Dwell Feature: Joyce Residence Budget Breakdown

We’re thrilled to share the story of the Joyce Residence - and this one is personal! Rachel Gallher interviewed HRDD’s Eric Hughes and his wife Emily to learn how they transformed their 1000 sf bungalow into a home that worked for them and their son Clark.

Living with the original plan worked for a while, but once Clark came along, Eric and Emily decided it was time for more space. "We all shared a bathroom for the first five years of Clark’s life," Emily says. "When we talked about renovating we asked, ‘How can this design help us love each other more?’ Part of that was creating spaces that give us time to retreat and come back together to have meaningful moments." — Rachel Gallher for Dwell

Special thanks to Leonid Furmansky for the beautiful images. You can read the feature on Dwell+!

WiA Houston's 7th Annual Equity Series

HRDD is proud to sponsor this year’s AIA Houston Women in Architecture Equity Series.

This year’s panel discussion explores how Houston, a dynamic metropolis, grapples with "JUST Design" amid rapid growth and climate challenges, prioritizing social and environmental justice. Shaped by a history of urban sprawl and redlining - the panel explores projects and policies with conscientious approach to urban development, balancing economic prosperity, social justice, and sustainability. Amidst the global discourse on climate change and social equity, Houston's embrace of "JUST Design" becomes a beacon, showcasing design's transformative power for a more just and sustainable future.

Now, in it’s 7th year, the Equity Series was started in 2017 through an AIA College of Fellows grant and was one of WiA Houston’s first initiatives as HRDD’s Heather Rowell served as Chair. The Series aims to take on bold, often uncomfortable, topics to create awareness, discussion, and cultural change within the profession. Previous topics have included unconscious bias, workplace collaboration and recognition, and the hidden costs of workplace inequities.

More event details and event registration here! Sponsorship opportunites are available and your valuable contributions helps support new WiA scholarship initiatives.

AIA Houston Home Tour

Join us October 21-22 for the AIA Houston 2023 Home Tour! We’re excited to share the Joyce Residence in Houston’s Lindale Park. The Home Tour is a nonprofit fundraiser and supports various AIA Houston initiatives throughout the year. Open to the public, the AIA Houston Home Tour showcases the finest residential architecture in the Houston area, as designed by licensed architects. Houses are chosen to showcase a variety of design styles demonstrating that excellence in design is not limited by size or dollars.

The Joyce residence is an addition and renovation to an existing 1938 one-story bungalow. The design expands and modernizes the structure while maintaining the scale and vernacular of its quaint northside neighborhood. The quiet restraint of the exterior is juxtaposed with unexpected, playful spatial experiences within. Learn more about the Joyce Residence here!

In addition to our project - this year’s tour features homes by Collaborative Design Group, 2 Scale Architects, Dillon Kyle Architects, Intexure Architects, Inflection Architecture, m + a architecture studio, and studioMET Architects. A very special thank you to the Joyce Residence home sponsors: Dungan Miller , Frich Investments, Grogan Building Supply, and Toner Home Matters!

Please stop by and say hello!

Rice Architecture Civic Forum

Each year Rice Architecture’s Civic Forum looks at urban and design topics that are of particular relevance to Houston and its region. The civic forums look to provide an open forum to discuss and analyze timely topics that are affecting Houstonians, but which also have a larger national and international relevance. HRDD’s Heather Rowell serves on the Host Planning Committee to develop this year’s forum:

This year, we are exploring the ever-increasing influence of the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) as a tool of planning governance. TIRZs are zones the Houston City Council created to attract new investment in an area. They help finance the costs of redevelopment and promote growth in areas that would otherwise not attract sufficient market development in a timely manner. At its inception, this tool was promised to pull the underserved and thus underdeveloped neighborhoods to a common, higher standard of urban infrastructure. This civic forum program seeks to gather stakeholders in a workshop format to engage in a public conversation about TIRZs, their importance, relevance, and future. — Learn more about Rice Architecture and the Civic Forum here.

Discussants

Andy Icken, Chief Development Officer, City of Houston 
Barron Wallace, Partner & Group Co-Head, Bracewell LLP
David W. Robinson, City Council Member, At-Large Position 2

Respondents:

Anna Deans, Vice President, Investment and Development, Midway
Zion Escobar, PE - Founder & CEO, Freedmen’s Town Community Investment Project
Ryan LeVasseur, Principal, LaVass Ventures LLC
Kris Larson, President & CEO, Central Houston, Inc.

Moderated by Troy Schaum, Rice Architecture

The Civic Forum takes place Oct. 21, 2023 at 1:00pm at MATCH: Midtown Arts and Theatre Center Houston, 3400 Main St

Building a Dream Home on a Houston Bayou

Houstonia Magazine features the Watonga Residence this month! Writer, Melissa Dalton, shares the story of how homeowner Regina Adams worked with HRDD to create a custom oasis along Watonga Boulevard in Houston’s Garden Oaks community. Read the feature here!

