Preservation projects earn nods of approval from Houston Mod
Houston Mod’s 2017 biennial Preservation Awards honor projects that include an art exhibit, turning an office building into a boutique hotel, and the preservation of homes that defy the stereotype of midcentury-modern design.
Three townhomes that make up the “Style in Steel” project look more like a school or commercial building than a trio of townhomes. They were designed in 1968 by Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson — one of the firms that designed the Astrodome — to consider the use of steel in home construction and as a promotion, since the National Association of Home Builders was holding its annual convention at the Astrodome in 1969.
Three families — Diann and Mike Lewter, Penny and James Brown, and Michael John Smith and Malcolm Perry — were honored last month for the restoration of their homes in Townhouse Manor, the city’s first planned townhouse community.
Another award was given to Ben Koush, for the restoration of his East End home. His home represents a little-known chapter of 1950s development, when architect Allen R. Williams Jr. created a company called Century
Homes to build homes with interior and exterior concrete tile walls and concrete slab roof pieces as an alternative to woodframe construction.
Only a handful of these homes were ever made; Koush’s has been given Protected Landmark status by the city of Houston, is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Gary Prosterman, president and CEO of the Development Services Group real estate company, was honored for the adaptive reuse of the former Melrose Building into the Le Méridien hotel in downtown Houston. The early 1950s building, designed by architect Hermon Lloyd and William Morgan, could be viewed from the brandnew Gulf Freeway, as travelers made their way into the heart of the city.
As the new Le Méridien hotel, developers restored the building’s original spandrels and replaced the clear glass. Interior terrazzo flooring and exterior panels of green marble also were restored.
Tam Kiehnhoff and Randy Tibbits of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art and Ginger Berni of The Heritage Society were honored for the exhibit “This WAS Contemporary Art: Fine and Decorative Arts in Houston 1945-1965,” a 2016 take on another exhibit nearly 70 years ago.
In 1948, Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum opened with an exhibit called “This Is Contemporary Art.” Its concept was an outgrowth of the Bauhaus school of thought, that decorative arts were art and that art should be a part of all aspects of life. While the art in the 1948 show didn’t originate in Houston, the 2016 exhibit at the Heritage Society showcased art, decorative arts and furniture made or designed in Houston