O’Neil Ford Influenced the Timeless Architecture of Scott Lyons and Frank Welch

Why are some modern architectural designs (such as the work of O’Neil Ford, FAIA, Scott Lyons, FAIA, and Frank Welch, FAIA) new, progressive and influential while other modern designs seem trendy and tired at the same time?

The Best Architecture for a Site Creates Timeless Design

Timeless modern architecture is inspired by the site, crafted by the finest artisans, and built using the best technology and materials of the time — those that are familiar as well as technologies and materials that have recently become available. Every era has its achievements from which we build, reinterpret and admire. Great design of any period remains great design.

The Haggerty/Hanley House Designed by O’Neil Ford Draws From Past and Influences Future

The Haggerty/Hanley house that architect O’Neil Ford designed in 1957 is a great example of timeless design. This midcentury Texas modern home draws from Ford’s earlier 1930s Texas modern work as well as that of David Williams, FAIA, which combined elements of European modernism and pioneer houses. This home is artfully situated to emphasize the site and orientation of the home in relationship to the sun much like the first Texas modern home David Williams designed in 1933 on McFarlin Boulevard with views of Turtle Creek. The Haggerty/Hanley home is also considered the best combination of Texas modern architecture and Texas modern art.

O’Neil Ford Designed the Haggerty/Hanley Home Almost As If It Were a Village

Architect O’Neil Ford designed the Haggerty/Hanley home in a much larger scale, one that is common today but rare in Dallas at the time. Taking advantage of the beautiful acreage bordered by a creek, O’Neil Ford designed the home almost as if it were a village, much like the early homes of Texas. It is set down from the street, wrapping around the topography with walls of windows in the living areas closest to the creek.

Even when designing in this larger scale, O’Neil Ford drew from his memory of sketching earlier pioneer homes. O’Neil Ford also still relied on the same artisans like his brother Lynn Ford (who did the metal work and wood carvings on O’Neil Ford’s first modern home) for the architectural details on the Haggerty/Hanley home.

O’Neil Ford’s Haggerty/Hanley 1957 Home Directly Influences Architect Scott Lyons’ 1983 Designed Home and Architect Frank Welch’s 2004 Designed Home

O’Neill Ford

Scott Lyons

Frank Welch

The Haggerty/Hanley home reiterates detail and handcrafted artisanship while creating new volumes and uses of materials that influenced great architects like Scott Lyons and Frank Welch who worked with O’Neil Ford and whose later work reflected Ford’s influence.

These three Texas modern homes by O’Neil Ford, Scott Lyons, and Frank Welch were built over a span of 50 years and yet all remain architecturally current and influential. The beautiful estate area acreage and topography drove the design of each of these homes. All three are approximately 10,000 sf, built with steel frame construction, and designed as a series of attached structures with a significant secondary structure.

The O’Neil Ford Designed Haggerty/Hanley Living Room Has Influenced Architects for Over 50 Years

Architects locally and around the country come to see this midcentury modern Texas home and the living room O’Neil Ford designed. Architects admire and absorb the hand carved open wood screen, the continuous walls of soft Mexican brick, the walls of windows overlooking the lawn and sculpture garden as it descends to the creek, the pitched ceiling that gives balance to the spacious dimensions of the space, and the stick ceiling that acoustically softens the room and brings warmth. The floating wall gives separation without impeding the immense openness of the room.

Architect Scott Lyons Reinterprets and Further Modernizes Design Inspired by O’Neil Ford

In 1983 Scott Lyons was selected to design a home on possibly the most beautiful land in Preston Hollow. Like O’Neil Ford, he submitted the design of this modern home to the landscape. Scott Lyons set the house down from the street with the main living room closest to the deep ravine and spring fed creek. The home expands and cleans up the horizontal axis while still retaining the indigenous qualities of the materials and details. An open wood screen shields and announces the living room from the front door. A stick ceiling is not used as a finish, but an exposed ceiling joint on the pitched ceiling dramatizes the precision in which the house was built. The oversized soft Mexican brick complements the warmth of the cross-cut white oak. The wall of floor-to-ceiling windows wraps around the room, providing views of the creek and small lake beyond the garden. While the house almost disappears when viewed from the street, from inside it affords a spectacular view of the beautiful land on which it is set.

