For Preservation the newsletter of
Volume 20, No. 3
www.ghpa.org
n
greater houston preservation alliance
Houston’s local partner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Summer 2010
City program reuses building materials
jim parsons
A City of Houston Building Materials Reuse Warehouse employee prepares lumber for storage. The warehouse accepts and stores donated building supplies for use by non-profit organizations.
Every year, more than a third of the waste sent to Houston landfills comes from construction and demolition projects. Many of those building materials could be recycled and reused. Now GHPA members can help the environment and local taxpayers through a new partnership with the City of Houston Building Materials Reuse Warehouse. The Reuse Warehouse accepts and stores donated building supplies for use by not-for-profit organizations. GHPA’s partnership with the Reuse Warehouse gives GHPA members access to the recycled building supplies. Materials can only be distributed to partnering 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations or their members. The warehouse’s inventory is donated by contractors, supply companies and individuals. In its first year of operation, which ended in April, the Reuse Warehouse took in 20 tons of building materials and recycled 73
percent of those materials to new users. The program’s biggest single success so far has been finding a new user for 3 tons of birch shelving removed when the Oak Forest branch library was remodeled. “The city doesn’t own landfills,” manager Keith Koski said. “We pay for everything that gets dumped. Every pound of material diverted from the landfill saves tax dollars.” With constant turnover, the products available can change from one day to the next. On a recent visit, the warehouse held a variety of windows and shutters, interior doors, acoustical ceiling tiles, bricks, flooring and various types of hardware. The Reuse Warehouse is located at 9003 North Main Street near Crosstimbers. For hours of operation, visit www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/ reuse.html. For additional information, call (281) 814-3324 or e-mail reuse.warehouse@cityofhouston.net.
Rice, GHPA sponsor local history course of several close-in residential areas. Among the historic neighborhoods featured in the program are Broadacres, Shadow Lawn, Idylwood, Garden Oaks and Magnolia Park. GHPA’s Historic Neighborhood Resources Director Courtney Tardy will close the series with a discussion of preservation in Houston. The course will be held on the Rice University campus on eight Monday evenings, September 13 through November 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. GHPA members may register for the discounted price of $160 for the course. Partici-
tions. Funds from the Susan Vaughan Foundation will cover GHPA’s expenses associated with the project, which is set to begin in the fall. “One of our big goals is to preserve what’s left of Houston’s historic architecture,” said Susan Garwood, president of the Susan Vaughan Foundation. “I’m thrilled that Preservation River Oaks can tap into GHPA’s wonderful resources. To me, it’s a win-win for both organizations, and I’m hopeful that this will mean more designations of significant River Oaks homes.”
A day of festivities will mark the re-opening of Market Square Park on Saturday, August 28. The calendar of events for the opening is still being developed, but GHPA’s Walking Tours Program will be taking part by offering guided architecture tours of the neighborhood around Market Square. The block bounded by Milam, Preston, Travis and Congress streets was the site of the city hall and market house for the first century of Houston’s existence. The refurbished park will include a central lawn indicating the former location of Houston City Hall as well as a dog run, performance area, public art installations and Niko Niko’s sidewalk café. On the north side of the square, the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation has funded the creation of Lauren’s Garden, a memorial to all those killed on September 11, 2001. The foundation and garden are named for Houstonian Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, who was a passenger on United Flight 93. The park’s redesign is a
Please see River Oaks, Page 2
Please see Park, Page 2
jim parsons
GHPA members have an opportunity to learn about the history and development of some of Houston’s historic inner Loop neighborhoods and enjoy discounted registration for a fall semester course co-sponsored by Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Education and Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. The eight-week course is called “Historic Houston Neighborhoods.” Local historians, including Stephen Fox and Betty Trapp Chapman, will trace the birth, growth and, in some cases, rebirth
Market Square Park to re-open August 28
Westmoreland, among the earliest suburban neighborhoods on Houston’s southwest side, will be one of the areas featured in the historic neighborhoods course being co-sponsored by GHPA and Rice University this fall.
pants must register for the entire course; registration is not available for single sessions. The continuing education program’s complete sched-
ule and online registration information are available at www.gscs.rice.edu. The historic neighborhoods course number is 351m.
