Modern Texas Home Embraces a Local Tradition
Mountains, a deep canyon, spectacular sunsets and the lights of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are just some of the amazing views enjoyed by this Texas home. Not to mention the action of the red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, deer and rabbits that pass by. Perched on a mountainside almost a mile above sea level, the home becomes part of the landscape, with just one portion jutting out in dramatic fashion. Inspired by the site’s location, slope and proximity to a quartz mine, the home’s design was also influenced by local traditions and craftsmanship. While it has a sharply modern look, the home has deep roots in El Paso’s vernacular style and in the area’s cowboy and railroad history.
Photos by Casey Dunn
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their young son and daughter
Location: Perched above El Paso, Texas
Size: 5,200 square feet (483 square meters); four bedrooms, four bathrooms
Designers: Darci Hazelbaker and Dale Rush
The land is bordered on two sides by a state park. Because they got in early, the couple were able to choose a plot that was at the top of the development, which guaranteed their views. And views played an important role in the design. Certain windows were placed just over the arroyo, where they can watch hawks and eagles fly up, and others were cut out for viewing the sunset and the city lights of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, below.
That significant slope was also a major factor in the home’s placement and composition. “There are a couple of options when building on a sloped site like this. The easiest one is building a huge retaining wall to create a flat area and building up from there,” Rush says. But he and the homeowners did not want to go that route. Instead, they created three levels that stack and turn and interact differently with the land, rendered in different materials inspired by the surrounding landscape.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their young son and daughter
Location: Perched above El Paso, Texas
Size: 5,200 square feet (483 square meters); four bedrooms, four bathrooms
Designers: Darci Hazelbaker and Dale Rush
The land is bordered on two sides by a state park. Because they got in early, the couple were able to choose a plot that was at the top of the development, which guaranteed their views. And views played an important role in the design. Certain windows were placed just over the arroyo, where they can watch hawks and eagles fly up, and others were cut out for viewing the sunset and the city lights of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, below.
That significant slope was also a major factor in the home’s placement and composition. “There are a couple of options when building on a sloped site like this. The easiest one is building a huge retaining wall to create a flat area and building up from there,” Rush says. But he and the homeowners did not want to go that route. Instead, they created three levels that stack and turn and interact differently with the land, rendered in different materials inspired by the surrounding landscape.
“The best way was to step the house up the hill — this meant lots of stairs,” Rush says. “But they are young and embraced this. They said climbing all the stairs would keep them young, and when the day came that they couldn’t do it anymore, they would pass the house down to their kids.”
There is an old quartz mine near the property where you find glittering, sharp-edged, angular pieces scattered about on top of the gray surface rock. “I imagined the house like this landscape: The first two stories are local basalt rock like the craggy, weathered, beaten-by-the-sun rocks you see on the mountainside, while the white lime stucco box is a beautiful foreign object placed on top of it,” Rush says.
The white cantilevered box is the top floor, which contains the private family area, including bedrooms and the boys’ playroom.
There is an old quartz mine near the property where you find glittering, sharp-edged, angular pieces scattered about on top of the gray surface rock. “I imagined the house like this landscape: The first two stories are local basalt rock like the craggy, weathered, beaten-by-the-sun rocks you see on the mountainside, while the white lime stucco box is a beautiful foreign object placed on top of it,” Rush says.
The white cantilevered box is the top floor, which contains the private family area, including bedrooms and the boys’ playroom.
This topographical map illustrates how dramatic the slope is.
In case you’re not much of a topo reader, this section makes it clear.
Here you see the main floor (second story), the top floor (third story) and the outdoor room created by the space below the top level. The first level is mostly utilitarian and contains the garage, mechanicals, laundry room, wine cellar and a workout room. “While we had them walking up all those stairs, we did install a dumbwaiter so that they can bring in groceries from the garage without having to make multiple trips,” Rush says.
The architects turned the house about 10 to 15 degrees off a direct north-south orientation in order to create shade. The long horizontal window faces west. They designed both the window and the patio below as the best spots to view the setting sun as it gives way to the lights of Ciudad Juarez at night.
The architects turned the house about 10 to 15 degrees off a direct north-south orientation in order to create shade. The long horizontal window faces west. They designed both the window and the patio below as the best spots to view the setting sun as it gives way to the lights of Ciudad Juarez at night.
More tumbled walls provide a transition between the site and the greater landscape.
Here you can catch just a peek of the driveway and garage. It’s just below and in front of where the homeowner is standing.
On these plans, level one is in the bottom left corner, the main level is above it and the top level is to the right. The first floor is utilitarian, the second contains all of the public spaces and the third is the family’s private bedroom level.
While the site and slope were both big influences on the home, so were the vernacular style and traditions of craftsmanship in El Paso. “El Paso has always been a masonry town,” Rush says. So the home’s structure on the first two levels and the terraced walls outside were inspired by the rubble walls seen throughout El Paso that have been there for over a hundred years. While the architects wanted to build the house with the same type of method, local building codes required steel reinforcements for the structure, so these rocks are 8- to 10-inch veneers on both the exterior and interior. This is thick enough to allow the walls to serve as a thermal mass that keeps the home cooler in the heat and warmer in the cold.
