Architects: Overland Partners
Project: Art Residence
Location: Dallas, Texas, United States
Area 15,232 SF
Photography: James F. Wilson
From the architect: When the owners of a world-class private contemporary art collection wanted a home equally suited for people and masterworks, they found it difficult to reach the perfect balance. Overland’s belief that art is integral to the human experience helped the team bring intimate and gallery spaces together into one harmonious design.
For committed art collectors like these clients, the works they acquired reflected not only their personal taste and appreciation but also a deep commitment to the role of art in the human experience. For them, painting, sculpture, and installation are not incidental decoration to create a background for life but a participant in the daily conversation of a home. They became advocates for the importance of bringing art into the home. Their current home was comfortable and handsome, but it didn’t fulfill their mission to live with art in a meaningful way. For that they would need something new.
After some time working with a gallery-focused architect, these clients knew they needed a different perspective on their new space. They wanted to consider different approaches the site and the design. Did they want a home and adjacent gallery? Or did they want one building to meet both needs? “Clients like to have choices,” said Principal in Charge, Tim Blonkvist.
Overland offered the clients the opportunity to workshop a variety of options that considered their lifestyle needs, the strengths of their building site, and the optimal art experience.
Once the clients decided that they wanted one space combining gallery and home, rather than separate spaces for each, Overland began by digitizing all of the art in the client’s extensive collection. This allowed them to incorporate the specifics of the collection into the design, rearranging dimensions, lighting, and flow to fit the interaction of art and inhabitant.
The next step was to consider the site. The client’s favorite way to experience the site was looking out over the creek, from a little bridge between their current house and garage. Overland decided to bring this experience into a more central part of the home experience, and worked within floodplain restrictions to design a bedroom that bridged the creek so that the clients could wake up every morning to their favorite view.
In most places where life and art exist side-by-side, the space feels more like one than the other. To help create a truly blended experience, Overland worked with one of the country’s foremost lighting designers to maximize the efficiency and beauty of spaces dependent on ideal lighting. Light coves that conceal LED, linear fluorescent, and track lighting fixtures change the quality and quantity of light during the day to mimic the color and intensity of natural light, illuminating the artwork throughout the house. This allows for museum-quality lighting levels in certain conditions, as well as warm, intimate residential lighting levels.
The clients added a residence for a visiting curator, and soon began welcoming people in to tour their collection. The public presence of their Art Residence and collection fulfilled their mission of inspiring others to live among their art.
