Customer Reviews

The Country Houses of John F. Staub (Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a background, I have been collecting the drawings of the greatest American residential architects between 1900 and 1930 for over 8 years to use for inspiration in my architectural practice. This book shows the work of one of the top architects of the period. He is not the greatest in the area of artistic proportions and style, but he far outshines almost all architects living today. Most of the homes listed in this book are large examples where there was no budgetary limitation. The most difficult classical home to design is the small 2 or 3 bedroom home with a limited budget. The floor plans shown in this book give a wide mix of room proportions from square to long and narrow with every ratio in between. My measurements of hundreds of classic homes has turned up an ideal ratio room that should be used when possible. This may be an extreme viewpoint, but it works in practice. If you are in love with neoclassical and romantic homes of the first third of the 20th century, you should buy this book. It should be required reading for every Architectural Student in training for residential design.

The extent of architect John F. Staub's influence on Houston, Texas is reflected in the fact that today tour companies offer excursions to visit the homes he designed. While many tales surround one of our country's largest cities, his work is sometimes referred to as a "secret" Houston. Or, as it has been described, "Staub's Houston is one of these cities-within-a-city. The dignity, civility and amplitude of Staub's country houses, set in lush, southern, woodland gardens, represent his and his clients' vision of Houston as a garden city. "

With The Country Houses of John F. Staub, architectural historian Stephen Fox takes us on an armchair tour of Staub's work, from neighborhoods such as Shadyside, and Broadacres, to what is perhaps the most famous of all Houston communities, the address of the powerful and wealthy - River Oaks.

Staub's client list included the elite. For instance, the Hogg family for whom he created Bayou Bend, a 28 room mansion built between 1927 and 1928 for Miss Ima Hogg and her two brothers, William and Michael. A study in eighteenth-century Georgian architecture, the mansion is surrounded by magnificent gardens. In 1957 Miss Hogg donated her property to the Museum of fine Arts, Houston. Today it is one of Houston's major attractions.

This beautifully illustrated volume is not only a tribute to Mr. Staub but a mini history of Texas from the turn of the century onward. It will surely be of great interest to architects, Houstonains, and those with an interest in the development of the Lone Star State.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

If I could give this fantastic book 10 stars I would, it is simply perfect. John Staub is so deserving of a book like this, he was quite simply one of the finest residental architects of the 20th century. The text of this book is scholarly in its examination of Staubs buildings, this is not surprising given that the author is a professor at Rice University. Mr. Fox should be extremely proud of this fine book, when I found out he was doing a book on Staub I was thrilled, his book on Houston Architecture is one of the finest architecture guides in the country. The images in this book are crisp and professionally layed out, really I can not find one thing that is not perfect about this book. Staub is revered in Houston, the houses he designed, mostly in chic River Oaks, are the most sought after in town, his houses are rarely torn down, and if you know anything about Houston you can really appreciate that fact. If you have any interest in fine residental architecture, great architects, or just have an appreciation for finely crafted books, then I cant imagine you not being as impressed as I am with this book.

Before WWII, all architects were considered modern. Post-war, a bizarre schism took hold like an infectious agent and architects were divided into two camps: Modernism and Traditional. The former group took over the media and education, and was ruthless in undermining and marginalizing the latter. Architects like Staub, who, before the war, enjoyed high professional esteem, suddenly discovered himself being sneered at. While he never lacked for work, he was never again published in professional publications and was therefore forgotten by a national audience.

We have all suffered for this idiocy.

Today, thanks to an outpouring of gorgeous books such as this, people are belatedly recognizing what a wealth of talent has been brushed aside.

I have an abiding passion for architecture, both modernist and a language of tradition, and I was but dimly aware of Staub. I also have a particular appreciation for architects who can take an ancient language and develop something I've never seen before. As such, the book was a revelation. Staub's work is full of delightful, inventive details, proportions, and materials that bring a broad smile to my face.

The STUNNING images throughout the book help to highlight the genius of Staub.

So, too, do the many plans. (Why do so many books on architecture leave out the all-important plans? Or show them so small as to be unreadable?)

Houses that to me really stood out:

The Gartner house and its extraordinary façade - the near-windowless result of the house facing the blazing west sun (pages 148-9).

The Cullen house at a glace looks like an imposing, traditional pile but a closer look reveals startling and inventive details. The aluminum and glass stair balustrade makes one gasp! And don't miss the Soane-like upper stair hall (page 179). The house was very modern at the time of construction, and is today redolent of its period (and should be greatly valued as such).

Two houses that particularly caught my eye were the Straus and James A. Elkins, Jr. houses. Curiously, the Straus house is only shown in archival images. Does this remarkable house still stand? The Elkins house (pages 326-30) is frankly astonishing and a dazzling synthesis of modernism and tradition. Howard Barnstone (who wrote the out-of-print Straub book) loathed the Elkins house but the design really highlights the genius of Staub. It looks nothing like his previous work save for the same meticulous attention to detail, proportions, and materials. This house, too, is redolent of its period (deliciously so) and is hopefully treasured by its owners and Houston.