Program encourages landmark designations
jim parsons
The Dr. Culver M. Griswold House at 2121 Brentwood Drive (1929, Stayton Nunn) was designated a City of Houston landmark through the efforts of Preservation River Oaks.
The Susan Vaughan Foundation has pledged funding for a 12-month, cooperative effort between GHPA and Preservation River Oaks to encourage historic designations in the neighborhood. The joint program aims to have 20 historically significant River Oaks houses designated as City of Houston landmarks or protected landmarks within one year. Homeowners must request landmark designation. To assist them in the designation process, GHPA Historic Neighborhood Resources Director Courtney Tardy will work with three qualified GHPA volunteers to conduct the necessary research and produce the applica-
For Preservation
2 | Summer 2010 fr o m t h e ex e c u t i v e d i r e c to r: R A M O N A DAV I S
In honor of David M. Rubenstein by the Honorable & Mrs. James A. Baker III In honor of Paula & Sam Douglass by Sara Dodd-Spickelmier & Keith Spickelmier by Denise & Bill Monteleone In honor of Jack Smyth Josey by Donna Josey-Chapman In honor of Ramona Davis by Louis H. Skidmore, Jr. Recognize and remember friends, colleagues or loved ones with a dedicated contribution to GHPA. To donate online, please visit www.ghpa.org/donate. Gifts to GHPA are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Phoebe and Bobby Tudor and Susan and Gene Vaughan have agreed to serve as co-chairs for the upcoming Cornerstone Dinner. GHPA’s most important fund-raising event will be held on Friday evening, February 4, 2011. The 2011 Good Brick Awards for excellence in historic preservation will be presented during the Cornerstone Dinner. GHPA is now accepting nominations for the 2011 Good Brick Awards. Updated guidelines and nomination forms are available at www.ghpa.org/ awards with a gallery of recent Good
Download the nomination form for the 2011 Good Brick Awards The 2011 Good Brick Awards nomination form, including the full guidelines and instructions for submitting nominations, is available at www.ghpa.org/awards. Brick recipients. GHPA must receive entries by 3 p.m. Monday, September 13. To qualify, preservation projects must be located within Harris County and must have been completed within the last three years. Commercial, residential
and institutional projects are eligible for awards. Although anyone may submit a nomination, the nominee must be the property owner. If qualified entries are received, GHPA may also present Good Bricks for heritage education programs, books and craftsmen. Entries are judged by a jury of preservation and design professionals, community leaders and past award winners. Former Houston Chronicle home design editor and GHPA Board member Madeleine McDermott Hamm will chair the awards jury.
Shop at Kroger, support GHPA
GHPA has been working with the owner of the I.P. Walker House in Shoreacres, pictured ca. 1935, to determine whether the building is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
GHPA assists with local National Register research Historic Neighborhood Resources Director Courtney Tardy and summer intern James Andras from Baylor University are working with the owner of the I.P. Walker House in Shoreacres to determine whether the property is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The unusual stone house overlooks Galveston Bay in southeastern Harris County. It was built as a fishing camp sometime between the late 1920s and mid-1930s for an executive with the Stowers Furniture Company. The home’s most distinctive features are a stone turret containing a spiral staircase and a faux bois (false wood) double gallery supported by concrete columns made to look like trees. For the owners of private homes, inclusion on the National Register is primarily a matter of recognition. Listing on the Register does not provide any tax incentives for preserving owner-occupied historic houses. Listing does provide limited protection from federally funded public works projects. GHPA staff members have also conducted research to determine whether the former Alamo Elementary School (1912, 1929) at 201 East 27th Street and Frances E.W. Harper School (1928) at 3200 Center Street are
David bush
Gifts to GHPA
Tudors, Vaughans to co-chair Cornerstone Dinner
courtesy of preston r. plumb iii
Preserving a sense of place and enhancing quality of life are two of the most frequently cited benefits of historic preservation. Although they are intangible, they produce concrete results. In 1997, the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University published “The Benefits of Historic Preservation,” which looked at values for residential properties in designated historic districts versus those in comparable unprotected neighborhoods. In communities as different as Columbia, S.C., and Chicago, property values in designated historic districts grew faster than in adjacent non-designated neighborhoods. In Washington, D.C., properties in historic districts held their value while non-designated areas saw declines. Most of these studies looked at communities that had benefited from preservation protections for at least 20 years. The research was being conducted at about the same time Houston was enacting its first preservation ordinance in 1995. Now GHPA has commissioned the Hobby Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston to collect and analyze local data. By next year, we hope to have hard numbers that demonstrate the benefits of historic preservation in Houston.