Frank Welch Identifies O’Neil Ford Designed Living Room as Room That Inspires Him

Approximately 50 years after O’Neil Ford designed the living room in the Haggerty/Hanley home, Frank Welch designed the living room for this home in the estate area of Bluffview. A wall of windows looking over the garden, a pitched ceiling with a tight pattern of parallel sticks, a floating wall, and cross-cut white oak finishes add depth and polished texture to the room.

Frank Welch does not mimic the past. Frank Welch designs homes that reflect ideas of the past that he advances with new technology, greater precision, proportions that are perfect, and a design that is fresh, exciting, and will influence generations in the future.

Great architects like O’Neil Ford, Scott Lyons, and Frank Welch have designed modern homes that are perfect for the site, beautifully crafted and articulated, and offering a new vision for future generations.

See more information and photographs on this Scott Lyons architect designed home offered for sale.

There is a shortage of modern homes in every neighborhood, but it is most pronounced in Highland Park. Elegant, eclectic style homes – ranging from the 1920s Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial to the homes built over the next eight decades in the English, Georgian, Italian and French style – captured the aesthetics of most Highland Park homeowners who desired to live in this beautiful township close to downtown Dallas. The rare person desiring a modern home found land more available in Bluffview, Preston Hollow or Oak Cliff. While some magnificent midcentury modern homes were built in Highland Park in the 1950s and 1960s, and an occasional modern home designed later, European style homes prevailed in Highland Park.

Now There is Great Demand for Modern Homes in Highland Park

Starting in the mid 1990s interest in modern homes became more pervasive. Recent graduates emerged from college with great passion for modern design but not yet the resources to buy a home. At the same time, a generation who had lived in traditional suburban homes their entire lives wanted something different, something better, something modern. The market dynamic changed. Only a few years ago a buyer was usually thinking, “I love this modern home but will I ever be able to find someone else who likes a modern home when it comes time to sell?” Now the marketplace tables have turned and perceptions have changed. Buyers are now often thinking, “Will I ever be able to find a modern home?”

How many years will it take for the supply of modern homes and the demand for modern homes to even out?

Many Years. Traditional homes have dominated building in Highland Park for more than 100 years. Homes with 3,000 square feet were replaced with homes with 6,000 square feet. Highland Park homes with 6,000 square feet were replaced with Highland Park homes with 12,000 square feet. Highland Park, over the decade, has become further entrenched with the same European-style homes, only larger. Reversing the trend is difficult. Even though there is much greater demand for modern homes, it is economically difficult to replace a 12,000 square foot traditional home with a new 5,000 square foot modern home.

How modern homes will become more prevalent in Highland Park

Builder homes, no matter what size, often become economically and aesthetically obsolete after 25 years. As a result, over the next 10 to 20 years, a huge number of traditional homes will become candidates to be replaced by modern homes. The more immediate change will come from homeowners who find a traditional Highland Park home for sale and transform the interior to a modern space.

Highland Park traditional home transformed to modern home perfect for art

This traditional home that was transformed into a modern space has made me realize there is a whole new reason to be enthusiastic about preservation and renovation. Up to now, my passion for homes has revolved around revitalizing neighborhoods, saving historic homes, or bringing attention to, or encouraging more architecturally significant homes. Now I better realize the value in existing homes without great historic value or a spectacular architecture pedigree. Here is an attractive well-proportioned home that lent itself to a modern renovation. An inspiring and important art collection compiled of mostly young artists from Europe and the U.S. has made the house architecturally excel. The space is sympathetic to art, supports and even catapults the art visually. The residence also recedes from the art. Hints of the home’s traditional architectural past bring a subtle contrast to the arts, and a familiarity and comfort to the space that allows the mind to fully explore the inspiration and power of each piece and of the art collectively.

