Dallas and Regional Architects

Dallas has been the host city to many significant architects that have left behind a vast body of residential work. 

Practicing Architects  

Gary Cunningham - Perhaps one of the best known modernist architects in Dallas. He often uses inexpensive and expensive pre-fab materials in interesting ways. His designs are visually stunning studies of graceful spaces.  His award-winning design of six sleek uptown condos on Cole Avenue are works of architectural art.

E.G. Hamilton - Worked for the firm best known for the timeless design of North Park and one of Dallas' best modern homes on Crescent with its continous planes blending interior and exterior spaces. 

Max Levy - left the DFW area to study at UC Berkley and upon returning, trained with the master of modern Dallas architecture, Bud Oglesby.  His extraordinary houses are elegantly detailed and dramatic while blending into their environments respectfully.     

Lionel Morrison - a protoja of E. G. Hamilton, both men's work have been deeply influenced by the Bauhaus movement.  His clean, stark residences have spaces with single planes of unadorned material dividing the interior and exterior spaces. 

David Oswalt - One of the leading renovation architects in the Lakewood and East Dallas in addition to homes in the Park Cities. 

Cliff Welch - Influenced by Bud Oglesby, his work is very much reflects his passion for 1950's modernism. 

Frank Welch - One of Dallas' most prominent architects, trained with O'Neil Ford.  His work defines the Texas Modern style making it unique interruption of what modern means in Texas. 

William Benson - Designed one of the cities best Mid-Century Modern houses with its spacious, well maintained interiors and large property.

Herschel Fisher - designed over 300 buildings in the Dallas area including the main library downtown, he also designed some notable residences in Kessler Park.  An early residence built in 1951 at 1834 Kessler Parkway was modeled after a house designed by Walter Gropius with its cantilevered design that hangs off the edge of a rocky cliff.  Like his own house built 10 years later and located just around the corner, both houses feature walls of windows with commanding hilltop views.  

O'Neil Ford - Often referred to as the grandfather of Texas Modernism.

Gershon Canaan - born Gerhard Kohn in Berlin, the Kohn family fled Nazi Germany and he later joined the miltary. Upon his discharge from the military, Mr. Canaan came to the United States to further his studies in architecture and became an apprentice with Frank Lloyd Wright at Talieson West. Canaan designed the 1956 Joel Rubel house on Yamini Drive.

Clifford D. Hutsell - Inspired by the Spanish eclectic houses he saw in Beverly Hills, he incorporated several of the design details such as arched stained glass windows, balcony porches and multi-colored roof tiles into his own house at 7035 Lakewood and other houses he designed in Lakewood and Highland Park.  

Ralph Merrill - Dallas modernist that designed a small low-slung house at 3520 Rock Creek in Turtle Creek Park among other modern houses.

Howard Meyer - Perhaps the first international modernist architect in Dallas.  His homes have an elegant, simplicity that is museum-like.

Bud Oglesby - Oglesby and his Oglesby Group firm was one of the most important and recognized firms in Dallas.  Many of  todays best Dallas architects worked for this firm.  

Harold Prinz - As half of the firm Prinz and Brooks, they designed many of the most significant mid-century modern homes in Dallas including the home he built for his family at 5016 Maple Springs.  His best house at 718 Kessler Lake, designed for Earl Haynes in 1955, is built into a hillside and cantilevers over a lake.  

David Oswalt - One of the leading renovation architects in the Lakewood and East Dallas in addition to homes in the Park Cities. 

Shutt and Scott - This brother team of California architects designed the Hotel Bel-Air before coming to Dallas to design a 21,000 square foot home for oilman Everett DeGolyer on the shores of White Rock Lake.

Charles Dilbeck - His work is often refer to as a romantic and ecletive architect that appears to have been built by hand over time.  Dilbeck houses have a warm, cozy feeling that is the very soul of the house...not a feeling that must be achieved through decoration.  Dilbeck's Texas Ranch houses feature large oversized fireplaces, screened-in porches, hand-carved mantles, hammered metal-work and patterned work ceilings.  His homes ranged from large estate sized homes to small houses.

Ju-Nel Homes Inc. started as a partnership between the builder/architect duo of Lyle Rowley and Jack Wilson. Inspired by Howard Meyer and Frank Lloyd Wright, Wilson and Rowley wanted to break the cookie-cutter mold of the traditional ranch homes being built during the mid-century period. Instead of the usual ranch house, they designed and built contemporary homes with open floor plans, using unusual ideas and innovative products. They named the company for their wives, Julie Rowley and Nelda Wilson. Wilson and Rowley worked first with Dallas architect Howard Meyer on Temple Emanu-El and 3525 Turtle Creek. In 1958 they struck out on their own and became mavericks on the Dallas architecture scene.  In all, Ju-nel built around 100 unique homes.  Most are located in Eastwood Estates, Casa Linda, Lake Highlands, Lockwood, Lockwood Meadows, White Rock North and Lake Park Estates.