Boulevard Oaks Addition
Listening to the language of the existing historic home, this addition of a new Garage Quarters, Outdoor Living, Pool, and Gardens blends seamlessly with the property’s original character while enhancing its functionality. Natural light, refined detailing, and careful material choices create a timeless connection between old and new, honoring the neighborhood’s architectural heritage while meeting the needs of contemporary living.
Location
Houston, Texas
Design Team
Kevin Barden, Joe Rivers, and Esmer Leija
Typology
Residential
Date
2021 - 2023
Landscape Architect
Falon Land Studio
General Contractor
Heavenly Homes
Photography
Leonid Furmansky
Process
Explore
Albert Cabin
Albert, Texas
Residential
Stepping through the stone wall portal marks a threshold from city life to the quiet rhythms of the Texas Hill Country. The cabin’s warm wood interiors and expansive glazing open to the surrounding oaks and sky. In the mornings, the southeast-facing bath welcomes the first light; in the evenings, the southwest-facing bedroom frames sunsets and starlit skies.
Michelle Haynes
Swing Dancer, Fitness Coach & Entrepreneur
Culture and Community
In this episode, our resident architects Joe Rivers and Kevin Barden visit with Michelle Haynes, a swing dancer, fitness instructor, and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Michelle Haynes is a veteran of the competitive swing dancing community, both in Houston and at the national level, and about two years ago turned her enthusiasm for dance, movement, and teaching into an entrepreneurial venture, opening a group fitness gym. Joe and Kevin sat down with Michelle to discuss her beginnings in swing dancing and how her passions evolved into her new business.
Pallasmaa On The Sublime
Kevin Barden
Writing
The emergence of digital and virtual technologies in the past decade has flourished exponentially giving academic environments and professional practices a newfound basis for collaboration between process and product. This essay proposes that we cannot lose sight of the underlying sources which drive a good process (whether digital, virtual, or manual) and lead to the opportunity for a great product. In his paper for the 101st Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, New Constellations New…