Continuity of art collectors and cultural leaders

Every great city has art patrons, and civic leaders who encourage the arts, lead by example, and donate their time and money to create a rich cultural fabric for the city. Dallas is the best example of a city with generous philanthropists and, just as important, a city where the brightest and the best have taken a deep, personal interest in Dallas that goes well beyond the scope of their magnificent donations. There is a reason Dallas has the only opera hall in the world funded primarily with private funds. There is also a reason why in one generation a little fine art museum by the lagoon in Fair Park became the Dallas Museum of Art now at the center of the Arts District, surrounded by the I.M. Pei designed Meyerson Symphony Hall, the Renzo Piano designed Nasher Sculpture Center, the Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas designed Wyly Theater and the Norman Foster designed opera hall, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Arts Magnet) school and the Annette Strauss Artist Square. It was not enough to have just museums and performance spaces. Aesthetically, Dallas desired the finest.

The next generation of art collectors and civic contributors

At some point, the torch will be passed to another generation passionate about Dallas and aware of the importance of art in the life of the community. Derek and Christen Wilson are part of that generation. As we can see from just a glimpse of their art, they are passionate collectors with a good eye. Their home and collection recently also received an enthusiastic reception from art dealers from across the country when they came to Dallas for the Dallas Art Fair. The Wilson’s home and the Edward Durrell Stone designed home of John and Jennifer Eagle were the two Dallas homes chosen for this audience of art dealers. Patron members of the Dallas Museum of Art just had a chance to also view the Wilson’s home and collection. It is exciting to see Derek Wilson on the DMA Board of Trustees and Christen and Derek’s involvement in Two by Two, Silver Supper and so many other initiatives of the Dallas Museum of Art. They join the next generation of talented, committed civic leaders who continue to make Dallas the best city in the country.

Ron Wommack and Client Discover Location

What Ron Wommack and his client realized was this rather dowdy spur of houses on very high ground adjacent to an abandoned railroad track would soon be a site overlooking the Santa Fe Trail, a running, walking, bicycling trail from White Rock Lake to Fair Park. What was a lesser street now became a very desirable hidden street relating to the Santa Fe Trail.

Homes Either Diminish or Enhance a Site

Often locations are overlooked. Just as often a commonplace home is designed and built on beautiful land that diminishes the site. I have seen houses built next to a ravine, creek or a small lake with the master bedroom closet or garage on the water side of the house because that is what the plans called for, anticipating a generic lot, or the architect designed using only the lot dimensions not taking into consideration the surroundings.

The Best Homes Accentuate A Site

The Late Robert James, FAIA, former president of the Dallas Chapter, AIA, found a small irregular lot with difficult terrain rejected by all builders. James designed a modern home configured to the lot and still with vast views of green that gave one the sense that you were on a very large piece of property.

Ron Wommack Designed Home Reinterprets Location

The old traditional homes are classically lined up facing the street, and the ones with balconies or porches are facing away from the railroad tracks at the bottom of the ravine. Now the Santa Fe tracks have been removed and the Santa Fe Trail is being constructed. The orientation of the house still has a front forward facade the street with full length corner window walls providing a view of the Santa Fe Trail and park, but the orientation of the home is towards the trail and surrounding wooded areas.

The front door opens to an exterior corridor paneled with the trail that leads past walls of glass to the front door on the side of the house. A first floor screened porch and balcony porches are also oriented towards the new Santa Fe Park and Trail. A wall for art and with a few windows is on the side of the house towards the residential cut-through street a few houses away.

This modern home will transform this corridor of short streets.

Some successful architect designed modern homes stand alone in a one-off location. Other architect designed contemporary homes have the ability to transform an entire area.

Visually attractive and interesting modern homes attract attention.

People start thinking about architecture in a new way and the people start thinking about the location in a new way.

Dallas AIA Modern Tour

As interest in modern homes increases, an expanded audience drives ever increasing number of home tours emphasizing modern homes. The Dallas Chapter of AIA selects modern homes across the city which allows the public to learn about architecture and about Dallas neighborhoods. Most people did not even know this home existed before the Dallas AIA tour. Those on tour loved the home and loved the location. The word spreads, aspirations grow and we will soon discover many new great modern homes on the Santa Fe Trail.

