Inside I.M. Pei’s Rare Fort Worth Residence in Westover Hills

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Fort Worth I. M. Pei home. A story this big doesn’t stay under wraps. The exclusive appeared in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal: A Rare I.M. Pei-Designed Home in Texas Hits the Market for $22 Million.

Rare indeed, because the Chinese American architect behind the Louvre Pyramid — and no fewer than five major Dallas buildings, including Dallas City Hall and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center — completed very few private residences, including his own home in Katonah, New York.

It’s on a different scale entirely. Set on four acres in Westover Hills at 1400 Shady Oaks Lane, the seven-bedroom home spans roughly 19,000 to 22,000 square feet, astonishing dimensions even in our age of real estate hyperbole.

Built in 1969 for Fort Worth oil-and-banking heiress Anne Burnett Tandy and her husband, retail executive Charles Tandy, the home was once a center of social and political doings in Fort Worth. After their deaths in 1978 and 1980, respectively, it largely slipped out of public view.

In a 1970 interview with House and Garden, Pei detailed his mandate. He took inspiration from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, built in the style of an Italian palazzo with a central courtyard surrounded by gallery rooms.

“Mrs. Tandy loves parties, and she gives them very often, so she wanted lots of space,” the architect said. “She needed a house that would be comfortable for two people — or two or three hundred.”

That directive shows up in the description of the future listing: three kitchens, three living rooms, two dining rooms, two climate-controlled wine cellars, and an art gallery, according to listing agent Ashley Mooring.

The architecture will seem familiar to Dallas-Fort Worth residents with the familiar indoor/ outdoor continuity, the maestro’s mastery of scored concrete, and the geometric restraint that defines much of Pei’s institutional work.

Ashley Mooring , along with co-listing agents Madeline Jobst and Ralph Randall of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Fort Worth will offer 1400 Shady Oaks Lane for $22 million.

Special thank you to Jason Anderson JA2 Photo for use of photography with permission.

For more on the Tandy family and the home’s Fort Worth legacy, see our companion story.

Why This I. M. Pei Home’s Provenance Matters