Tag: Dallas Architect

Architecture

Six Dallas Architects Elevated to AIA College of Fellows

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2017 Fellows (clockwise): Marcia Ascanio, Bob Borson, John Hutchings, Lisa Lamkin, and Michael Malone

2017 Fellows (clockwise): Marcia Ascanio, Bob Borson, John Hutchings, Lisa Lamkin, Michael Malone, and Marcela Abadi Rhoads

Six Dallas architects are among the 178 American Institute of Architects (AIA) members to be elevated  to the College of Fellows. The prestigious, merit-based honor is awarded by a jury of peers to those who have achieved professional excellence and made significant contributions to architecture and to society as a whole. Dallas professionals continue to be well-represented in the College of Fellows.

“We are proud to have a higher percentage of Fellows here in Dallas than elsewhere around the country. It speaks to quality of our members, who are enhancing the quality of life through their practices – both here and around the world,” said Jan Blackmon, FAIA, executive director of AIA Dallas. “With honorees ranging from sports and education facility specialists, to accessibility experts, to communicators sharing a love of architecture with new audiences, the 2017 class of AIA Fellows highlights the diversity of talent and expertise of our Dallas architectural community.”

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Interview With The Architect

Best of: Interview with an Architect: David Stocker Brings Beauty to a Broken World

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david stocker

The Sunnybrook Residence by architects David Stocker and Stephen Lohr of Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro. Photo: Nathan Schroder

In our ongoing series, Interview with an Architect, we speak with leading voices in the North Texas architecture community and learn about their work, development issues in our community, and good design practices and principals (you can read the last one here). This column was originally posted on April 20. 

In Dallas, architect David Stocker, AIA, is well-known for his residential, commercial, and sacred spaces. He approaches his work theologically, he says, creating beauty in a broken world, one project at a time.

David Stocker

David Stocker, AIA

“I see beauty as largely objective—in a sense we are ‘hardwired’ to experience beauty,” Stocker said. “It is a common trait in our humanity. The creative process is really discovering, or in most cases re-discovering, these timeless patterns of what is known as beauty.”

He is a principal at Uptown-based Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro Architects, a firm he co-founded with Mark Hoesterey and Enrique Montenegro almost 11 years ago. As the firm profile states, “We consider ourselves ordinary people who are extraordinarily good at our work. We care deeply about our craft and who it affects, and it is our desire to be always conscious of our design principles and core values, regardless of project type, scope, style, or location.”

Their portfolio on Houzz is a testament to the beauty they create. In fact, they’ve received the “Best of Houzz” design and service awards 2014-2015, and a design award this year. We sat down with Stocker and asked him about his background, philosophy, favorite projects, and more.

CandysDirt: You grew up in Central Illinois between St. Louis and Chicago. How did that influence you?

David Stocker: It gave me great access, at an early age, to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe, and others and began my love of architecture. I began my move towards Texas by going to architecture school at the University of Arkansas. I was fortunate that E. Fay Jones was active at the school and professor at the time. I loved the school and the program (my daughter is attending now). I graduated in 1984 and decided to make Texas my home and begin my career at HKS [Architects].

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Dallas Luxury Real Estate

Luxury Market Slowdown Equals Opportunities For Bargains

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3756 Armstrong Avenue

3756 Armstrong Avenue

We all know that anything under $1 million is flying off the MLS faster than a Cabbage Patch Kid in the 1980s. In the $1 million-plus market, homes are still flying off the shelves like Cabbage Patch Kids … in 2016.

Sure they’re still selling, but no one is getting trampled. This sentiment was echoed recently at the National Association of Real Estate Editor’s conference by journalists nationwide.

To me this means that if you’ve got the means to buy in the luxury market, there are some bargains to bag. Here are two.

3756 Armstrong Avenue

I toured this home recently with listing agent Ben Jones from Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s. This is a large home with a long and swanky past.  Designed and built in 1954 by O’Neil Ford, one of Texas’ most influential 20th century architects, this home is just cool … and a bit frightening.