“I love living here. It’s very peaceful and calming. I find myself wanting to be here way more than anywhere else. It’s really nice to know that I’m coming home to what is truly my home.”

— Homeowner: Regina Adams

Preservation Houston: Good Brick Award

Preservation Houston has presented the Good Brick Awards since 1979 to recognize outstanding contributions to the preservation, restoration and enhancement of Houston's architectural and cultural heritage. Nomination categories include the renovation, restoration, or adaptive reuse of a building; new buildings or sympathetic additions that enhance the existing historic fabric of Houston; recognition for the craftspeople who continually maintain, build, and restore our important buildings and cultural fabric; preservation-related programs or activities; project planning; publications; and outstanding service or leadership in preservation.

We’re thrilled to announce that Divya Pande and Nakul Gupta were presented with a Good Brick Award for their Avondale Residence at Preservation Houston’s annual Cornerstone Dinner.

You can see the full list of this year’s recipients here.

Crestview featured in HÄUSER

HRDD’s Crestview Residence is featured in the Feb/March issue of HÄUSER!

The German publication presents the most beautiful houses in the world, designed by well-known leaders in the architecture scene as well as young talents. Their features highlight clever solutions, new products, and tell the stories behind great designs.

The issue may be purchased here.

Dwell Feature: Avondale Residence

Photo: Divya Pande

This month, the Avondale Residence is featured as a Dwell+ exclusive. “Before & After: A Houston Photographer Casts New Light on a Historic Craftsman” shares the story of how Divya Pande and Nakul Gupta fell in love with the 1910 Craftsman home while on neighborhood walks. They courageously commited to restore the home and hired HRDD to help. Together, with an amazing team including Park Lane Builders, Santee Engineering and XO Design Group, we were able to help Divya and Nakul realize their dream.

"My favorite thing about our house is the timelessness of the design," says Nakul. "It brings the tempo down to a certain level of calm and peace, which I appreciate." Divya agrees. "It brings me so much joy seeing how the light changes in every room during different times of day and over the seasons. I find the spaces simply enchanting."

Big thanks to writer Lauren Gallow and the Dwell team for sharing this special project.

NCSU Design Mentorship Program

The North Carolina State University Design Leaders Council kicked off their innagural Mentorship program this fall. The program was spearheaded by the Leaders Council DEI committee and serves to connect student career aspriations with design professionals working in their chosen field. HRDD’s Heather Rowell, a BEDA graduate of the College of Design and Leaders Council Member, is proud to serve as a Mentor this year.

AN Interior's Top 50 Architects & Designers

HR Design Dept was named to AN Interior magazine’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2022, which recognizes the best North American architecture and design companies working in interiors today.

Each year, AN’s editors assemble a lineup that attempts balance—from smaller, emerging practices to larger, established firms; from design centers in New York and Los Angeles to cities across the continent; from high-end projects to budget-conscious commissions. What matters is the attention and creativity these teams deliver, and what follows is fashioned from the images and words they use to describe themselves. These outfits demonstrate a commitment to both craft and materials, and their efforts result in spaces that combine richness with comfort. Above all, this diverse listing aims to recognize talent known and about-to-be-known: While these pages contain many familiar practices, about half are new to this list. We are watching their work—and you should, too.

- AN Interior

We’re honored to be placed amongst such inspiring company.

AN Interior is a design and culture magazine that examines the vanguard in architect-designed interiors, furniture, and objects. The magazine—a sister publication of The Architect’s Newspaper.

You can view the publication in its entirety here.

ArCH Film Festival: Revolutionary Architecture

HRDD’s Marcel Merwin has been instrumental in curating this year’s Architecture Center Houston film festival: Revolutionary Architecture. The films in this year’s lineup focus on architecture, city, and space to spark a political discourse or change the development of the film’s political narrative. Buildings and space are inherently political, built by capitalism yet considered a universal right by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as adopted by the United Nations. Consistently, the largest issues of our time are shaped by the spaces we inhabit, whether by the space’s value as a social space or by its geographic significance, or by other political means. Just as revolution has opposing sides, design and space can be narrated from opposing views. This film program explores the paradigms of revolutionary space and architecture through a multitude of perspectives, with the hope to cultivate discussions of voice, authority, and subjectivity of revolution and change.

HRDD is proud to sponsor the series’ opening reception on Thursday, September 1 at MATCH. Learn more about all of the films and purchase tickets here!