As other reviews have noted though, the book can be a difficult read. Here's just one example (page 122): "The intricacy with which he staged access to the master bedroom and girls' bedroom, so that passage moved in two stages around what the plan reveals was the bathtub niche in the master bathroom, demonstrates his capacity to work with space reciprocally, to resolve practical planning issues in order to shape circumstantial spaces that dialectically framed the rooms to which they gave access as ceremonial."

What? What?

An easier way to have conveyed the same thing, and surely a better way to engage readers, might have been: In the second floor plan, note how Staub elegantly allowed the two rear bedrooms to each have its own foyer-like space - a clever solution to a protruding bathtub in the master bathroom.

While the text is unnecessarily opaque, I nonetheless give the book 5 stars. It's a must for anyone with an abiding passion for the art of architecture - in all its forms.

John Staub's attention to detail as illustrated in this wonderful book was second to none. The book's wonderful illustrations showcase many of the architect's beautifully designed homes in Texas. These homes would be very suitable for construction in most parts of the country and would fit right in. The floor plans show Staub's designs for the upper middle class as well as the truly wealthy class of people and reflect the quality of detail and craftsmanship prevalant in the late 1920's and into the 1930's. I assure you, this book is an asset to anyone's library who is interested in architecture.

Having been in one of Staub's homes in River Oaks, I can concur with Howard Barnstone's quote - "the bodily experience of moving through a Staub interior as - the divine float"... Stephen Fox was the perfect person with the necessary education and love of architectural detail to take on the task of writing about Staub who was surely a national treasure for his unique and lasting body of work. This is a book to read, enjoy keep and pass on to future generations.

Many of us are subjected to the new mega mansions in our neighborhoods and in other areas of our city. It's not just the close in Arts & Crafts and cottages that were our once our modest childhood homes at stake anymore. Many historical structures by talented architects in Houston such as John Staub, Barnstone, etc are now be razed to build homes that more resemble bank buildings to satisfy the nouveau riche excess taste. Even in Texas, bigger is not always better. This book chronicles many of these homes that I once remembered in awe, but now gone forever. While globabl warming may be hoax, the loss of these beautiful homes is a reality that needs to be addressed. Great book for your library and memories.

What happens? Architectural schizophrenia. Staub was the best neo-classicist practicing in Houston, and in Texas, in the first half of the 20th century. His houses are lovely studies in delicate classical detailing, repeated to reveal truly grand scale. His art reached its full potential because it was generously patronized by wealthy Houstonians. This book tells that story, with gorgeous photography and politically loaded language.

Now, enter the over-the-top deconstructionist archi-speak of the author, who can't decide if Staub was a real genius or just another imperial imitator. Quite annoying, really. This book should have been written by someone with an appropriate appreciation for scale, proportion, massing and form rather than another graduate from Lars Lerup's flake factory. P-L-A-S-T-I-C. Yeah, whatever.

Bottom line: This book is for browsing more than reading, so you're more likely to notice the startling work of the architect than the distracting analysis of the author. It's a shame so few people appreciate the art of building anymore. Staub did, and he was a consummate artist, more disciplined than McKim, Mead and White and more original than, say, Atlanta's Neel Reid.

Buy this book as a catalog and chronicle of the work of one of our country's most talented residential architects, and go to see the houses now before Houston has a chance to demolish them all.

My objections to 'Country Houses of John F. Staub' begin with the title. Why the Staub works included in the book are defined as "country houses" is quite unclear. The majority of these houses are in fairly dense urban/ suburban neighborhoods. While the architectural ancestry of many of the designs is that of English, American and even French country houses, Staub's works are very much in the mainstream of American suburban house design of the mid-twentieth century.
I lived for many years in a neighborhood rich with Staub houses, and I have always loved them for their understated and impeccable design. The earlier book on Staub by Howard Barnstone has become a collector's item and I am lucky enough to have a copy which I have read and re-read many times.
The current book, I am sorry to say, is virtually unreadable. Stephen Fox's text is laden with impenetrable sociological jargon with the thesis being, as far as I can tell, that the newly rich of Houston wished to reside in tastefully traditional houses. This 'insight' is belabored to the point of comedy. To read passages of this prose aloud will make you roll over laughing at the convoluted language used to explain the obvious.
Sadly, the overwhelming sociological point-making of the text completely dominates the book, rather than discussion of Staub's space-planning, detailing and architectural imagery.
Richard Cheek's photographs, however are positively stunning. For me, the ideal would have been a re-edition of Howard Barnstone's earlier book on Staub with the addition of Cheek's photography.

This book is a true tribute to Staub and the world he created for his clients--mostly Houstonians. It is a beautiful well illustrated book that gives you a historical paradigm for which to better understand and more appreciate the homes showcased within. Great for coffee table reading or for the serious student alike.