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

Russell Martin, Director and Librarian of Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, one of my favorite places and the home of many extraordinary collections, sent me this ad from 1907 extolling the value of wood over sod as a building material for houses.

Architect David Williams Grew Up in a Sod House

David Williams, FAIA, (1890–1962), obviously took notice of the many opportunities wood provided for houses, but he never lost sight of his pioneer roots. Like Everett DeGolyer who donated his library to SMU, Williams grew up in the late 1800s in a sod house in Kansas (presumably the part of Kansas that was originally part of the Republic of Texas until it was sold to pay off Texas’ war debt). He was determined to draw upon the indigenous qualities of Texas pioneer houses and blend them with the tenets of European modernism. His goal was to develop a style as modern as anything in Europe and as regionally inspired by Texas as Frank Lloyd Wright’s modern style was inspired by the Midwest.

Architects David Williams and O’Neil Ford Developed the Texas Modern Style Still Thriving Today

Along with O’Neil Ford, FAIA, David Williams designed the first Texas modern home, placing a great emphasis on the environment, orientation of the home, and materials in the same way that the Texas pioneers did. Pictured above is a home in University Park, built in 1933 and the earliest home fully expressing this Texas modern style.

David Williams, FAIA, Designed Texas Modern Homes that Reflected Pioneers Adding on to Their Homes

In the Texas modern tradition, as resources became available over time, the original one room house with a porch would become a hierarchy of structures for the needs and functions of the family. Architect David Williams designed a series of attached structures to create a sense of a Texas compound.

O’Neil Ford, FAIA, and David Williams, FAIA, Used Wood in the Spirit of Pioneers

By the 1930s, lumber had long been the common building material. David Williams and O’Neil Ford incorporated wood in the spirit of the Texas pioneers to further their design. The structural wood and decorative elements of their designs were often one and the same. Exposed hand sawn lumber became decorative and integral components of the structure. Whether it was wood, wrought iron, or stamped metal, artisanship was considered key to the integrity of the architecture and the Texas modern style.

Would David Williams Be Designing Sod Houses Today?

While David Williams might not be designing pure sod or hay bale houses, one would think that he would be drawing from his experience living in a sod house to fully explore green architecture. Before he came to Dallas, David Williams had made some money and gained some experience designing residential developments in Mexico. After two decades in Dallas, David Williams joined the Roosevelt Administration to help develop low-cost housing and planned communities. Today, David Williams would likely be in the forefront of green development, planned developments, and sustainable communities.

Architect David Williams Would Have Reinterpreted the Tradition of Sod Houses into 21st Century Green Architecture

I imagine David Williams, if he were a young architect today, declaring his intent to continue the tradition of the Texas modern style of orienting houses, to capture summer breezes and the low winter sun, while shielding houses from the harsh west sun in the summer, maintaining the essential design elements of classical modernism, all the while exploring materials that were honest, sustainable and reflective of America’s growing interest in the environment. A green house from the architectural studio of David Williams would first and foremost exude good design.

Click here to learn more about this Texas modern home and to see additional photographs of the first Texas modern home David Williams designed.

There is something about walking across a footbridge to the front door of an architect designed home that provokes excitement, glamour and mystery. Even my favorite architectural exhibition that I saw at the Royal Academy in London was models and drawings of several centuries of houses incorporated into bridges – houses actually on and part of the bridges.

While in Dallas, we do not have houses on top of bridges. Nevertheless, we do have extraordinary homes in Dallas where the approach is a walking bridge.

Walking Across a Bridge to a Home is Both Primitive and Sublime.

This pedestrian passage subliminally evokes traversing a medieval moat for ultimate protection, or sashaying down a red carpet, or gliding along a fashion catwalk to thunderous applause. One’s environment changes by this transition in a way that is subtle and savory. A footbridge slows down the transition from the outside environment to the inside environment. For a few moments one is suspended between these two realities.

Robert Johnson Perry Architect Designed Bridge House in Preston Hollow

Architect Robert Johnson Perry designed a home accessed by a footbridge in Mayflower Estates, part of the Preston Hollow estate neighborhood.

Here Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Schepps took the corner ledge of a several acre lot and retained Robert Johnson Perry to design a home for just the two of them. Robert Johnson Perry was an accomplished modernist who designed many modern homes that have since been renovated by important architects and designers, including designer Emily Summer’s own home.

Just as modernist architect Howard Meyer could take his classical modern proportions to the Colonial home he designed on Cochran Chapel, Robert Johnson Perry was able to bring his modern sensibility to this house with a French influence. You can visit our Architecturally Significant section and see more photographs and information on this Mayflower Estates home.

George Woo Built Bridge House on Highest Point in Dallas

Another architecturally significant home that has received international attention, articles in Architectural Digest and Luxe – Interiors and Design is a home designed by architect George Woo at the highest point in Dallas County.

Here the footbridge extends the axis that runs through the symmetrically perfect preliminary structures and provides the elevated passage to the front door of the primary house. This bridge begins to give you views of the valley and endless forest and also gives you a visual momentum to anticipate the views in the house and the elevated terrace at the end of the axis where the distant lake and one hundred mile views fill the horizon. Crossing the footbridge, one is transported from a city just 17 miles away to a frame of mind that takes you totally out of a dense metropolitan area.

Antoine Predock Creates Bridge and Similar Effect in Highland Park Home

Architect Antoine Predock, in the park setting of Exall Lake and Highland Park, conveys this same sensation by extending the elevated footbridge from the rear of the house into treetops overlooking several acres of private and public park land. This footbridge creates a great counterpoint to the front door, which is just a few feet from a mundane suburban street and is encased in a well-planted bunker. Here the mystery starts at the front door, the interior of the house excites and the footbridge calms and provokes the imagination.

Jim Wiley and Bud Oglesby Design Bridge Home in Highland Park

The best-known bridge house in Dallas was designed by architect Jim Wiley and architect Bud Oglesby in the 1950s.

Jim Wiley and Bud Oglesby chose a location along the Turtle Creek to build a small glass cube with bedrooms that could also serve as balconies for musical performances. Here the Highland Park environment is so gorgeous, you want to traverse the bridge to get closer to the home nestled behind the curving creek and go inside to intensify the feeling. You can also more photographs of this home at Kelley Residence.

James Pratt Designed Bridge to Top of Home

Architect James Pratt designed this architecturally significant home in Bluffview in the 1950s. Steeply descending topography provided a perfect site, set back and lower than the hidden street. Here James Pratt designed a footbridge that leads to the middle of the upper level of the home where you enter. The bridge connects to a covered balcony creating an outdoor living space that wraps around the home, immersing one into the lush environment.

Footbridges Provide Solution to Some Impossible Sites and Accentuate Drama of Site in Others

Often the most difficult topographically complicated residential sites beget the most interesting and successful homes. The houses mentioned in this blog article are the result of dramatic but difficult sites. Some of these houses were designed on sites where most people assumed a home could never be built. A footbridge often becomes the link from the impossible to the successful.

Incorporated as an integral part of the architectural design, footbridges are romantic and practical, used for centuries and are still very modern.