Resilient Houston homes
Who knew addressing the floodplain could be so beautiful?
When Vanessa Gerondale was house hunting, she took one look at the exterior of the Meyerland home and knew it was not what she wanted. “It looked like a dental office, like someplace you could go in and get your teeth cleaned,” she told a friend who was out looking with her one day. But the friend stopped her: “It was an architect’s own home; sometimes those are interesting. It has a double SubZero in the kitchen … it has terrazzo flooring throughout. It’s built around a central atrium.”
Well, she had her at “double SubZero.”
“That made me go ‘Wow,’ because I love to cook,” she said.
Gerondale and her husband, Gavin, went to see the Braesvalley home on a picture-perfect, Chamber of Commerce day, and after wandering through this light-filled, well-maintained home, she tapped her husband on the shoulder and said, “If you let this house get away from us, I’ll never forgive you.”
For Dick Davis, the story was similar — a friend called saying, “There’s this great house you need to see.”
Davis, who owns Depco Power Systems, was living in a high-rise and knew he needed something more permanent. His Realtor friend kept talking: “Francois de Menil was its architect. Carol Isaak Barden was its developer.”
He called in his longtime interior designer, Cynthia Stone, to get her blessing, and she was just as enthusiastic. “When I walked in, I just fell in love with it. It was exactly what I was looking for, something contemporary,” he said. “I have had different styles of homes and had never lived in a contemporary home. When this came along, it was perfect, and good timing for me.”
This Stanford Street home had nice, big walls to display his growing art collection and plenty of space for him and his teenage son. Also, the ground floor, devoted to garage and storage space, eased worries about potential flooding.
Its previous owner had already done some remodeling, closing in the top floor to create a bedroom/bathroom for his son and separating a rooftop deck seating area, plus adding some stone features around the house.
The Gerondales didn’t need to do too much, but they did replace their home’s flat roof and worked to raise the level of the backyard to match their neighbors and improved drainage, too.
Both homes will be on the Rice Design Alliance’s 42nd annual architectural tour — H2Ouston: Living in the Floodplain — not only to show examples of interesting architecture in the city, but also to show how the theme of resilience plays itself out in real life.
“It doesn’t sound sexy, but it actually is,” said Florence Tang, an architectural designer at studioMET as well as an RDA board member and tour chair, of the floodplain topic. “Everyone in the industry, regardless of role, knows the power and havoc of nature in this region. What we do is affected by Mother Nature and how we work with Mother Nature.”
Houston’s 100-year floodplain boundaries were redrawn by the Harris County Flood Control District in 2004, after an extensive review of weather events and flooding. That mapping nearly doubled the size the floodplain — especially along Brays Bayou — compared to its size in the 1980s.
Six homes are featured in the event Saturday and March 26, and Tang said they’re expecting 1,300 to 1,500 visitors.
In deciding which homes to feature, Tang said they considered what great projects have been renovated or constructed in floodplains over the years and are made to withstand heavy rains and flooding. In a curatorial process, they canvassed more than three dozen homes, visited many and discussed them all.
Tourgoers will be fascinated by all the original materials and touches in the Gerondales’ home, which still has its original flooring, wall treatments and paneling. They even have a mixer-blender built into the kitchen cabinet.
Their home was designed by Brooks and Brooks Architects in 1965 and is a must-see for anyone who loves midcentury-modern design. It was the home of David Brooks and his family for 30 years; the Gerondales are only the home’s second owners. The home has a protected landmark status.
Its backyard and drainage problems were addressed when the Gerondales bought it, so while their neighbors suffered 2 to 3 feet of water during the Memorial Day flood in 2015, they merely had 2 to 3 inches.
Davis’ home is much more current, and it’s a towering example of fine architecture and refined taste. The worst he’s seen from heavy rains is a virtual river running down Stanford Street toward Allen Parkway and Buffalo Bayou. His only casualty was his trash can, which he had to chase as it drifted off during a heavy rain.
Tang cited the Sunset Coffee Building on Commerce Street downtown, now the new headquarters for the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, as one that reaches back in time. Built in 1910 at Allen’s Landing — the equivalent of Houston’s Plymouth Rock — the building once housed the International Coffee Co., which made its Sunset coffee here. When the partnership bought the land and structure, the derelict building had long been abandoned.
Lake|Flato Architects of San Antonio and BNIM worked on building design and SWA Group landscape architects breathed new life into this three-story building. Eventually, it will have a coffee shop plus canoe and kayak rentals, as well as a rooftop garden and party terrace.
A home on Logan Lane also will be open to the public, showing how Taft Architects and Renaissance Builders could minimize the footprint of the home with a five-level structure that takes you into the canopy of trees.
On Shirkmere in Timbergrove Manor, architect Nonya Grenader designed a home for a young, growing family. Its first-floor plate is elevated to meet newer construction requirements for homes in a floodplain. Its L-shaped configuration gives most rooms a northsouth exposure and adds privacy to the backyard and pool.
Finally, on Linkwood, a home was torn down, and reusable parts were given to Habitat for Humanity. The new home built there had to be elevated 3½ feet above grade because it’s in the 100-year floodplain, even though it has never flooded.
Architect Brett Zamore was tasked with designing and placing the home in a way that none of the mature shade trees would be sacrificed.
If Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 or Hurricane Ike in 2008 didn’t teach us a lesson or two about flooding, the Memorial Day flood and Tax Day event in 2016 surely did.
That is why the team at Rice Design Alliance picked what otherwise might seem like an unusual architectural tour.
“We wanted the best projects that would bring to light what we know is a major issue in our city,” Tang said. “Flooding is not going away.”