Dallas Architecture Blog discusses Modern architecture and Mid Century Modern
Homes, Dallas Neighborhoods, Dallas Real Estate and the Aesthetics of the City.

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.

I often see the same families purchase, renovate or build a succession of increasingly architecturally significant homes. While a person cannot collect homes in the same way that a collector can acquire paintings or sculpture, the instinct is the same. The curiosity, passion and desire to live in and around extraordinary beauty and profound design is the same whether for a collector of art or a patron of architecture. In future blog articles I will discuss some of the great family lineages of owners of significant architect designed homes, both modern and eclectic.

International Style Home

Here we see an International Style home designed for a young couple with five children. The couple hired James Nagle, a graduate of Stanford with an architecture degree from MIT and a co-founder of the Chicago architecture firm Nagle Hartray. Built in 1976, this home in Bent Tree was the finest example of International Style architecture since Stanley Marcus had Roscoe Dewitt design his International Style home in 1937. Set on two acres along a greenbelt, this modern home is sleek, stark and yet comfortable for a family. Some think that clean-lined and hard-edged modern is only appropriate for highrises, urban couples or fastidious style makers. This modern home in Far North Dallas shows that a home can have a compelling design, a pastoral setting, bedrooms for multiple children, expansive yards, gardens, pools and courts to accommodate activities of families and friends. The result is a home dramatic for entertaining, utilitarian for a family and aesthetically attractive through the decades.

The same couple, when the children were grown, again hired architect James Nagle in collaboration with Robert Neylan to design another modern home. This home combined the latest technology, building materials and construction techniques with timeless and more accessible materials and fixtures. Where modern houses are often associated with isolated locations, modern residential parks, or clusters in urban locations, this modern home is right at home in the leafy and traditional suburb of Highland Park.

While the architect was sensitive to the setbacks and scale of the homes designed in a European tradition around them, this home exudes modernity. As you approach the front door you begin to experience a subtle and sublime transformation, a different environment, one that is familiar, but expressed in such a new way. A compilation of stainless steel, teak and granite and Belgian glass continues that aura as you enter. A visitor in the home feels exhilaration and tranquility at the same time. At 10,000 square feet, the size of this Highland Park Translucens House is somewhat larger than the Bent Tree home, but occupies a much smaller parcel of land. As a result, the Highland Park house does not look outward in the same way that the Bent Tree house does, but looks inward into a courtyard. The view of the street is restrained by translucent glass that can be darkened for more privacy Extra bedrooms were eliminated, and additional space was allowed for returning family members in the form of vertically and horizontal open galleries, courtyards, and public spaces bridged by glass and connected by stairs.

Here is an example of two homes created for the same family: same architect, different needs and different settings, but both modern homes that continue to earn appreciation, credibility and applause.

See Bent Tree modern home Future Offering

Highland Park and Dallas Preservation Plans

I’m excited to report that residents of Dallas and Highland Park have two new avenues for historic preservation of their homes. One is a proposed new initiative in Highland Park that should be in place by early 2010; the other is an effort to expand the presence of an existing national program to the entire Dallas area. Together, these important preservation tools will give property owners additional protections for the exterior of their homes, in ways that protect their home into the future.

Property Owners Have Sole Right to Add Preservation Protection

With most preservation tools – such as local ordinances, preservation districts, etc. – restrictions or requirements are imposed on individual property owners by the neighborhood, community or government. However, the preservation tools coming to Dallas are different because homeowners can initiate restrictions on their own property.

Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society, and Trust for Architectural Easements

By coincidence, I had two appointments fall on the same Monday – breakfast with Dan Reardon of the Trust for Architectural Easements, who was in Dallas for a two-day exploratory visit, and lunch with Marian Ann Montgomery of the Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society to discuss preservation in the Park Cities.

Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society

Marian Ann Montgomery and the Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society are working with the town of Highland Park on a historic preservation ordinance that would allow individual homeowners to submit their property for designation as a protected structure. The town of Highland Park will participate by managing and enforcing the ordinance of the properties accepted for protected status.

This approach is really quite brilliant because no districts or ordinances – historic, conservation or teardown – are crammed down the throats unwilling homeowners. This preservation ordinance will only apply to properties put into place at the request of the property owner. Architecturally significant Highland Park homes will be preserved, architectural prestige enhanced, and momentum generated for maintaining the architectural landscape of Highland Park. Highland Park township resources will be better employed on preserving significant structures rather than imposing unwanted restrictions on non-receptive property owners.

Trust for Architectural Easements

Don Reardon was in town as part of an exploratory visit for the Trust for Historical Easements, which is looking to make Dallas a major part of its efforts. This trust has been very successful this decade in receiving façade easements and protecting the future of these buildings, both residential and commercial. Here again, this preservation measure is deployed by the property owner, assisted by the Trust and acknowledged by the Department of the Interior, which grants a 3% – 17% tax deduction for the donated façade. Characteristically a property owner donates the façade easement to the Trust for Architectural Easements after the Trust helps the property owner place the property on the National Register of Historic Places. The Trust then owns and controls the façade and the property owner receives a tax deduction in the 3% – 17% of the building’s value, most often around 10% of the home’s value.

Members of the Trust for Historical Easements have identified Dallas as an area with great houses and great architecture, with people interested in preserving it. I think that’s exciting.

Architectural Patrons and Philanthropists

These preservation incentives will resonate with architectural patrons, philanthropists and those people who love the aesthetic landscape of Highland Park and the Dallas area. Donating a façade easement to protect the architecture in perpetuity is much the same as donating a piece of art to a museum – except the donor doesn’t have to worry about the architecturally significant home being put in storage. Architecture is our public art. Often, more people will see the front of an architecturally significant house than will see a painting or sculpture in a museum. Dallas is a city of patrons and philanthropists that astound the rest of the world with their giving. These preservation tools provide yet another avenue to improve our community through giving.

Owners Who Are Already Protecting and Preserving Their Homes

We know that there is an audience for these types of voluntary preservation tools because we are already seeing great citizens protect their homes. Whether these homeowners elect to participate in one of these programs or elect to take a tax deduction is irrelevant because measures are already in place to preserve the architecture.

Stanley Marcus Home

Years ago, the Lovvorn family of Dallas initiated historic designation for their home, which was formerly owned by Stanley Marcus. They have accepted landmark status and are in the process of doing further renovation.

Edward Durell Stone Designed Home

Owners of one of the great American modern homes of the 20th century, Jennifer and John Eagle, retained architect Russell Buchanan for a masterful renovation of this Edward Durell Stone designed home. They are making plans to preserve the home for future generations.

John Allen Boyle Designed Home on Overhill

Few eclectic homes have a façade as distinctive as this home designed by John Allen Boyle, who was also the architect for The Mansion on Turtle Creek. Denny and Connie Carreker have been relentless about renovating and protecting this home, including putting the original parcels of land back together.

Scott Lyons Designed Home

This Highland Park home, one of the most important homes designed by Scott Lyons (and one much loved by the community) will be given to an important foundation so that it may be preserved and used in much the same way it has been over the last 50 years.

Fooshee and Cheek Designed Home

Jack Knox has made one of the most dramatic revisions on a home on Armstrong Parkway people now love.

Many Successful Preservation Efforts in Dallas

There have been many successful preservation efforts in Dallas. The nation’s most successful neighborhood revitalization occurred in what are now Dallas’ historic districts. The city possesses an abundance of conservation districts. We’ve had mixed success with a teardown ordinance – that may have created more acrimony than value. But most importantly, I’m seeing increasing interest in architecture and preservation. And I’m heartened by these two new preservation tools, with their potential to further protect architecturally significant homes and to assist homeowners in preserving great properties into the future.