The sophisticated client whose life has always revolved around art and architecture has accumulated many friends deeply involved in the arts and the city of Dallas. What better way to start the year than a New Year’s Day party in a fabulous modern home surrounded by the homeowner’s appreciative friends reveling in this architectural success and contribution to Dallas.

See additional photographs of this Ron Womack desined modern home on FaceBook.com/modernhomes.

I always enjoy discussing architecture, formally at forums and informally at parties and gatherings. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve had the privilege of hosting an even broader conversation about architecture, with participants from around the world, by way of my Facebook Modern Homes.

For 15 years, international visitors have come to Architecturally Significant Homes and, on occasion, described the impact this site has had on something they are building or designing in their respective countries. This correspondence has been interesting and satisfying in the same sort of way a personal letter in one’s mailbox brings a smile.

Modern Homes Receives Thousands of Comments

Now, because of the ease of communicating on Facebook, the response to homes posted on Facebook.com/ModernHomes has been abundant and immediate. Readers have sent thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments discussing modern homes located in Dallas on the Modern Homes Facebook page.

If Rock and Roll Linked the World in the 20th Century, Architecture Might Link the World in the 21st Century.

Interest in architecture in Dallas and around the world has exploded in the last ten years. In Dallas, a traditional “house walks” have been replaced with sophisticated tours of architect designed homes.

The Dallas Architecture Forum’s lectures featuring celebrated architects, are always full, as are the Forum’s more informal panels orchestrated by architect Mark Gunderson. You can see this same enthusiasm for architecture around the world. In a short time, over 20,000 people from 5 continents and 50 countries have joined Facebook.com/ModernHomes. It is as encouraging to see young people and students participate as it is architects, professors and sophisticated adults with a fresh or long standing interest in architecture and design.

I compare this growing phenomenon of interest in architecture to the explosion of interest in wine about three decades ago. When it began, anything other than a jug wine was considered exotic. Now, virtually everyone is at least minimally fluent in discussing vintage wines.

We Can Learn From the Passionate and Informed International Community of Architecture Aficionados.

Facebook.com/ModernHomes has offered an incredible international response to a wide range of homes found in Dallas.

As a practical matter, my experience with the Facebook Modern Homes page has helped me better understand how people respond to different architectural photographs. Photographs of homes are such an integral part of marketing architecturally significant homes. It also shows the depth and range of architectural interest. Even a few years ago, there was a strong perception that, while a modern home might be great, a homeowner would have difficulty selling it later. That has all changed. Now there is a market shortage of modern homes. As I have a particular passion for Dallas homes, seeing how people from different parts of the world respond to Dallas homes has been very interesting, including the comments in languages other than English. Here a few comments found on Facebook.com/ModernHomes.

Only this photograph of the home Harwell Hamilton Harris designed in Dallas in 1958 for Seymour and Jane Eisenberg was posted. Among the very positive comments received were Smriti Sachdev ‘s: “What a lovely transition space.” Iman Fouad Sleiman added “I love corridors that are open to interior gardens, this is just bliss.” Coleman Jolley, said “Beautiful. The atrium concept needs to make a return in modern architecture!”

This midcentury modern home was designed by Jim Wiley and Bud Oglesby. It is a very primitive, inexpensive structure that only survives because of its original owner, a 95 year old inhabitant. I was curious if this modern home would receive as many positive comments as the dramatic twilight shots of recently designed modern homes. It did. Mónica del Haya wrote, “Serene, I love the openness to light and the environment.” Hashu Rahman: “Simplicity.” Alexandra Hoepfner added, “…I like the ‘original modernist look’ of the space, that with the wooden elements reminds a lot of Marcel Breuer.”