The film festival starts Thursday, September 1 - Sunday, September 4, 2022

Avondale Residence Receives AIA Houston Design Award

We’re excited to share that the Avondale Residence received an AIA Houston Design Award last night. The jurors were Sharon Johnston, FAIA of Johnston Marklee, and Andrea Love AIA LEED Fellow, of Payette. The AIA Houston Design Awards program recognizes design excellence in architecture, residential architecture, interior architecture, restoration/renovation, and urban design. Criteria to be used by the jury include quality of design, resolution of the program idea, sustainable responsibility, innovation, thoughtfulness, and technique.

A big thank you to all those who contributed to the success of this renovation including Todd Santee of Santee Engineering, the amazing team at Park Lane Builders, XO Design Group’s landscape, Toner Home Matters, Divya Pande’s photos and Lambrakos Studio’s support with styling — and most importantly, Divya Pande and Nakul Gupta for trusting all of us with their home!

Our team is also thrilled that Content Architecture received an award for the Will Rice Magister’s house on Rice University’s campus. HRDD’s Marcel Merwin, Gail Chen, Eric Hughes, and Heather Rowell all contributed to the design while at the firm.

You can see all of the award winners from last night here!

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TxA Annual Design Conference

HRDD’s Eric Hughes attended the TxA 10th Annual Design Conference in Jackson Hole, WY, on March 3-6, 2022. This year’s conference, “Shelter in the Hinterlands,” included the exploration of unique design, inspiring speakers, and curated tours. The annual conference was established by Michael Malone, FAIA, and Mark Wellen, FAIA, ten years ago and is curated each year by a TxA committee of volunteers (including Eric!).

Eric’s trip kicked off with a tour of the office of CLB architects, followed by a lecture by Prospect Studio’s John Carney, FAIA. Home tours of several luxury homes in Jackson Hole by CLB Architects, Prospect Studio, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Todd Williams, AIA and Billie Tsien, AIA presented on Saturday in the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Omar Ghandi shared his design process for his own practice based in Nova Scotia. Ray Calabro, FAIA of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson led a tour of a dynamic home in Gros Venture Butte. After a panel discussion moderated by Brantley Hightower, AIA, the group had the opportunity to tour the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center at the entry of Grand Teton National Park.

Learn more about the annual Design Conference here!

HRDD to Design ADU concepts on Menil Campus

In 2021, the Menil Collection invited a small group of local architects to explore concept designs for accessory dwelling units across the campus.

The Menil Collection neighborhood is home to a small community of 1920-40s single-family bungalows, duplexes and fourplexes. The Menil owns and leases a number of the properties adjacent to the museum, typically indicted by their painted gray facade. Garage apartments emerged as a secondary dwelling unit in the Menil neighborhood in the mid part of the 20th century. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the original construction, often ad hoc conversions of garages, has not allowed the structures to endure.The Menil has begun an initiative of replacing this unique, historical, housing typology while undertaking a renovation of the front house.

HRDD’s concept design is conceived as an understated, complimentary backdrop to the quiet rhythm of the Menil bungalows:

Our design proposes three configurations for the ground floor with flexibility in the amount of storage, office, or bedroom space.

Through a compact form, and respectful material palette, the ADU would be easy to overlook from the treelined streets of the campus. Capped by a hip roof that recedes asymmetrically away from the drive, the simple hardie-clad structure is interrupted by two metal-clad formal insertions. One manifests as a curious box that peaks above the roof - foreshadowing a central light chimney within. The other is a metal wrapped stair that rises towards the front of the unit and serves to expand the courtyard buffer between the site’s two rentable units.

Volume and light become the unexpected showcase on the upper level, where ceilings follow the roof line and arrive at the filtered light chimney. Common spaces are stitched under the punctured volume of the splayed ceiling and offer spacious impressions of the unit. A wet core yields to the adjacent volume with compressed ceilings that house hvac ducts above.

Given the various sites and variety of potential uses for the units, modularity was given important consideration to allow adaptation to location and program. Variations on one footprint allow for garage or carport options. Our design proposes three configurations for the ground floor with flexibility in the amount of storage, office, or bedroom space. The second floor also offers various amenity options including a walk-in closet, a small office, or private outdoor deck.

In late 2021, HRDD was awarded two ADU project sites and tasked with renovating the accompanying bungalows.

North Carolina State University Design Leaders Council

The North Carolina State University College of Design welcomed nine new members to its Leaders Council this fall. HRDD’s Heather Rowell, one of the new members, returned to her undergraduate alma mater to join the Leaders Council last week!

The College of Design offers degrees in Architecture, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Art + Design, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and Design Studies with focused applications in the built environment, product design, textile and fiber design, user experience, animation and multimedia, as well as creative practice through the exploration of mediums, composition, and storytelling.

Established in 2010, the Leaders Council of the NC State College of Design is a select group of alumni and friends in design-related professions across the country. Members of the Leaders Council support the college’s strategic direction, assist in securing financial resources to achieve its long-range goals and actively advocate for the college’s vision to become the leading public interdisciplinary design college in the country. Leaders Council members promote the welfare of the college through advocacy, fundraising and service.

