A Modern Move

Design by Eric Stranghoner, Talley Associates

Earlier this week, David and I interviewed a landscape designer who's style veers more toward the modern and contemporary. This is something very different for One Specialty, but I know that my dad and I are both really excited about how a designer like this could take the company to a whole new level. David has always had an appreciation for modern style architecture and design (furniture, landscape, fashion..). I concentrated on taking as many English classes on Modernism as I could when I was in college and I, too, love that modern art, including landscape design, architecture, or literature, has the effect of both tactile simplicity and philosophical complexity.. Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand in which modern architecture plays a major role - so this stuff has really been on my mind lately.

Today, the designer we interviewed is riding along with David, getting a feel for the company as it currently exists. I'm hoping that this will be a great opportunity for us to change the scope of our work. It's really important to us that he has experience designing for LEED projects - I really think that that is where the future of architecture is. Plus, I just think it would be cool to see us do something a little different.

The State of Remodeling

Chairing the Members: Four Prints of an Election, Plate 4. Original Engraving by William Hogarth 1758

Since 2008, we and several of the custom home builders that we work with have entered into the new market of remodeling. With homeowners wary of moving because of current housing market prices (not to mention the number of forclosures by homeowners who bought houses at depreciated value and were unable afford their 'good' investment), remodeling is an alternative that many homeowners are turning to because of the opportunity to increase their property value.

As President Obama will be giving his State of the Union Address tonight, I thought that it particularly apropos to talk about remodeling. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb 'remodel' has roots in governmental and civic contexts. It means "to update or restyle; to construct a model or theory of structure". The metonymic relationship between a physical structure and government (ie. the government represented as some kind of building or described in structural terms) is an age-old one. So, tonight we'll see what kind of re modeling Mr. Obama proposes for the next two years of his term...

Most of our remodels include swimming pool remodels and flatwork, such as driveways and patios, but we've also worked on add-on projects doing small foundations for residential room additions. In a press release from RemodelorMove.com, it's clear that, "while home expansion and renovation is on many people's minds, the majority in the [U.S. Homeowner Sentiment Report for Spring 2011] survey reported that they are very satisfied with local schools, their home's location and neighborhood." Now is the time for homeowners to continue investing in their properties. So whether your swimming pool needs an update, or you've always wanted to flagstone your patio but never got around to it, consider what a remodel could do for you. Change can be a good thing.

A Waterfall to Remember

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1826, 43 x 36 in. The Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Art in Tuscaloosa, AL.

So often artists make nature the subject of their art, giving power to the elements through a personified interpretation of their chosen element. In this, and many other paintings by Thomas Cole, a member of the Hudson River School and an American Romantic painter, nature is depicted as untamed and untouched by growing urbanism and American expansionism. What strikes me in this painting is the impression of sublimity, of cleanliness that the painting conveys. The rocks are violent. The water is violent. And a man stands insignificantly above the waterfall, as if he has found himself standing in a nature that is unwilling to compromise itself.

How did art that imitates nature lose its sense of nature? One of the projects that our company is currently working on is a luxury swimming pool that has been designed to look as 'natural' as possible. Obviously, residential man-made waterfalls and rock swimming pool features have been around for a long time, but I heard my dad say to someone the other day that his goal for this project is to really look 'natural'. Some part of me understood the quality and significance behind his words: most swimming pool rock features look anything but 'natural'...

So, whether man-made waterfalls (the kind that we build) have lost their sense of nature because of manufactured rocks that are used in construction or because boulders have been chiseled and cut apart to be rid of any imperfections or because mortar is visible, it's clear to me that making this swimming pool look natural will not be an easy task. David has already said that he wants to personally choose every stone, boulder, and rock that is going into this project. I think that's a good start. The real challenge will be to construct the formations as a talented sculptor would his masterpiece, keeping in mind that nature's real beauty lies in its imperfections, in its violence, and in its purity.

The Waterfall and the Eglantine 

William Wordsworth

  I

'BEGONE, thou fond presumptuous Elf,'
Exclaimed an angry Voice,
'Nor dare to thrust thy foolish self
Between me and my choice!'
A small Cascade fresh swoln with snows
Thus threatened a poor Briar-rose,
That, all bespattered with his foam,
And dancing high and dancing low,
Was living, as a child might know,
In an unhappy home.

II

'Dost thou presume my course to block?
Off, off! or, puny Thing!
I'll hurl thee headlong with the rock
To which thy fibres cling.'
The Flood was tyrannous and strong;
The patient Briar suffered long,
Nor did he utter groan or sigh,
Hoping the danger would be past;
But, seeing no relief, at last,
He ventured to reply.

III

'Ah!' said the Briar, 'blame me not;
Why should we dwell in strife?
We who in this sequestered spot
Once lived a happy life!
You stirred me on my rocky bed--
What pleasure through my veins you spread
The summer long, from day to day,
My leaves you freshened and bedewed;
Nor was it common gratitude
That did your cares repay.

IV

'When spring came on with bud and bell,
Among these rocks did I
Before you hang my wreaths to tell
That gentle days were nigh!
And in the sultry summer hours,
I sheltered you with leaves and flowers;
And in my leaves--now shed and gone,
The linnet lodged, and for us two
Chanted his pretty songs, when you
Had little voice or none.

V

'But now proud thoughts are in your breast--
What grief is mine you see,
Ah! would you think, even yet how blest
Together we might be!
Though of both leaf and flower bereft,
Some ornaments to me are left--
Rich store of scarlet hips is mine,
With which I, in my humble way,
Would deck you many a winter day,
A happy Eglantine!'

VI

What more he said I cannot tell,
The Torrent down the rocky dell
Came thundering loud and fast;
I listened, nor aught else could hear;
The Briar quaked--and much I fear
Those accents were his last. 

Life on the Outside

In 2004, I was a sophomore in high school and my parents were considering moving my family to Kansas City, Kansas. I'd never lived anywhere but Dallas, so I was excited when we got the chance to visit Overland Park and to look at Mid-Western-style houses (BASEMENTS!!!). While I was excited about the vision I had for my basement bedroom, I couldn't help but be nervous about one thing. My basement bedroom had a glass-pane door that led to the backyard. None of the houses had fenced-in backyards. 

I had only ever lived in and seen houses with wooden fences, cast iron fences, security fences. Somehow not having a fenced-in backyard invaded my family's personal space and made me lose a sense of security that I never even knew I had, until then.

Years later, my dad showed me some pictures of a special project he had just completed. More than the design itself, I was really interested in the spatial relationships that were created by his a-typical landscape design. 

 You see, the design moved the outdoor living area from the backyard to the front.

In college I studied a lot on self-other/ private-public theories (as humanities majors inevitably do...) and I thought that it was a really genius move to move a typically private space into the public realm. It makes people think, and isn't that what makes compelling art? At least, it made me think. So whether you like the design aesthetically or not, it has value because of the new public relationships it creates. So, thanks Victor Myers Custom Homes for giving my dad the chance to create something not just beautiful, but interesting. We've seen neighborhood kids hanging out on the stone benches playing the guitar engaging with one another. Just like you see Mid-West kids playing on an open turf area between two un-fenced houses...

The house featured is located in Highland Village, Texas and is currently for sale and listed by Victor Myers Realty.