Endangered Modern Tour: Central Presbyterian Church Campus - Saturday, August 14, 2pm

Endangered Modern Tour: Central Presbyterian Church Campus Central Presbyterian Church on Richmond is one of the finest examples of mid-century modern church architecture in Houston. (Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, 1960-1962) Faced with declining membership and a facility too large, the congregation has moved from the property. The site presently is being marketed for redevelopment. We have arranged a special tour of the site including the main sanctuary, jewel-box chapel and the parish hall. See the outstanding interiors including two large glass murals, custom-designed artwork and a variety of unique details. We`ll meet at the colonnade along the parking lot at on Saturday, August 14 at 2 PM to start the tour. The interior tour will end by 3 PM. 3788 Richmond, Houston, TX

Parks & Recreation Department Renovates Historic Gragg Building

According to Houston Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder, renovations are nearing completion on the historic Gragg building.

`The low-slung building, made from a distinctive green stone known as green-cast quartzite, was commissioned in 1956 as the headquarters for a Houston-based construction firm, Farnsworth & Company. Employees of that company would later develop such well-known contemporary firms as Spaw Glass and Williams Brothers.

Farnsworth hired MacKie & Kamrath, a local architectural firm, to design the building. The designers were influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and incorporated certain elements that Wright took from Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztecs and Maya, said Anna Mod, a preservation consultant who prepared applications for the building`s historic designations.

“When I saw the building in Houston, that`s the first thing I thought of,” Mod recalled. “Frank Lloyd Wright had borrowed the same vocabulary.”

Stephen Fox, a Rice University architectural historian, said MacKie & Kamrath incorporated some of the same elements into other corporate headquarters built in the 1950s, including the Schlumberger building on the Gulf Freeway (1953) and what is now the Exxon-Mobil research center on Buffalo Speedway (1954). These buildings represented part of Houston`s first wave of suburbanization after World War II, Fox said.

In 1961, oil drilling magnate Oscar Lee Gragg and members of his family bought the building as an investment but never occupied it. A year later, Gragg leased the building to a 4-year-old federal agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which used it as offices for the Mercury program and the Mercury 7 astronauts — the daring fliers immortalized in Tom Wolfe`s The Right Stuff — until 1964. The city purchased the building in 1976, and the Gragg family donated surrounding property for a park. The renovation project presented a challenge in modernizing the building — it wasn`t wired for computers, for example, and “we had cables everywhere,” Turner said — without compromising its historic qualities. Accomplishing that required close consultation with the agencies that grant historic designation, Turner said.`

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Complete Houston Chronicle Article

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Houston Mod Exhibit: Endangered Modern - The Real Story

Houston Mod presents its 4th architectural exhibition entitled Endangered Modern: The Real Story.

The exhibit is open Monday - Thursday 9 AM to 5 PM, Fridays until 3 PM. View it at the galleries of the Houston AIA / Architecture Center Houston, 315 Capital #120 through August 28, 2009.

The exhibit aims to create a greater understanding of the threats to architecturally significant structures that ultimately lead to their destruction and loss.

Nearly a dozen significant modern architectural landmarks that face potential demolition or destruction are detailed with both historic information and current photographs.

The exhibition is a collaborative project led by Houston Mod board member Monica Savino and includes the participation of the Houston Mod board, and other notable local preservationists and architects.

Houston Mod Neuhaus Exhibit featured in Texas Architect

Houston Mod was recently featured in a Texas Architect article discussing our Hugo V. Neuhaus Exhibit.

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Texas Architect Article

Houston Mod Featured in Tribeza Magazine

Houston Mod was recently featured in the Houston area magazine, called Tribeza. In the article former President and current Board Member, Ben Koush, current Board Member, Jason Smith, Master Mod, Stephen Fox, Co-Founder Michael Brichford, and former Board Member (and mod enthusiast realtor) Robert Searcy were interviewed to discuss the current atmosphere in restoring modern homes.

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Link to the article

Join us on the Houston Mod MESSAGE BOARD!

Keep up to date on all the latest news and opinions on the Houston Mod message board. All kinds of modern topics can be discussed here.

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