Last week I handed an over-stuffed journal to our architect. Its pages begin with notes I’ve been taking over the past two years, since buying our ranch, Gran Paseo. The notes are from all the books on our shelves that pertain to the best residential architects of our time and how to be a great architect. Basically, I took myself back to the two years I spent in architecture school. I dropped out because I realized that I did not have the required math chops or patience with technical building details. However, my obsession with great design, the conceptual, the esoteric, even metaphysical aspects of creating living spaces, has never wavered.
The journal’s pages morph from classroom type notes into doodles, sketches and first runs at the schematics of room flow. The pages then meander into studies of the land and where the house “wants” to be.
As any interior designer would, I was also acquiring furniture and accessories along the way, in New Orleans, Round Top and The Texas Hill Country, then photographing each piece before putting them in storage. The pictures became like paper dolls. I cut them out, arranged them, coordinating them into the different rooms I envisioned in the house. Each wall of our eventual floor plan will be specifically designed to accommodate and showcase these collected treasures. I am especially enthralled with unusual light fixtures, so many of the walls will have to be wired for a unique pair of antique sconces.
In my architecture crash course, I reviewed how a great design begins with a “parti” or a story line, that every design decision must enhance or reinforce. Early on Dan and I had agreed that we want the house to feel as if it has been there since the early 1800’s, when the area was first being settled by Europeans. I expanded this idea by writing a whimsical tale to tell the fictional story of the history of the house. (please see my next blog)
The parti helped us choose the site, as the place that an early homesteader would have chosen. The floor plan was also dictated by tradition. Along our design journey we ran across a late 1800’s limestone stage coach inn down the road from Gran Paseo, which inspired us to build a two-story house with a center entry hall that extends through the house to the exterior on the back side.
The old stage coach inn also had an imposing, glorious two story limestone carriage house, whose upper floor had served as the region’s dance hall and gathering place. This became the muse for our garage, which would have an upper floor for indoor recreation.
The rented store room where the furnishings are housed feels a bit like a toy box! A mash of color, chipped paint, mellowed painted metal tole, and endearing folk art from every corner of the world. I am always drawn to things that are hand made, quirky or have a feel of innocence. And I love anything from nature, especially birds, butterflies and flowers.
The sister purpose of Gran Peseo will be sustainability and cutting edge technology. So much of sustainability is based on tried-and-true techniques of old. We will collect rain water, as we really never know when the aquifer will run dry for good. And we will maximize shade and window placement, to make energy use as efficient as possible.
Any project like this takes a team. And I feel like ours is a dream:
Dan, my life long love and favorite client
The man trusts me in all things design, bless his heart. I listen to him, and try to integrate his every whim, because really he has so few… all he said going into the design process was that he wants the house to feel old, and he wants a prominent place to up a Christmas Tree. 🙂 Love that man!
Zac, our architect
What a kind soul. He seems to be as excited as I am about the project. His eyes did not bug out in horror when I presented him with The Journal. He proposed that I write a story for the house before I had even mentioned the idea to him. From day one we were on the same page, literally. I think we will create something special and lovely together, and become friends along the way.
Zac explained to me that there are four stages of design:
- Pre-design
- Schematic Design
- Design Development
- Construction Documents
The first two stages are the ones that I trained for. The last two, I definitely did not. So he will take over from there, to create the working plans that only an accredited architect is qualified to produce.
Chance, our craftsman
Most of the reproduction windows and doors made for the courthouses and other important historical buildings in Texas are made right in my home town of Lubbock, Texas by a true craftsman named Chance Obenhaus. Chance and his company, Salt Fork Woodworks have provided windows and doors for me for years, for multiple restorations.
He is also a friend. And a resource! He ran across some old growth, reclaimed Honduran Mahogany (a long story that began on a large ship that sat in the Miami harbor for many months after being intercepted by the US officials…) and is saving it for the windows and doors for the Gran Paseo. He has also secured some reclaimed, old growth Pine from an old building in Comanche, Texas that we will use for the hardwood floors.
Priceless!
Hal Box, my teacher
Hall Box is no longer with us, but his presence has been felt every step of the design progress. He was the Dean of Architecture at UT when I was in the program; he was the Dean of Architecture at UTA when my mom was studying interior design in that school; I unknowingly rented his house in San Miguel de Allende on my first visit there; and he wrote ”Think Like an Architect” which was one of the primary sources for the self-taught refresher architecture course I put myself through before designing the house.
Kip, our contractor
We have chosen a builder, based on the rave reviews he received from multiple happy customers and based on the fact that I just liked and trusted him from the start. We have never built from the ground up, so I hope he will be patient with me.
And I will be counting on him to gather subs who are the very best in their technical or artistic fields.