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.

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.