2011 good bri ck awards
Alamo Elementary School (1912)
eligible for listing on the National Register. Alamo and Harper are among the historic schools Houston ISD is selling for redevelopment. If the schools were listed on the National Register, an approved rehabilitation of the historic buildings as incomeproducing properties would qualify for federal preservation tax credits. GHPA has submitted its findings to Texas Historical Commission and requested letters of eligibility. A list of HISD schools available for purchase is online at www.houstonisd.org/ portal/site/realestate.
Park
River Oaks
joint project of the Houston Downtown Management District, Downtown Houston Redevelopment Authority and the City of Houston Parks & Recreation Department. GHPA will e-mail its members a schedule of Market Square opening events when they are finalized.
Concerned residents formed Preservation River Oaks in 2005 as demolitions were taking an increasing toll on the neighborhood’s traditional character. Since then, the all-volunteer group has helped the owners of more than 30 historic houses have their properties designated as City of Houston
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GHPA is a partner in Kroger’s Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program. Each time you shop at Kroger and use an enrolled Kroger Plus Card, GHPA will receive a percentage of the purchase. For GHPA to benefit, bring the bar code at the bottom of this article the next time you shop at Kroger. Have the cashier scan your Kroger Plus Card at the beginning of your order, then scan the barcode from this newsletter. Once your card is scanned with the barcode, it will be active in the program through April 30, 2011. Randalls shoppers can also support GHPA by signing up to participate in Randalls Good Neighbor Program. Complete the form at any Randalls courtesy booth and fill in GHPA’s account number, 2841, in the Good Neighbor Program section. Randalls will donate a portion of eligible purchases to GHPA when you use your Randalls Remarkable Card. GHPA is an Amazon.com associate. When you shop, please go to www.ghpa.org/ bookstore and use the search engine on the Bookstore page to enter Amazon.com. GHPA will receive a percentage of every purchase you make when you enter Amazon.com through GHPA’s website.
historic landmarks. With the success of the program came growing demands on volunteers’ time and energy. As a result, Preservation River Oaks contacted GHPA and the Susan Vaughan Foundation about creating the joint program. Information about the city’s historic landmark designation process and a gallery of Preservation River Oaks’ successes are available online at www.preserveriveroaks.com.
For Preservation
Summer 2010 | 3
Registration open for National Preservation Conference, October 27 through 30 in Austin
david bush
The United States Court House (1936, C.H. Page & Son) is among the buildings GHPA staff members Jim Parsons and David Bush will highlight during their walking tours of downtown Austin’s Art Deco architecture, being offered on October 28 and 29 as part of the National Preservation Conference.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has opened registration for the 2010 National Preservation Conference to be held October 27-30 at the Austin Convention Center. The event is the nation’s largest annual gathering of preservationists. The Austin conference will feature a full schedule of speakers, seminars and field sessions. Anyone with an interest in preservation is invited to attend. Discounted early registration continues through July
31. Full-price registration will be available online from August 1 through October 25. Visit www.preservationnation.org/ conference to see the preliminary program and to register online. During the conference, GHPA staff members Jim Parsons and David Bush will conduct walking tours of downtown Austin’s Art Deco architecture. Conference attendees may register for the tours when they register for the conference. The field sessions will coincide with the release of
Bush and Parsons’ new book, Hill Country Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas, which is being published by TCU Press of Fort Worth. The book, funded in part by a grant from the Fondren Endowed Preservation Services Fund for Texas of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a follow-up to GHPA’s Houston Deco. Greater Houston Preservation Alliance is a promotional partner of the 2010 National Preservation Conference.
2010 National Preservation Month Luncheon Two hundred guests heard Carlyle Group co-founder and historic document collector David M. Rubenstein speak during GHPA’s 2010 National Preservation Month Luncheon on May 21 at River Oaks Country Club. Lorraine and Ed Wulfe co-chaired the event with Paula and Sam Douglass.
