While one might think Texas" landscape serves as juxtaposition to modern architecture, the new book from Images Publishing, Texas Modern: Redefining Houses in the Lone Star State, describes how Texas and modern architecture are as natural a pair as Texas and oil.
Helen Thompson - author and senior editor at Modern Luxury Interiors Texas magazine - writes in the introduction that Texas was perfectly poised for this kind of sleek design, thanks to two things: an East Texas oil boom in the late "30s that led to an abundance of steel and the vision of North Texas architect David R. Williams. Williams - who worked on the Fort Worth railway system before attending the University of Texas and opening a practice in Dallas in the "20s and "30s - approached architecture from a different angle, with a keen interest on how a home inhabits a lot, its orientation and horizontality. Williams is widely considered the father of Texas modern architecture.
Texas Modern: Redefining Houses in the Lone Star State showcases 25 of today's renowned Texas architecture firms including Buchanan Architecture, Lake + Flato and LaRue Architects. Residences in Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio dominate the pages, but a few small-town homes, like a hilltop retreat in Fredericksburg by Energy Architecture and an unexpected Waxahachie lake house by Mark Odom Studio, also grace the pages. Perhaps the most unique of all homes - a five-story (yes, five) Dallas home by Miro Rivera Architects with views of the downtown skyline.
Thirty-three homes and 250-plus pages of beauty just leave us with one request - how about a little Fort Worth next time?
