To Scott Mitchell, building a neighborhood means so much more to than just building a house.
Growing up, Mitchell—the son of The Woodlands founder and oilman George Mitchell—always loved being surrounded by farmland and farm structures, such as farmhouses, barns and sheds.
"I love rural architecture," Mitchell said, who would become the founder of Life Forms Homes Inc., in the late 70s.
When he began building his first set of homes—three years after his father founded the township in 1974—Mitchell wanted to cater to people looking to raise their children, custom-built to the homeowner, with features such as a screened-in porch. "The front porch, to me, is the social gesture on the street. When you're on your front porch, you're open to say 'hi' to your neighbor, who might be walking on the street."
And a house without a porch feels cold to Mitchell. Without one, a homeowner may not want to interact with their neighbors, he said.
In 1985, Mitchell would open one of the real estate company's bigger projects — the Trace Creek neighborhood—selling a total of 153 home sites within 16 months while the U.S. was recovering from a recession in the 80s. Today, a Life Forms-designed home can only be found in The Woodlands and only through resell, said Mike Seder of The Mike Seder Group real estate company, who sold Life Forms houses for several years.
"You can't go out and find a new home or a new neighborhood with Life Forms," Seder said. "It's all about the resell end of it, which they resell very, very well."
For example, a home inside of the Trace Creek neighborhood was sold in May for more than $600,000, according to an HAR.com listing.
Many soon-to-be homeowners were attracted to Life Forms uniquely-designed two-story homes, which was referred to as a "tree house" layout — a living room space, dining room, kitchen and master bedroom placed on the second floor, while two bedrooms and a garage are built on the first floor.
"I think that design is very unique to The Woodlands," Mitchell said, noting that there's not a huge market of people who want a master bedroom upstairs. However, once home buyers would see the layout—the cathedral-like ceilings with big views—some would immediately fall in love with it. "It's not for everybody."
And just like his father, maintaining the natural look of The Woodlands was also key to designing a home, Mitchell said.
Life Forms would go on to build homes in the township for more than a decade before shutting its doors in the early 2000s.
Bethany and Brent Straub had moved from Minnesota to Texas in 2018. It took her a year to find a home in The Woodlands, Bethany Straub said.
"When you move into The Woodlands, the market moves so quickly here," Bethany Straub said. "We bought our house off-market. We were living in an apartment when we moved here, because there was nothing for sale. We couldn't find anything...then we started meeting people through the schools. And there's this underground black market. And we ended up meeting somebody that actually now lives on our street. And he was like 'hey, my neighbor's going to sell.'"
When looking for a home, it was important for it to have "some kind of greenery," Bethany Straub said. She and her husband, Brent, had also grew up in two-story homes, which is something they were looking for as well, Brent Straub said. In 2019, the Straubs moved into a Life Forms home at Cochran's Crossing, Bethany Straub said.
"It's a great location in The Woodlands," she said.
Correction (Oct. 15): This article and photo captions have been updated to state that 43 Tender Violet Place was designed after Scott Mitchell left Life Forms Homes.
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