Architect Gary Olp designed this green home in 1999. The comments this modern home generated included Suha Yuce’s: “I don’t like it, I love it!” Shahina Aslam: “splendid”
Murambiwa Tarabuku: “Splendid; nature/man-made dialectic; The massing a bit like balancing rocks – with the front ones sliced; for those familiar with rock formations in Southern Africa (Zimbabwe – Epwoth o Matopos-Matonjeni). Lurv it.

Join the Dialogue on Facebook.com/ModernHomes.

Become a fan of Facebook.com/ModernHomes and comment on architecturally significant modern homes and read what others say. I am more convinced than ever that Dallas has the best collection of 20th and 21st century architecture in the world.

My favorite Richard Meier designed modern residence is the home that Howard Rachofsky in the mid 1990s commissioned Richard Meier to design for an estate lot in original Preston Hollow. The American Institute of Architects gave its National Honor Award to this home in 2002, which has been written about and celebrated around the world.

A Modern Home That Resonates With Friends, Guests, Patrons and the General Public

Architects, architecture aficionados and the general public are inspired by the architectural purity and precision of this modern design.

Art collectors are inspired by how the art in the home can be viewed from the many angles, perspectives and levels that this modern home provides with its horizontal and vertical openness. Guests revel in the tranquility of a home so elegantly composed and devoid of decorative architectural clutter. The transparency of this home captures movement and frames art. Even those with little interest in modern homes or contemporary design are always won over by this home designed by Richard Meier.

Modern Residence Succeeds as Home, Gallery, Museum.

Howard Rachofsky commissioned Richard Meier in the mid 1990s to design a home with a short term, intermediate and long term program in mind. The short term program was to use the one bedroom residence as a “bachelor pad” and private gallery. Then the home would transition to a private gallery of art and made very accessible to the public. Eventually the home would be become part of the Dallas Museum of Art, which the Rachofskys have already directed along with their art to the DMA.

Home Instills Intimacy with Art

The biggest difference in viewing art in a home versus a building designed as a public space is the enhanced feeling of intimacy. Residents or guests have an immediate relationship with the art as it is connected with a person and a place. One feels a greater sense of ownership of the art as a guest than as a visitor to a museum.

Successful museums gain visitors’ affection through repeated visits. Paintings, sculpture or other media installations become seared in the mind, and are revisited like an old friend. When art is experienced in this Richard Meier designed home, this sense of familiarity and connection is expedited and expanded.

Is There A Difference Between A Stark Modern Home and A Modern Gallery or Museum?

Some assert that modern homes are sterile like museums. Many museums and exhibits do seem sterile because they don’t engage or they are presented to appeal very narrowly. The best museums engage all the senses, emotions and the intellect. This is where a residence as a gallery has an advantage. Richard Meier has designed fabulous museums like the High Museum of Art that, to a casual observer, might look like larger versions of the Richard Meier designed modern home. But they are not the same.

A Modern Home as A Classic Estate Home

The design of this contemporary home is modern but the scale and approach is classic and timeless. As with any proper estate home, this one sits on a large lot – three acres – which provides a long approach past a vast perfect, manicured plane of grass. On one side of the home a grid of glazed panels comprise cantilevered walls of glass looking out to a small lake. In the rear of the house a large reflecting pool captures the reflection of this elegant residence, a rear garden adds to the tranquility. Hidden in the dense growth is art that amuses and provokes.

The interior of the home exudes clean lines and intersecting planes, and open spaces perfect for exhibiting art and celebrating people. Subliminally there are additional clues that this is a residence. Visitors might notice a door to a laundry room, or, in addition to the grand staircase, a very tight, narrow stair case, classically for servants or staff. The kitchen and bathrooms are scaled for residential use. Visiting the house, one discovers a bedroom and a closet.

The openness and transparency of the home accommodates and reveals a large number of guests so the residence feels larger than a museum space where often people are visible only one room at a time.

Great Philanthropist and Civic Leaders

Howard and Cindy Rachofsky are great civic leaders, philanthropists and patrons of art and architecture. There are many ways to contribute to the arts. Howard and Cindy Rachofsky are participating and leading on many levels. Every year this modern residence is home to a week of amfAR Two x Two activities that raise an immense amount of money for AIDS and Art. The house is utilized for lectures, classes, educational events, tours and exhibitions.

