home Tour, guests are invited to the Live Downtown Kick-Off Party on the rooftop terrace of the Commerce Towers. From 6 - 8 p.m.......