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Interview With The Architect

Interview with an Architect: David Stocker Brings Beauty to a Broken World

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david stocker

The Sunnybrook Residence by architects David Stocker and Stephen Lohr of Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro. Photo: Nathan Schroder

In our ongoing series, Interview with an Architect, we speak with leading voices in the North Texas architecture community and learn about their work, development issues in our community, and good design practices and principals (you can read the last one here).

In Dallas, architect David Stocker, AIA, is well-known for his residential, commercial, and sacred spaces. He approaches his work theologically, he says, creating beauty in a broken world, one project at a time.

David Stocker

David Stocker, AIA

“I see beauty as largely objective—in a sense we are ‘hardwired’ to experience beauty,” Stocker said. “It is a common trait in our humanity. The creative process is really discovering, or in most cases re-discovering, these timeless patterns of what is known as beauty.”

He is a principal at Uptown-based Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro Architects, a firm he co-founded with Mark Hoesterey and Enrique Montenegro almost 11 years ago. As the firm profile states, “We consider ourselves ordinary people who are extraordinarily good at our work. We care deeply about our craft and who it affects, and it is our desire to be always conscious of our design principles and core values, regardless of project type, scope, style, or location.”

Their portfolio on Houzz is a testament to the beauty they create. In fact, they’ve received the “Best of Houzz” design and service awards 2014-2015, and a design award this year. We sat down with Stocker and asked him about his background, philosophy, favorite projects, and more.

CandysDirt: You grew up in Central Illinois between St. Louis and Chicago. How did that influence you?

David Stocker: It gave me great access, at an early age, to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe, and others and began my love of architecture. I began my move towards Texas by going to architecture school at the University of Arkansas. I was fortunate that E. Fay Jones was active at the school and professor at the time. I loved the school and the program (my daughter is attending now). I graduated in 1984 and decided to make Texas my home and begin my career at HKS [Architects].

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Interview With The Architect

Interview with an Architect: Alicia Chandler Quintans Solves Modern Design Challenges

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alicia quintansIn our ongoing series, Interview with an Architect, we speak with leading voices in the North Texas architecture community and learn about their work, development issues in our community, and good design practices and principals (you can read the last one here).

Alicia Quintans

Alicia Chandler Quintans, AIA

Alicia Chandler Quintans, AIA, is an Oak Cliff-based architect, interior designer, and preservationist. She founded JQAQ Atelier in 2012, a small design firm focused on solving modern design challenges for residential and commercial projects.

She graduated from UT Arlington School of Architecture in 1991, where she met her husband Joel, a collaborative partner for JQAQ Atelier and the Creative Director for UTA.

The summer after graduating, they stayed at a professor friend’s home in Oak Cliff, and fell in love with this southern borough of Dallas. The couple found a small, 1947 minimal traditional house in Beckley Club Estates.

“After almost 25 years, the house has transformed into a laboratory for ideas,” Quintans said. “We’ve updated the kitchen and bath, installed energy-efficient features, and added a studio on the property to serve as a workshop and guesthouse. The property evolves to suit our needs and interests.”

She’s a board member of both Old Oak Cliff Conservation League and Preservation Dallas, actively assisting in educating and strengthening historic connections between local communities, neighborhoods, and the built environment.

“By learning the history and sharing stories of collective memory, we better understand the sense of place in our community and provide an emotional connection, represented in form by our built environment,” she said.

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Architectural Wonders

New Project Announced in The Cedars Uses [SURPRISE!] Shipping Containers, But Are They Over?

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XabVYPT - Imgur

I know that not everyone is going to agree with me, but I’ve been thinking about this ever since PV14 was built: Shipping containers as housing is over.

So over.

