Designed by Tom Hurt Architecture, Riverview Way is a private residence located in Houston, Texas, USA. It was a remodel and addition to a one-story brick, 1950s mid-century modern house our client found in the Tanglewood neighborhood in Houston. With only a couple of months to start the design and create construction drawings, the client and the architect decided early in the process to retain only the original exterior brick walls and beautiful terrazzo floors. In some ways, the original house was more of a unique building site for a new house than a remodel project. It was important to retain and give new life to the ‘historic’, low-slung brick structure, and continue with the private, inward-looking approach of the original house in relation to its surroundings.
Inspired by the owners’ penchant for the original Star Wars movies imagery, the architect envisioned this volume as ‘lowering’ its stair into the living space as though it were the metal-clad landing gear of an aircraft, or the stair of an alien spacecraft. The dining room atrium was strictly preserved, while the master bath’s previously exterior atrium was converted into a new, interior one. The goal was to create a master suite — including bedroom, bath, closet and atrium — that was rich and complex with interior and exterior landscape qualities. The brick exterior walls of the original home create a datum from which three ‘pop-up’ volumes protrude, creating a dichotomous visual interplay.