Houston City Councilmember Wanda Adams and GHPA Board member Bill Stubbs
Joyce Greenberg and Marion Rosenwald
Lynn Kelly, Linda Sylvan, Barrie Scardino, Kathryn Fosdick and Ty Kelly
GHPA Treasurer Lynne Bentsen, David M. Rubenstein, GHPA Vice President/Special Events Nancy Ames, Executive Director Ramona Davis
Historic Neighborhood Resources Director Courtney Tardy and Claire Thielke
ALL: PETE BAATZ/FORMULA ONE PHOTOGRAPHY
David M. Rubenstein, Gene Vaughan and luncheon co-chair Ed Wulfe
For Preservation
4 | Summer 2010
greater houston preservation alliance 2009-2010 Board of Directors O f f i c e rs Larry E. Whaley President Nancy Ames VP/Special Events
Tony Abyad Past President
Al Calloway VP/Communication
Lynne Bentsen Treasurer
Bill Franks VP/Development
Patricia Laurent Secretary
Eileen Hricik VP at Large
Rick Walton VP/Museum of Houston
dir e c tors Michelle Barnes Minnette Boesel Rosario Boling Tim Cisneros Joe Colaco
David Cottrell III Jane-Page Crump Carlo M. Di Nunzio Cindy Crane Garbs Diane Gendel
Madeleine Hamm Karen Henry Susan Hill Andrew Kaldis C.C. Lee
Janita Lo Jim Murnane Patty Porter Mary Ann Reynolds Randhir Sahni
Louis H. Skidmore, Jr. Janet Spencer William W. Stubbs Phoebe Tudor Bob Wakefield
e x o f f i c io R. George Cunningham Parliamentarian
Charles D. Maynard, Jr. Legal Counsel
Bart Truxillo Director Emeritus
Patrick Van Pelt Chairman, Harris County Historical Commission
Randy Pace City of Houston Historical Preservation Officer
Marlene Gafrick Director, City of Houston Department of Planning and Development
b u sin e ss and not - f or - p ro f i t m e m b e rs 1940 Air Terminal Museum Tony Abyad / Skyland Development Adept Word Management AGC Houston AIA Houston Bailey Architects, Inc. Bering’s Bill Fisher Benefits Specialists Boulevard Oaks Ladies Club Bradshaw-Carter Memorial & Funeral Services Brick Restoration, Inc. Bridgeway Capital Management Canyonlands Corp. Colquitt Court Civic Association Christian Science Reading Room Cooke + Skidmore Consulting Corp. Documentary Alliance Federal Reserve Bank Fretz Construction Company Gabriel Architects, Inc.
Gensler Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects Glenwood Cemetery, Inc. and Glenwood Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation Madeleine M. Hamm / Design Communications HawesHillCalderon, LLP Haynes Whaley Associates, Inc. Karen Henry / The PR Boutique The Heritage Society Jerry Hernandez / Russo Services, Inc. Hines HistoryConsultants.net Houston Mod Houston House & Home HSPVA Friends Peggy Hull / Creative Touch Interiors Jane-Page Crump / Jane Page Design Group JPMorgan Chase & Co. Kaldis Development Interests Kirksey
Landmark Houston Hospitality Group Llewelyn-Davies Sahni Madison Benefits Group Martha Turner Properties Matrix Spencer Architects Nadolney Enterprises, LP REHKA Engineering, Inc. Rey de la Reza Architects, Inc. R.N. Wakefield & Co., Antiques Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, Inc. Daphne Scarbrough / The Brass Maiden Stern and Bucek Architects Stewart Title SWCA Environmental Consultants Tellepsen W.S. Bellows Construction Ward & Ames Special Events William Reaves Fine Art, LLC William W. Stubbs & Associates Winlow Place Civic Club Ziegler Cooper, Inc.
About GHPA The mission of Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA) is to promote the preservation and appreciation of Houston’s architectural and cultural historic resources through education, advocacy and committed action, thereby creating economic value and developing a stronger sense of community. GHPA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. GHPA is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. GHPA is a member of Preservation Texas and Partners for Sacred Spaces.
GHPA online www.ghpa.org www.museumofhouston.org www.houstondeco.org
For Preservation David Bush, editor Jim Parsons, designer Copyright 2010, Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. All rights reserved.
Nominate a project for the 2011 Good Brick Awards The nomination form is available for download at www.ghpa.org/awards. Nominations are due Monday, September 13, 2010.
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