Byrd House

Beachtown Galveston, Texas

The house occupies one of the four most prominent lots in Beachtown. It terminates the passage between the town center and the ocean and stands next to the gazebo at the start of the dune walkover. It was designed for Myra, an interior designer, and Michael Byrd, an attorney, who encouraged me to explore the richness of both Gothic and Victorian approaches to home design appropriate for Galveston and the hurricane prone areas.

The house is strongly inspired by tradition in general, and by a wealth of Galveston's architectural heritage, in particular. It uses both Victorian and Gothic elements to create a house as stately as some of the great historic houses still standing on Galveston's Broadway.

More than 200 blocks of well preserved historic houses in Galveston offer great variety of designs and materials to contemporary architects. How we use tradition in our designs without degrading it, and how we make a meaningful contribution to it, are tantalizing conundrums for many of us. Products and materials used in the 19th century are not readily available today, and the craft of home building that created historic Galveston is all but lost in today's construction industry.

The approach I have taken in designing the house can be called "imitation and innovation." By imitating, we try to penetrate into the underlying reasons and principals behind the design, and by innovation, we try to contextualize today's technology to reflect and serve tradition and at the same time take advantage of modern materials and means of production and construction. The point is not to copy, but to emulate. Our attempts should be not to reproduce details to a "tee," but rather to recreate the formal richness of traditional homes and neighborhoods.

The home's principal massing is Gothic in character and exhibits strong verticality. Additional building components are added to soften the primary massing as well as to further express that verticality. Twin posts on the porches, open rafters and eave detailing, vertically proportioned windows and doors, steep angled roof, ridge pieces, and roof detailing – all contribute to create a slender and elegant home.

The house has a strong traditional distinction between the bottom, the middle, and the top. The heavier bottom, the open and lacey middle, and the soaring top also give hints as to the layout and future use of the house – garage and foyer on the bottom, living areas on the second floor, and bedrooms on the third.

An observation tower is added on the dune walkover side as an important part of the massing and composition. Also, in addition to being a clear indication of how to enter the house, open stairs at the corner facing the passage are a friendly gesture, a "gift to the street" this house makes to one of the most important public spaces in Beachtown.