Bringing Back the Bendit House: an Early Midcentury Modern Restoration/Renovation Project
by Steven F. Curry AIA, Curry Boudreaux Architects

The Heritage Society Tea Room
Free for members, $5 for non-members

Lars Bang, one of the first graduates of the University of Houston’s College of Architecture, designed the extraordinary Bendit House, built in 1953 in the then-new Ayrshire subdivision in suburban Houston. Heralded by local and national media and featured on the Contemporary Arts Museum’s Modern House Tour Six in 1957, it was later forgotten as the neighborhood around it evolved and insensitive modifications obscured much of its remarkable conceptual clarity.

Steve Curry, co-founder of Curry Boudreaux Architects and President of Houston Mod, purchased the home and embarked on a long-term effort to both carefully restore its character-defining features and make sensitive modifications. The completed home is the result of an exceptionally thorough approach not often seen in mid-20th-century homes and materials. The project, which has received a 2016 Preservation Houston Good Brick Award and a 2015 AIA Houston Design Award, is intended as a tribute to the original achievements of the Bendit House and as testament to its capability to teach and inspire. For this Building Arts Lecture, Steve Curry will talk about the challenges and rewards of this project as both architect and homeowner.