HOUSTON – By Cynthia Lescalleet (for Realty News Report) – Rottet Studio, led by award-winning architect and interior designer Lauren Rottet, has purchased adjacent bayou-front properties in the tucked-away Briar Hollow neighborhood to create a modern, purpose-built headquarters for the firm. The studio has long operated from rental space in the historic Esperson Building downtown, and this new site offers a rare opportunity to design a customized workspace and preserve an important piece of Houston’s architectural heritage.
The 1.72-acre parcel includes a noteworthy mid-century residence: a 1960 custom house by prominent Houston architect Howard Barnstone in collaboration with Preston Bolton. The property’s wooded, rolling grounds border a bend in Buffalo Bayou, just south of Memorial Park, providing an exceptional setting for a design studio.
Barnstone’s modernist influence, with echoes of Mies van der Rohe, is evident in the house’s rectilinear silhouette, flat roof, exposed steel structure and full-height glass walls. Time and the flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 took their toll, damaging the lower level, which is set into the hillside, and affecting the surrounding grounds. The neighboring 1960s estate on the same site suffered less harm.
Rottet Studio’s plans are still being finalized, but the firm intends to restore and adapt the Barnstone house while adding new space for offices, a materials library, indoor-outdoor meeting areas and showrooms. The goal is to honor the original architecture while providing contemporary workplace functions for a creative and collaborative team.
“We don’t want our new building to look like we’re trying to match a mid-century modernist style,” Lauren Rottet said. “We want it to be constructed of glass because the site is so beautiful.” The emphasis on transparency will help connect indoor spaces with the bayou and mature landscape that define the site.
Rottet noted that the studio’s remote work culture is well established, so the full team won’t be in the office every day. Still, the studio requires dedicated workspaces and practical amenities: “we need a desk for everybody as well as a parking space,” she said.
The second house on the property will likely be refreshed and leased to a small business or startup while longer-term plans for the site are developed, company sources said.
MAXIMIZING the MINIMALISM
One restoration strategy under consideration is raising the structure about six feet above the current flood plain to protect the building and preserve its character, said Kyle Rottet, marketing director for Rottet Studio. “We are honored to continue the legacy,” he said, emphasizing an approach that respects the original design while introducing modern conveniences, additional parking and other practical updates.
The house, known as the Owsley House at 65 Briar Hollow Lane, was long regarded as a standout example of the Barnstone-Bolton collaboration, with original landscaping by Fred Buxton. According to Houston Mod’s directory of mid-century architecture, the 7,500-square-foot residence features a main entry reached by a wooden bridge across a tree-lined motor court to the home’s mid-level. Historic descriptions note teak floors on the main level and raw silk-lined draperies; a 2011 renovation reportedly changed the exterior color from a mustard tone to the current gray.
The new owner intends to seek landmark status and inclusion on historic property registries at the local, state and national levels to help protect and recognize the property’s architectural significance.
The site itself sits on two of the remaining original lots from the Briar Hollow subdivision, a mid-century enclave once characterized by country estates, according to the AIA Houston Architectural Guide. Over time, the arrival of the adjacent West Loop segment transformed the area into a mix of gated townhomes, condominiums and low-rise office buildings, while many tree-lined streets retained Briar-themed names.
THE HUNT
Since 1998, Rottet Studio has operated from the Esperson Building downtown, a landmark skyscraper recognized for its temple-topped silhouette. The firm now maintains a national practice of about 75 people and a local design team of roughly 20, working in a roughly 7,000-square-foot office. Rottet Studio’s portfolio spans residential, hospitality, corporate and maritime projects worldwide, with recent Houston work that includes the Four Seasons Hotel, La Colombe d’Or, Hotel Alessandra, C. Baldwin and The River Oaks condo tower.
The conversation about moving from tenancy to ownership had been ongoing for years, and momentum grew over the past year, Kyle Rottet said. He represented the buyer in the purchase; the seller was represented by Barbara Bone of Unique Inc. The two adjacent properties were marketed “as is” and suitable for commercial use. The studio declined to disclose the purchase price; real estate websites estimated the combined sale around $4 million.
The Briar Hollow listing surfaced quietly, Kyle Rottet said, but the site proved a wise choice because it allows the studio to showcase its full range of architectural and interior design services, along with furniture and accessories from the Rottet Collection.
Designing a headquarters for an architecture and design firm presents a familiar challenge: the client is also the creator. That freedom allows for experimentation and high design, but it must be balanced with fiscal responsibility. Budget discipline and clear priorities are essential to turn ideas into deliverable outcomes.
“Considering the personal requests of the staff plays into this idea as well,” Kyle Rottet added. “Rottet is a big family… Listening, planning and incorporating personal requests in such a way that it benefits everyone is really important.”
May 22, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
Images: courtesy of Rottet Studio
File: HQ On The Bayou for Rottet Studio. Howard Barnstone. Lauren Rottet. Mies van der Rohe.
File: (2) HQ On The Bayou in Briar Hollow. Houston Mod. Memorial Park.