1953 Richmond Avenue, Richmond Place, Houston, TX 77098
1953 Richmond Avenue, Richmond Place, Houston, Texas 77098
For Sale By Owner | Google Map
Help us find new preservation-minded owners for this exceptional modern designed building located 4 miles southwest of downtown Houston. Architectural historian and Master Mod Stephen Fox will provide a brief talk. Join us on Sunday, August 25, 2019 from 2-4 PM.
Burdette Keeland and Harwood Taylor designed this highly regarded complex in 1953 to serve as the studio of photographer Fred Winchell. It consists of two buildings overlooking a courtyard designed by the landscape architects Calvin Bishop and Robert Walker of the firm Bishop and Walker. The street-side building, a steel-framed, stucco-covered cube housing two apartments, is elevated to provide ground-level parking beneath, a concept Taylor later used on a number of larger buildings. The rear building has an exposed steel frame with brick infill and is considered Houston’s first commercial example of Miesian architecture.
Houston Mod’s publication Booming Houston and the Modern House- Residential Architecture of Neuhaus & Taylor details the architecture scene of mid-century Houston and this property complete with vintage photographs and plans and will be available at Sunday’s event. The just-restored Checker automobile of past tenant architect Kathy Heard will return for a special appearance during Sunday’s event.
Burdette Keeland (1926 – 2000) was from Texas and studied architecture at Texas A & M and graduated from the University of Houston. He earned a masters degree in architecture from Yale University and taught architecture at UH for over 40 years. Harwood Taylor (1927 – 1988) was from Dallas, grew up in River Oaks, studied architecture at the University of Houston and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in architecture. In 1955 the firm Neuhaus and Taylor was formed. It achieved rapid growth and eventually became 3D/International, later acquired by Parsons Corporation.