The palette is simple: concrete floors, local basalt and beautiful walnut wood. The area you see here is an entry, accessible by a massive 12-by-4-foot steel door. Because it faces the unforgiving heat of the sun, they employed a wall to close most of it off. “It also helps the entry serve as a ‘decompression chamber’ before you enter the house,” Rush says. The firm designed benches, shelves, beds, desks, light fixtures and even door handles and cabinet pulls to incorporate the tradition of El Paso craftsmanship.
The palette is simple: concrete floors, local basalt and beautiful walnut wood. The area you see here is an entry, accessible by a massive 12-by-4-foot steel door. Because it faces the unforgiving heat of the sun, they employed a wall to close most of it off. “It also helps the entry serve as a ‘decompression chamber’ before you enter the house,” Rush says. The firm designed benches, shelves, beds, desks, light fixtures and even door handles and cabinet pulls to incorporate the tradition of El Paso craftsmanship.
They placed this corner window in the family room to frame the views of the valley and so that the mountains of Ciudad Juarez could be enjoyed from the sofa. Also so that they could glimpse Mount Cristo Rey around the corner to the right. “It’s a little pilgrimage kind of place — a hill with a cross on top of it,” Rush says.
The main level also contains a home office-guest suite that has its own private terrace.
The main level also contains a home office-guest suite that has its own private terrace.
Rush designed the kitchen with the homeowner’s ways of functioning in mind. “She is a great cook and wanted the kitchen to serve almost as a stage so she can do her thing while she entertains,” Rush says. She also wanted two adjacent sinks — one for washing food and discarding bits while chopping, and the other for dishes. Down to the right, the marble waterfall countertop seats four for more casual dining. The countertop and backsplash are both marble.
The cabinets are walnut, cut from three sequential slabs so that they could be bookmatched in the center. The door in the back leads to the pantry. They had a local industrial manufacturer make the lights, which are spun brass that they polished on the inside and blackened on the outside.
The cabinets are walnut, cut from three sequential slabs so that they could be bookmatched in the center. The door in the back leads to the pantry. They had a local industrial manufacturer make the lights, which are spun brass that they polished on the inside and blackened on the outside.
After you ascend that last flight of stairs to the top floor, the view of the mountain on the left toward the boys’ playroom draws you in. “We usually say a view like this can ‘pull’ someone toward it, but with the case of their son, it launched him!” Rush says. “He loves to run down that hallway.”
The long window is one of the few openings to the west, where the sun can be brutal. To provide the view responsibly, Rush gave the window a 3-foot recess, which helps to shade it. “We thought about tinting it but ultimately decided we didn’t want to alter the colors of the view,” he says. Instead, he installed a motorized shade on a timer that lowers when the sun is at its most brutal and goes back up when it’s time to admire the stunning sunsets. It tucks up behind the casework out of view.
The long window is one of the few openings to the west, where the sun can be brutal. To provide the view responsibly, Rush gave the window a 3-foot recess, which helps to shade it. “We thought about tinting it but ultimately decided we didn’t want to alter the colors of the view,” he says. Instead, he installed a motorized shade on a timer that lowers when the sun is at its most brutal and goes back up when it’s time to admire the stunning sunsets. It tucks up behind the casework out of view.
The window is split down the middle by the wall between the kids’ bedrooms. They placed it to enjoy the view of the Palo Verde tree, which becomes bright yellow when in bloom. We don’t have a photo, but Rush placed the kids’ desks beneath the window and designed them in a way that they can clear them off and add cushions to turn them into window seats to enjoy the view.
In this photo, you see the boys’ bedroom window on the left and the master bedroom-bathroom window on the right, which leads out to a private terrace.
One large opening serves the master bathroom and the bedroom. “The terraced landscape provides a juxtaposition to the rugged mountain above it,” the architect says.
The homeowners enjoy the brilliant colors of the desert and views of the protected parkland from their bed. “We decided to forgo screens because they ruin the view, and for the times of year that it’s cool enough to keep open, there are hardly any bugs,” Rush says. “We are close to a mile high up here, we are away from the ‘heat island’ of the city and there are breezes that come right up the canyon, so it really cools down at night.” He designed the openings on this floor and downstairs to have a chimney effect, which allows for great air flow throughout the home.
They enjoy the same views from the bathtub and the shower, which is located to the left of the tub. The cabinets are white oak, and the countertops are the same marble used in the kitchen.
“We were really lucky on this project. The clients really embraced the idea of a handcrafted home and gave us a lot of latitude to work out ideas,” Rush says. “We even made the cabinet pulls and door handles from steel and leather, which reflect the railroad and cowboy traditions of this place.”
“We were really lucky on this project. The clients really embraced the idea of a handcrafted home and gave us a lot of latitude to work out ideas,” Rush says. “We even made the cabinet pulls and door handles from steel and leather, which reflect the railroad and cowboy traditions of this place.”