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.