Totally Midcentury Modern Dilbeck? Rambling Field Stone Meet Glass and Class

It’s going to be a beautiful week in Dallas. While our northern brethren are digging out from under piles of snow, the sun is shining on us in Dallas.

Like our weather this week, I have to share quite possibly the best of both worlds in Dallas real estate: a home designed by one of our most beloved architects, Charles Dilbeck. He is the architect who created my favorite flame PaigeBrook, the Westlake home that was moved to preserve it because the owners would never let that home shed one stone. And he designed this sprawling 1954 era ranch in the heart of Bluffview, a home whose inners have been completely re-fashioned by one of the most significant architectural and interior design firms in the southwest, Bodron + Fruit. Svend Fruit created Bodron+Fruit with interior designer, Mil Bodron. Bodron + Fruit has been responsible for architecturally sensitive renovations to some of the most important modernist houses in Dallas, including, the Philip Johnson or “Beck House” on Strait Lane, currently listed with David Nichols of Allie Beth Allman.  They have brought many a mid century modern home from the 1950’s to the 1970’s up to current living standards while maintaining the architectural flavor and purity of the original design, often done by a famous regional or national architect.

And they do it fabulously, seamlessly, so that the home never looks like a time capsule.

If you haven’t read about their E. G. Hamilton Crescent masterpiece, please do not take another breath until you do. These two are saving significant homes plat by plat.  As Mil Bodron told the New York Times:

“Svend and I have learned that you can’t make these houses too pure,” Bodron said. “That guarantees they won’t survive.”

And here we are on Watauga, heart of Bluffview: if you do not know the street or area, think trees, craggy hills (yes, really!) creeks and bluffs. I just read in a Facebook History Map group that the biggest bluff drop in Bluffview is 70 feet, and that the entire 640 acres of this area sold in 1848 for $300.

Also, I have always wondered why downtown Dallas is laid out at such a crazy angle. Turns out it was surveyed by the same guy who surveyed and laid out the streets and was done at a 45 degree angle:

In 1840, Surveyor “Warren Angus Ferris” was instructed to find and survey the three forks of the Trinity. He laid out the land at a 45% angle. Later federal law required a survey to be at 90% degree angle. Hence the streets north of this V are at a 90% angle.
As a curious note the thumb that sticks out of the West side of the Elm Fork is Bachman Creek. He may have mistaken this tributary creek as a fork of the Trinity.
The streets of the 1924 platted survey of Bluffview follow the 45% angle. As do Lemmon Ave and Downtown Dallas.

So the setting here at 4605 Watauga is priceless, and Dilbeck found it. Custom built, this 5499 square foot home is perched on a rolling acre. Wait, make that 1.06 acres. (Priceless!) There are four bedrooms, four full baths and one powder. The interiors are flawless, as you can see, and very updated in the right places such as kitchen and baths. The kitchen is fit for Kent Rathbun, even down to two dishwashers. The pool is pristine and close to the house, surrounded by the lush landscaping. And to boot: a guest house with a screened porch that offers privacy with warmth and a pool right outside the door.

Listed with Dave Perry-Miller’s Julie Boren, the asking price is $3,995,000. I hope to do a follow up on this story with Mil Bodron on my shoulder, maybe even a Quarterly Meeting! But I just couldn’t wait to share it for another minute…