Designed for the architect's parents on
a wooded, sloping lot sandwiched between two fairways and
a golf course lake, this residence draws it's stylistic roots
from the Texas Hill Country's Spanish
Mission influences. The client's program requirements
were simple and direct:
- Take advantage of the west facing
views to the fairway and lake
- Utilize passive solar energy design
techniques
- The house should set sensitively
on the severely sloping terrain
- Develop a style reminiscent of
a Southwest Spanish mission
- Reincarnate as building materials
the oak and cedar trees cut down on the building site
- Eliminate all steps on the entry
level and auto court. The main level is to be self sufficient,
another level being separate for guests
In part, due to the severity of the slope
and drainage issues, we arrived at a solution for a two-story
design with entry at the upper level. The lower level is tucked
up under the upper level on the rear-right hand side where
the slope is most severe.
To eliminate the pouring of high slab foundations,
12" split face concrete masonry units on concrete grade
beams were selected as a foundation system. The main portion
of the house is a "bridge" design spanning over
interesting rock ledge shelves. This feature also allows site
drainage to flow uninterrupted underneath the house. A seventeen-foot
long bridge spans over a ravine to connect the auto court
to the front entry. A courtyard wall provides privacy for
the pool and outdoor shower.
The 12" concrete masonry unit foundation
wall transitions to a 4" veneer wainscot with a tile
coping. The cmu block has been finished with a "smear"
mortar joint to disguise the block and imitate an ancient
Spanish masonry technique. Conventional stucco, in a traditional
mission peach color, is the building skin between the masonry
and the roof overhang.
A traditional terra-cotta clay tile roof
is used throughout except for the covered verandas where a
screw down enameled metal roof is utilized. The extensive
covered verandas wrapping around the exterior provide sheltered
outdoor rooms and passive solar shading devices. Their framework
displays exposed structural cedar beams, columns reclaimed
from the site, corbels and rafters.
Two large diameter live oak trees needed
to be cut down to build this house and were resurrected in
the form of milled fireplace mantles and custom furniture.
Dominated by an eight foot wide two- sided
fireplace, the sixteen foot tall slope ceiling in the living
room and dining room experiments with a string of turquoise
glass block portals ringing the rooms just below the ceiling
line. They disperse moving turquoise solar rays around the
rooms in the early morning and late afternoon.
This residence was honored and recognized
by the American Institute of Architects and selected for the
local chapter AIA Homes Tour in 1994.
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