When Michael Gooden was hoisting the long metal boxes in the air that would make up his shipping container project in Old Lake Highlands that overlooks White Rock Lake, I had to wonder: Why are we using metal boxes to build things in Texas? Have you ever been inside a storage unit without climate control in summer here? It’s the equivalent of being baked alive. Heck, if you want to sweat it out, go to King Spa. But a corrugated metal home in an area where you’re roasting on 100-degree days throughout the summer? No thanks. And consider that, if you’re just building a room without modifying the container size, it’s only 7 feet wide, which is hardly a good size for a human-scaled space.

And yet, Zad Roumaya wants to build an apartment development in the Cedars that will be made of shipping containers. He says he’ll call the concept, should it get off the ground, ModPod. But how much sense does it make to assemble all these boxes to build a structure that costs hundreds of dollars to retrofit for our climate?

I was glad to see that my misgivings were validated by someone far more qualified: San Francisco-based OpenScope principle Mark Hogan. Hogan, an architect who has even done a shipping container project has much more to say on the matter.

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home building

Housing Styles: Why Have Interiors Leapt into the Future while Exteriors Wallow in the Past?

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Neo Pastiche

Neo Pastiche Banality.  The Tuna Noodle Casserole of Housing

Let’s face it, homes have always been a collection of areas for cooking, sleeping, and primping surrounding a common family or group dining and living area. Sometimes these functions occurred in a single room and sometimes a series of rooms. The more schmancy you get, the more specialized the rooms and the larger the rooms become.  At some point, homes can become their own self-contained city like Barbra Streisand’s underground shopping center or overly task-specific like Candy Spelling’s gift wrapping room.

Yes, differing eras have sought to either open or close off rooms. Interestingly, in addition to overall wealth, it seems that what a society thinks of its women has something to do with interior spaces. When women were thought to be barefoot, pregnant and without meaningful opinions, homes were more closed off.

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Interview With The Architect

Interview with an Architect: Thad Reeves Seeks Transcendent Quality of Architecture

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Thad Reeves

The Bley Sleeping House in San Marcos. Photo: Craig Kuhner

In our ongoing series, Interview with an Architect, we speak with leading voices in the North Texas architecture community and learn about their work, development issues in our community, and good design practices and principals (you can read the last one here).

Thad Reeves, AIA, is a co-founder of A.GRUPPO Architects, an office positioned as a vehicle for collaboration between themselves and other designers, architects, fabricators, and most importantly, clients.

He received his Masters of Architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997. During this time, he studied in Spain and traveled widely in Europe. His interest in the influence of historic European architecture on contemporary design has led him on numerous architectural pilgrimages throughout Western and Central Europe, Australia, and the U.S.

Thad Reeves, AIA

Thad Reeves

After graduating, Reeves began his career with RTKL Associates in Dallas, where he was part of both local and international award-winning projects. He later worked with Oglesby Greene Architects, where he honed his skills on well-crafted, smaller-scale projects.

In 2003, Reeves went entrepreneurial, helping to form the offices of Thomas Krahenbuhl and Truett Roberts Architects, continuing to work on commercial and residential projects at all phases of the design process.

It was in 2005 that Reeves began teaching at his alma mater, UT Arlington, where he taught for ten years (he is currently taking a break, as his business has really taken off). This was also when he co-founded A. GRUPPO.

CandysDirt: You have an interest in the influence of European architecture on contemporary design. How do you see that happening—or not—in Dallas?

Thad Reeves: My interest in European architecture, both historic and contemporary, has to do more with ideas and where they come from. In Europe, they’ve been dealing with buildings in the urban context for far longer than we have. I think there is a lot to learn from how the Europeans approach issues of density, transportation, and public space.

I’ve realized that I’m not as excited about a lot of new buildings. Many are very nicely done, but lack something that I haven’t quit identified yet. A few years ago in New York, I realized there were a lot more things to learn from how someone (probably not an architect) resolved a gate or connection between two buildings rather pragmatically than something considered “high design.” Ideas are all around us, so it’s fun to catalog those and see where they will pop up in our work.

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