A New Generation of Dallas Style: Sleek, Warm & Liveable from the Rem Koolhaas Files

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6722 Deloache ext

My laptop has tapped out these words so much they are practically on auto-print: “elegant, soft contemporary brimming with light with thoughtful finishes throughout…”

Isn’t that every new home’s claim du jour? Thoughtful? Who builds a home that isn’t thoughtful? (Don’t answer that!) Yes, the building landscape has made a sea-change in new Dallas construction. Soft contemporary — what I refer to sometimes as Austin-lite — has pushed Mediterranean and Country French right into the sea. Thank you, sweet Jesus.

But 6722 Deloache is in a whole different league. It is of the moment, sleek and stylish. The minute I walked in — actually, the minute I walked towards the front door at the end of the tucked-in walkway —  I felt both spaciousness and warmth in what is a large, but not overwhelming, property. Everywhere I looked brilliantly conceived details married view, light, scale and clean lines. Everything felt lighter inside, as if lifting a burden from life. Without gobs of trim, the walls seem to float as if they could move wherever we fancied. And the exteriors are generously brought indoors into every square inch.

I wanted this house.

6722 Deloache stairs

For example, windows on the first and second floor are taken to the floor for maximum light treatment. The foyer yields an immediate view of the outdoor living area with a linear glass-fire pit framed by the lines of the open-back iron and oak stairway. The room is large enough for a grand piano, and serves as the connector in the classic H-plan design for two wings, a public and a private.

6722 Deloache is like buying a Frank Stella over a Thomas Kinkade. Though billed as a spec house, it really isn’t. I think the developer designed it for his parents or their friends to move into. My interest was piqued so much that I brought my husband over for a second look.

The architect/developer is Boback Firoozbakht, Chief Creative Officer of BDDM. The Dallas native of Persian descent has held notable positions at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA, Rem Koolhaas’s firm), Rafael Viñoly Architects, TsAO & McKOWN, Fernando Romero EnterprisE (FR-EE), Studio Dror and the Beck Group.

Boback’s work has also been featured by the Clinton Global Initiative, Cooper-Hewitt, GE, Architecture Boston, and Design Indaba.

Fresh to the Dallas development scene, Boback Firoozbakht was born, raised and primarily educated in Dallas. After graduating from UTA armed with a BA, he went east to earn a Masters of Interior Architecture at the venerable Rhode Island School of Design, with additional studies in real estate and environment under Joseph Middleman at Brown University. His family has been in the real estate business in DFW for years,  so it didn’t take him long to return to his home roots and start what he calls a new generation of Dallas taste.

“Dallas really didn’t have a style of its own,” says Boback, “at least it didn’t when I was growing up here. But I returned to find a city that is refreshingly acquiring a voice and presence in architecture.”

From the central foyer of 6722 Deloache, we turn to the eastern wing of the H-plan, what Boback terms the “public” wing. Light is everywhere as the windows make extensive use of the 75 by 140 foot deep lot.

“H-plans bring green spaces extensively into the home,” says Boback, who also studied environmental building and made 6722 Deloache a poster child for tight environmental insulation. Utilities are very low in this home.

Here is the large living room crowned by a smooth limestone fireplace, spacious for entertaining with perfect flow to the dining room and a clear view of the front gardens framing the fireplace. Note the huge windows —

“Most homes have flat facades for windows,” says Boback, “so you can close the drapes at night.”

Drapes? Please. His windows are pre-wired for hidden electronic shades. You can close the bottom half or none at all if the windows view into the other wings of the home.

6722 Deloache LR

The dining room connects to the foyer, differentiating the change of room with wall surfaces wrapped in rift-cut white oak. There is also pin point lighting, a chandelier and natural light. Behind all is a functional kitchen with rift-cut white oak cabinets, deep main sink and secondary, sprawling quartz surfaces including a center island, built in dual zone (one for red, one for white) wine cooler and bar,  Porcelanosa marble and tile. All appliances are Wolf and SubZero.

Behind the kitchen is the spacious two-car garage with a small cubby to drop purses etc. when coming in from the garage. Detail alert: water to the entire house can be turned off in the garage right before you embark on a long trip and protect the house from emergency water leaks or floods.

The solid white oak floors are light and absorb sunlight, and they flow everywhere, stopping at the concrete deck patio. Here is a center outdoor glass crystal fire place viewable from every room on the first floor. The outdoor living area can also be shut off with an automatic screen panel that flows down from a recess in the ceiling to eliminate mosquitoes. The enter outdoor space is viewable from the foyer, and accessible from both the kitchen and master bedroom, which composes the western wing of the house.

6722 Deloache 5 firepit

The bedrooms comprise  the “private” wing, and contains a study/potential guest room to the very front, a large closet that includes connections for a washer and dryer should the buyer prefer one downstairs. (The laundry room is upstairs in this home, common in UP and HP, less common in Preston Hollow.) The powder room is also a full bath (with shower) for guests or company. There is a spacious master bedroom, scintillating master bath with huge oversize shower and vessel tub, closet and wonderful light window views of the side yard gardens and fireplace.

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6722 Deloache DR

6722 Deloache LR

6722 Deloache stairs

6722 Deloache study

6722 Deloache wine bar

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6722 Deloache kit

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6722 Deloache master closet

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6722 Deloache master bath 1

This completes the first floor. Up the open stairway for a peak upstairs, and may I add this is the only stairway in the house, thank you. No space or materials were wasted on secondary staircases.

Up here is the gameroom complete with media cabinet and storage. There are four bedrooms up here plus the game room, one bedroom behind the game room, which could be a wonderful exercise room or office, with walk-in attic storage supreme. The other three have en suite baths. Then there is the aforementioned laundry room, spacious, loaded with counters and a sink. You might even get another fridge up here. The utilization of space is amazing and why Boback got five bedrooms and a study AND family room in 5391 square feet!

6722 Deloache bedroom

6722 Deloache bathroom

6722 Deloache upstairs game

6722 Deloache yard

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Boback clearly completed his mission in this inaugural Dallas work: to blend design and function in a space that has all the right ingredients, and then scale spaces with a sense of space and proportionality. And great style.

“With this home, it’s personal,” says Boback. “I designed Deloache with my own parents in mind. All my sub-contractors hated me until the house was complete. Then they thanked me for pushing them to some of their best work ever!”

Indeed, because, as the young architect says, my name is on the front door.

Listed with Virginia Cook’s Lori Sparks with an asking price of $1,775,000.

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

1 Comment

  1. Eduard du Plessis on May 17, 2019 at 2:50 pm

    Hi,

    We live is South Africa. Is it possible to obtain the floor and elevation plans for this house please?

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