Real Estate / Home + Design / Mansions

Miesian Masterpiece Mansion in River Oaks Hits Market With Plenty of Intrigue — and a $11.78 Million Asking Price

This Houston Landmark Cannot be Torn Down

BY // 08.19.19
photography TK Images

When former Secretary of Commerce Bob Mosbacher and his wife, Mica, invited us to join them for dinner at their notable mid-century modern dwelling in the heart of River Oaks (a chef had been flown in from Paris for the month), the dinner was not to be. We pulled up to the house at 2910 Lazy Lane to find the front yard filled with firetrucks.

A minor electrical blaze in a fuse box had put an end to dinner but not before we visited over cocktails in the smashing dwelling that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We schmoozed in the living room where glass walls overlooked gardens to the south and the swimming pool to the north and across the pool into the dining room, also framed in glass walls. The home registered the signature details of mid-century design — sleek rectilinear lines, flat planes, and monochromatic brickwork.

That was 2005. Today, that gem of a home, often described as Texas’ finest Miesian masterpiece, is privately on the market with an $11,775,000 price tag that comes not only with the National Register designation but also with a Landmark of the City of Houston classification and a Texas Historical Marker.

Don’t even think about tearing it down.

Prominent architect Hugo Victor Neuhaus Jr. built the home in 1950 as his personal residence and lived there until his death in 1987. The property has long been adored by design magazines, architectural historians and conservationist. House Beautiful lauded it in a multi-page spread in 1954. House & Garden saluted it in 1959 as one of its Hallmark Houses and described it as “a new concept of beauty.” In 2005, Citelines described the house “as an integral part of the city’s cultural patrimony.”

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Since Neuhaus’ death, various renovations altered the original plans but not to the extent of disrupting the mid-century aesthetic.  In 2007, the Mosbachers earned a Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston for their careful updating of the home. And in 2016 Mo and Rick Campo, Camden Property Trust CEO and Houston Super Bowl Host chairman, received a Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston for their restoration of the house.

The one-story, 7,033 square foot home, built of steel, brick and glass, centers a verdant 2.3 acre lot that gently slopes down to a ravine which runs off of Buffalo Bayou. Five bedrooms, four baths, a climate-controlled wine vault, up-to-date gourmet kitchen, summer kitchen with brick fireplace, a free-standing roofed pavilion with wine bar, and a free-standing casita are among the features. A bonus — mosquito control is installed across the property.

The house is listed privately through Karen Gillespie with John Daugherty Realtors.

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