Way Off Topic: The Robert Crandall House

So, recently I was visiting with Russell and Karen Buchanan, the talented husband and wife team behind Buchanan Architecture. They’re located here in Dallas and they just moved into office space that they created when they repurposed a small mid-century modern building in what used to be a light industrial part of town.

Karen was giving me a tour of their new place.  We were talking about some of their projects, and she mentioned that they did an update of a Dallas landmark, the house designed by Edward Durell Stone.  The house is known to many around town as the Bob Crandall house.

Edward Durell Stone was the noted architect that designed the house in 1957.  He was the chief designer of Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Center, and his other famous works include the New York Museum of Modern Art, the first international modern building in New York, and the iconic General Motors Building in New York City.

Mr. Crandall is the former CEO of American Airlines, and he bought the house in the 1970s when American relocated to Dallas and lived there until he sold it a few years ago.

One of the most recognizable features of the house was in the indoor pool of water that surrounded the dining area.    Douglas Newby blogs about architecturally significant homes in Dallas:

This home has been the focus of world attention. Stone featured it, along with the New Delhi Embassy, on the cover of his book. The home has been the place of memorable parties and great civic events. Until the water around the floating dining room and swimming pool were filled in, guests routinely fell in. The home fell in great disrepair and was saved by the renovation of Jan and Robert Crandall.

Here’s how the house looked back when Mr. Crandall lived in it.

When the new owners bought the house they hired Russell to update it.   One of the things he did was restore the moat around the dining area.  Here’s how it looks today.

Russell received the National Trust for Historic Preservation Award in 2008 for the work he did on the house.  He certainly deserved it, the house looks amazing!

Boarding Area is being migrated, so no posts from me until Monday.  Comments won’t work until Sunday.   If you’re wondering what to do with all your extra time this weekend, go to Netflix, and click on the “House of Cards” graphic.  That will pretty much waste an entire day (sadly, I know this from experience)!

🙂