Nosy Questions for Gil Schafer

November 1, 2017January 8, 2018Teresa Byrne-Dodge

American architect Gil Schafer is known for creating personal and timeless homes that celebrate the lives of their owners. They are spaces intended for making and keeping memories. To that end, Schafer’s brand-new book, A Place to Call Home: Tradition, Style, and Memory in the New American House (Rizzoli, $55) pulls...

Post-Harvey: 9 Questions for Leash Yu

October 27, 2017October 31, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Since Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians have had hundreds of questions about flood claims, building codes and buying up water-damaged properties as future investments. Li-Hsi “Leash” Yu, president of Agency Yu, Inc.* in West University, recently came to the Greenwood King office on Kirby Drive to talk about flooding (and its aftermath) from...

See You at the Polo Club

October 17, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Back in the 1980s, while on a travel-writing assignment for Ultra magazine, I attended an elephant polo match near Tiger Tops in Nepal. The so-called “biggest sport in the world” has two men on each lumbering beast – the mahout (or elephant driver) and the player, who leans wa-a-ay out to...

How to Build a Fish Pond

October 4, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Every great garden has a water feature. It’s the finishing touch that charms the ears even as it soothes the eyes. Installing a pond is not difficult and does not have to be expensive. Look around the internet and you’ll find many pond-and-fountain kits just right for the patio. Just add...

Now Showing: The Trip to Spain

September 5, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Two days before Hurricane Harvey landed in Houston, we were invited to a media preview for the new film, The Trip to Spain. As with The Trip to Italy (2014) and, just, The Trip (2011), the latest installment of this film franchise from director Michael Winterbottom pairs Steve Coogan (you’ll also...

The Cistern: A Chilling Echo & Countless Columns

July 24, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Last year in the spring, a wondrous local attraction was unveiled. It’s called the Cistern, and that’s just what it is: an underground concrete cistern the size of one and a half football fields – nearly two acres – that once held 15 million gallons of Houston drinking water. It’s cool,...

Nosy Questions with John Sebastian

June 20, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

The eponymous founder of the Sebastian Construction Group was George Sebastian, a Dallas native and self-trained architect. Returning home from service in the Pacific during World War II, he founded his building company in 1948 in response to Dallas’ rapidly expanding population. Gradually the company transitioned from middle-market construction to high-end...

New Discoveries In An Old Favorite

May 5, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

One of the many satisfactions of revisiting a city where you used to live is discovering all the new restaurants, music venues, shops and museum exhibits that have opened since you moved away. But sometimes it’s a great pleasure to revisit your old hometown and discover something old that you never...

Make It Official: Is Your Home Historic?

January 23, 2017October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Did you know that the City of Houston has 22 Historic Districts? On a map, these districts appear clumped, mostly in The Heights, as well as the east Montrose area, the Boulevard Oaks/Broadacres area north of West University and just west of downtown in the High First Ward and Old Sixth...

A Chat with Gregg Thompson of Thompson + Hanson

December 19, 2016October 20, 2017Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Thompson + Hanson, the high-end nursery with the dreamy retail shop located on West Alabama at Joanel, first sold Christmas trees in the early 1990s, about a decade after its founding in 1981. However, the surprise success of the nursery’s on-site restaurant Tiny Boxwoods subsequently required so much space that partners Gregg...