Behind every sleek and sexy architectural wonder are the many decidedly unsexy things that had to be considered to bring it to life. The orientation of the lot with regard to sun and wind exposure. The budget. The homeowner’s insistence on having a subterranean six-car garage despite the fact that the house is located on a floodplain. Such stipulations form the puzzle pieces that an architect must assemble. Those who do so deftly, diplomatically, and beautifully…well, they end up on our Best Architects in Dallas list.
Though successfully meeting real-life design challenges head-on is what separates good architects from great ones, we wanted to see what the Best Architects in Dallas would design if they had no restrictions beyond the boundaries of a napkin. So we invited the principals from the 61 winning firms to create a napkin sketch of their dream projects. The results are wide-ranging, sometimes surprising, but always inspiring.