For the present, this modern home will continue to inspire as a private residence and serve as a gallery. Ultimately, this exquisite modern home will transition to a modern museum, retaining the point of view and legacy of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky.

To see additional photographs of this Richard Meier designed home, become a fan of Facebook.com/ModernHomes.

World Architecture

I was pleased to learn that Online Classes recently identified Dallas Architecture Blog as one of the “100 Innovative Blogs for Architecture Students” and one of only twenty within the category of “Architecture Around the World.” Here’s what Online Classes said about the Dallas Architecture Blog: “Arguably the most design-forward city in Texas, Dallas lines its streets and skyline with contemporary architecture and ideas. Check them out here.”

Dallas Architectural Wasteland or Treasure

For years, many dismissed Dallas as an architectural wasteland. I think there are three possible reasons behind that: the images presented in the Dallas television show; the impressions that visitors get as they fly over the neighborhoods near DFW International Airport; and the fact that relocation companies tend to send relocating executives to the most generic suburban neighborhoods. However, the truth is, many homebuyers are choosing to move to Dallas instead of other cities because of the rich reserve of significant architecture.

Architecturally Significant Homes

My real estate firm specializes in architecturally significant homes, modern homes and estate homes for two reasons. One is to identify the finest homes for buyers desiring a home of architectural and aesthetic quality and importance. The other purpose is to bring attention to great architecture and architects in Dallas and to highlight influences from architects across the country that inform Dallas architecture. When people understand their aesthetic environment and the many positive possibilities, better choices are made and the aesthetic landscape continues to improve.

Dallas Has Greatest Collection of 20th Century Architecture in the Country

Dallas has the greatest collection of 20th century architecture and a great start in the 21st century. Thanks to the abundance of good architecture in Dallas, my Web site, ArchitecturallySignificantHomes.com and my Dallas Architecture Blog typically come up first when architectural enthusiasts conduct an internet search of terms such as “architecturally significant homes,” “historically significant homes,” “modern homes,” “mid-century homes.” As a result, I have received correspondence from around the world. Authors, professors, students, architects, homeowners and homebuyers have contacted me to discuss Dallas architecture.

The City Benefits, My Clients Benefit

My clients benefit because they know I will understand what they like, what they want and how to get it. As people become more aware of good architecture and are able to find homes featuring significant architecture, the demand for good homes increases and demand for generic builder homes decreases. The more this happens, the more the city of Dallas benefits.

Advocates of good architecture have been great advocates of my business. Clients and friends recognize the role they play as champions for good architecture, beautiful neighborhoods and a vibrant city.

Even if you can’t hire an architect or design a spectacular estate home, you can help promote high-quality architecture in your community. Everyone does know someone who is considering buying or building a home. Join me in recommending your family or friends to use an architect or to buy a home with enduring architectural value. And when you know a person who is considering selling a historic or period modern home, urge them to put measures in place to preserve that home. In my experience, almost every property will sell for more if buyers are made aware of the home’s architectural features – as opposed to simply selling a property as a” teardown” sold for lot value. I am always delighted to discuss with property owners the best way to preserve and perpetuate their property and obtain the best price when the time comes.

The Interest in Architecture and Architect Designed Homes Keeps Increasing – The Dallas Architecture Blog Will Keep Discussing

When OnlineClasses.org discussed the types of blogs they selected, they explained, “The 100 blogs selected encompass the array of fields and specialties within the world of architecture.” OnlineClasses.com asks the viewer “to research and enjoy the art behind landscaping and green buildings; take a step into the future with modernism, or look into the past at classical European design. Whatever you do, be inspired.”

This is exactly the intent of the Dallas Architecture Blog – to research, discover, enjoy and be inspired. Hosting this blog and Web site has been fun, because so many people are passionate about architecture.

We will continue our efforts and thank you for your interest and support.

Remember, architecture is our public art.