Bicoastal in Flyover Country

2025-01-23

Meet the Architects

Before we bought the house, extensive structural work was performed by the architecture firm The Kubala Washatko Architects, with the project lead of Adam Voltz. We decided that it made sense to choose the same firm, as they had a jump-start on the intricacies of the house.

Adam Voltz

Adam added Ariel Steuer and Lisa Stafford to the team. The three of them have been working relentlessly as we identify designs we want to implement, change our minds, and then think of new ways to approach problems.

Ariel Steuer

Lisa Stafford

I will talk about this more than once, but we are not planning on living in a museum, but we do want to be respectful of what Wright and Neidecken had planned for the Bogk House. We are restricted by some easements owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy (Which is the right way to insure conservation) and John Waters there has been a great resource for us.

John has made introductions to people at Taliesin and the Meyer May House, both of whom were very generous with their time, as well as visited with us and discussed the updates we are planning for the kitchen and bathrooms.

The Bogk House

"Frank Lloyd Wright designed 1,141 houses, commercial buildings and other works throughout his lifetime, including 532 that were eventually built. As of 2013, there were 409 extant structures designed by Wright."

Wikipedia

The Frederick C Bogk house was one his "in between" homes. Not really a "Prairie Style" and definitely not a Usonian. It was contracted in 1915, built in 1916, and finished in 1917. This was the same time he was working on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

We bought this house in December of 2023.

The house was in great condition when we took possession. The Elsner family had been living there since 1955, and raised a family of 5. It was a well loved house, and it showed throughout the place.

I will try to show a nice walk through of the place, and as time goes by, show the updates that we hope to make over the next year. Nothing major, of course - but things to bring it up to some comfortable modern standards. Kitchen, bathrooms, maybe a new rug.

This is what you see as you head south on North Terrace Avenue:

A beautiful house situated in the middle of a beautiful street with nice homes that were mostly constructed at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

And if you look closely, you can see behind the tree on the left, the "front" door:

Wright did not like front doors to open onto the street, but on the side of the house.

If you walk around to the south side of the house you see a conservatory, and an upstairs balcony:

Then head around the back, and you see the very private back garden:

I don't have a good front on view of the garage door. I will get that later, and you will be amazed. Something to look forward to.

This is where we will relocate the compressors for the new air conditioning.

Here is the other (north) side of the house, with me for scale:

More of the outside later.

When you walk in the front door, this is what you see:

Maybe you didn't catch that:

One more time:

While not perfectly framed in my photo, it is a Wright designed fountain perfectly framed by the bookcase.

The walkthrough continues later.

2025-01-22

Yes, I am still here. And there

I know I said "Stay Tuned" This is an update, and I will try to fill you in on what has happend in the past eight months. Here's the short version - We spent the summer in Milwaukee, and had a great time.

We came back to Houston in October with some family from Germany in tow, and had a great time.

We flew back to Milwaukee a couple of times since then, and, yes, had a great time.

We are now close to having a final design for some minor modifications to the Bogk House to make it easier (for us) to live in. Mainly kitchen and bathrooms (we do have some restrictions on what we can do with the interior, which is as it should be)

But how about some photos?