Meet all the newest members here. And, all of the Leaders Council here.

SAY IT LOUD (WIA) Texas

The Texas Society of Architect’s 82ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE & DESIGN EXPO begins today in San Antonio!

This year, Beyond the Built Environment, in collaboration with AIA San Antonio and the Women in Architecture Texas Chapters, have created an exhibit featuring work by Women Architects and Designers of Texas. Part of the internationally-recognized SAY IT LOUD series, the exhibit showcases projects and stories from architects and designers from all over the state of Texas. The concept of this exhibit is "To see our faces, hear our voices, feel our impact within the colorful tapestry of our heritage." SAY IT LOUD is the activation of a national movement of sharing, protecting and celebrating the journey of the underrepresented to inspire the next generation. Each of the featured designers and architects are now part of Beyond the Built Environment’s Great Diverse Designers Library — a resource and platform built to elevate Diverse Designers across the world.

Beyond the Built Environment was founded by Pascale Sablan, a New York-based architect and activist who works “to advance architecture for the betterment of society,” bringing visibility to issues concerning women and BIPOC designers. Beyond the Built Environment addresses “the inequitable disparities in architecture by providing a holistic platform aimed to support numerous stages of the architecture pipeline.” As part of this work, Sablan and her team curated the traveling exhibition SAY IT LOUD, which features work from underrepresented designers.

HR Design Dept co-founder and architect Heather Rowell is among the featured designers! The exhibit will be up throughout the convention before traveling to AIA chapters across Texas.

CAPPA at UT Arlington Lecture

HRDD’s Eric Hughes and Heather Rowell will be presenting their lecture “Pivot in Process” October 6th. Part of the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA) at The University of Texas at Arlington - this semester’s series is entitled “NEXT”.

You can view the lecture in its entirety here.

Houzz Tour: Crestview Residence

At 2,500 square feet, the home fills its long, narrow lot without overpowering the space. And the chic yet understated exterior gives little indication of the bright, open, family-friendly space that lies within — in particular the courtyard. - Laura Lambert for Houzz

Houzz contributor Laura Lambert caught up with HRDD’s Eric Hughes recently to discuss the design behind the Crestview Residence - a home Eric designed for his longtime friend Anthony Orona and his family. You can read the full Houzz story here!

CITE 102

The latest issue of Rice Design Alliance's Cite magazine is now available!

Cite 102 includes major contributions from guest editors Ajay Manthripragada and Piergianna Mazzocca. Their investigation centers on the question "What does it mean to be of one's own time?" They gather a community of like-minded thinkers who help establish a critical distance with which we can understand our time. Additional content extends this question to events and people in Houston, both historically and in the intense past year - including HRDD’s Heather Rowell who speaks with Wonne Ickx of PRODUCTORA about the upcoming headquarters for the Houston Endowment.

The printed version of Cite has a new look: the publication has been redesigned by MG&Co., led by Reto Geiser, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies at Rice Architecture.

Cite is available for purchase here, and the magazine is free to members of Rice Design Alliance.

Learn more about Cite 102 here.

Cite’s editorial apparatus—nearly forty years young—continues its work in Houston in part through its steady presence on the RDA website. Articles about current events, reviews, interviews, histories and photo essays are all regular features that will coexist with Cite’s annual print issue moving forward. The power of the written word remains important in a city with so much construction and demolition, and so few outlets for critical engagement. Criticism absorbed through the immediacy of the screen is just as valid as when it is consumed through the permanence of paper.

— Jack Murphy, Cite editor

Delz Residence Outdoor Living

This year marks five years since the Delz Residence was completed! A renovation of an auto mechanic's shop, this award-winning residence and studio was completed in 2016 while we were at Content. The owners, Karin Broker and Mark Witte, asked HRDD to design an outdoor fireplace and canopy extension to the existing structure. Recently, we visited the project with photographer Pete Molick to celebrate the anniversary and enjoy the new addition.

In the 2016 adaptive reuse, two renovated metal buildings were stitched together by a simple shed canopy. After settling into the home, the owners decided to add an outdoor fireplace and expand the outdoor covered space by extending the existing canopy. HRDD designed a fireplace “wall” that serves to help protect the outdoor space from wind-driven rain and offers an additional privacy layer from the neighboring property. The fireplace is clad in large format porcelain (Neolith through our friends at La Nova Tile here in Houston) and rests on a concrete plinth. Designed to be a multi-tasker, the back of the fireplace notches for an entertaining buffet counter or weekend re-potting tasks.

The Delz Residence was awarded a 2016 AIA Houston Design Award. It has been published by Houstonia, Dwell, and Houzz.