The saga concerning late American architect Victor Lundy’s personal residence in Houston, Texas, USA, has been resolved following a last-minute bid from local preservationists who successfully purchased the home.
Buyers Dan and Carol Price were able to acquire the Bellaire property for $1.75 million after a hard-fought yearlong advocacy campaign staged by the Texas Historical Foundation, Houston Mod, Docomomo US and Preservation Houston, where the Prices sit on the board.
The home, a low-slung, two-bedroom design defined by a curving glass wall that frames its main living space and a roofline supported by elliptical glue-laminated hemlock wood arches, was completed in 1988 and comes with an attached studio.
Victor Lundy’s personal residence in Houston has been saved by preservationists
Previous owners had planned to work with Habitat for Humanity on repurposing materials taken from its planned demolition following the initial sale of the property for at least $1.43 million that preceded Lundy’s death at age 101 in November 2024.
Preservation Houston now says the plan is to “restore the property and explore possibilities for its continued use and preservation”.
This reportedly includes use as a residence for visiting artists and scholars from the University of Houston, or a case study for the effect of modern preservation techniques on habitability.
The house features modern forms with hemlock cladding
The structure will have to be elevated if future renovation plans exceed 50 per cent of its appraised value due to its placement on the local floodplain.
The resolution highlights how “advocacy, partnership and action can protect the places that shape our shared history and identity,” according to Preservation Houston.
“We think it’s an interesting challenge and there are very interesting questions about modernism and architecture that this house embodies,” Dan Price had said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle after its sale in October.
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“Saving the Victor Lundy House shows what’s possible when the preservation community moves quickly and speaks with one voice,” Preservation Houston Executive Director Jennifer Kapral told Dezeen.
“Once the threat became clear, Preservation Houston and our partners rallied awareness, mobilised supporters, and built a coalition committed to protecting this landmark.”
“Thanks to generous and dedicated preservationists Carol and Dan Price, the house is now saved, a powerful reminder that Houston’s historic architecture and history can be protected when the community understands what’s at stake.”
The house was preserved through community action
Lundy, a decorated World War II veteran who received the Purple Heart during his service, is considered one of the founders of the Sarasota School of Architecture alongside Paul Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell.
His contributions to the modernist movement include a pair of contrasting Unitarian Universalist church designs in Connecticut and several other religious commissions.
He followed Rudolph in studying under Walter Gropius at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and was an accomplished watercolourist outside of architecture.
The preservation of Lundy’s residence has been overshadowed slightly by the debate surrounding Houston’s 60-year-old Astrodome, the former “Eighth Wonder of the World” whose future remains in doubt after closing to the public in 2009.
Earlier this month, Dezeen covered the opening of the Farshid Moussavi Architects-designed Ismaili Center.
Other demolition stories to note in 2025 include a controversial plan for the Stirling Prize-winning Centenary Building at the University of Salford and the razing of Bertrand Goldberg’s Elgin Mental Health Center design outside of Chicago.
Photography by Benjamin Hill Photography.Â