The Larkey Remodel will be remodeled, again. Watch this space…
A friend comes to pick up her child from a play-date with our son and she announces excitedly that we are in Dwell. I smile and I say I know! Isn’t it great, we’ve been on Dwell a couple times, which one did you see! And she goes, no, you are in the “100 Houses we Love” Dwell, and you have a big article in it!
So we pick it up. Here’s an excerpt of the editorial:
They only chose TEN full articles, one per year. Thank you Dwell not only for choosing us–what an honor–but also for making us the chosen article for 2008.
One in ten years, ten homes in one hundred. Wow.
And so it is! Now in stands and zinnio, enjoy!
The American Institute of Austin, Austin chapter is posting some of the award videos they make every year. I’ll post our wins as they become available. This project of ours was the honor award in 2008. Here’s why, according to the judges.
The owner requested that the house have the feel of a “cabin”. A place of solace and repose in the middle of the city.
It also was important to respect the delicate lines and low profile of the existing mid century modern house designed by the late A.D. Stenger, one of Austin’s great modernist architects. From the street, the house looks virtually untouched. It remains a modest presence on the block.
The original house was taken back to the studs, the existing fireplace with its eccentric stone work was saved, and two previous unfortunate, mold infested, additions that made the existing house a black hole were removed.
A master bedroom and bath where added and the interior of the existing house completely remodeled and re-oriented around a long skylight and two interior courtyards. The skylight and courtyards maintain privacy and allow natural light into all parts of the house while providing a connection with the live oaks and changing sky.
Maple, tinted to match the tone of the pine flooring, wraps through out the house becoming cabinets, paneling, and flush doors. Traditional, earthy D’hanis “mocha” brick pavers become the surface in the courtyards.
Update: this project won a citation of Honor at the AIA, Austin 2010 Design Awards.
The program was to provide workspace for a multi-disciplinary creative studio. The location was in the last remaining intact interior of a small completely masonry (interior and exterior) strip center designed and built in the late forties.
New additions are of wood and steel to contrast the existing raw masonry. Everything new is installed so that when removed, the integrity of the raw space is maintained for the future.
Careful allocation of funds and tricks like kerfing the ¾” plywood to provide the “poor man’s curves” where used to meet the extremely low budget of twelve thousand dollars. New materials are formaldehyde free plywood with a tung oil finish, cold rolled steel, and paint.
Update: this project won a Merit Award at the AIA, Austin 2010 Design Awards.
I know you’ve been dying to see the Wolfe Den and get a tour… well… this weekend is the AIA Homes tour and the Wolfe Den is one of the selected homes. MJ and many gorgeous, young, and talented docents will be available all weekend to answer your burning questions about this fabulous home that has already won all local and state awards. It has been published in Dwell and reviewed in the contemporist.
To find out all about it go to the AIA homes Tour site; this site, the brochure, poster and all other marketing materials have been designed this year by our incomparable friends at FODA studio.
photo by Jonathan H Jackson
THAT is a bottle of Prado Enea Muga 1982 a Rioja Gran Reserva that we’ve had for years. We had very good reasons to open it. We just won our fifth TSA design award! It was GREAT, both the wine and the winning:-)
Thanks, Texas Society of Architects. Jurors were Philip Freelon, FAIA, president of the Freelon Group in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Mary Margaret Jones, FASLA, president of San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates; and Rick Joy, AIA, founding principal of Rick Joy Architects in Tucson, Ariz. (Rick Joy, oh man!)
The awarded project was, again, the Wolfe Den.
Only two Austin projects were awarded at this state level this year… what a tough, tough jury! It can really be a lottery… the rest of the awarded firms/projects were in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
Let me tell you, we were not counting on this one. The Austin design awards were tough competition already and we saw oodles of nice work there, so we were not counting on a TSA award this year, especially with MR Joy in the jury, we know just how demanding he is! Because he can.
So we’re opening wine bottles and other things:-) We were also celebrating my upcoming exhibition in Palo Alto.
And we have great news on the horizon, I think. So stay tuned! Time to celebrate and smile after all the hard work and paltry times.
mj neal architects - blublog 