The Bishop Arts District is Plural’s kind of neighborhood–walkable, in an urban center, with a small town feel–and Gamut House is the quintessential Bishop Arts home. As a one-story addition to an existing craftsman house, this design situates modern updates within a historic context.
Dallas, Texas
Residential
Built
Anticipated
August 2022
True to the craftsman mold, Gamut House is all about thresholds. Upon entry, the layout offers a view down the length of the common spaces, from the foyer to the living room, through the kitchen and into the den. In the traditional craftsman, those thresholds come in the form of big arch openings. This update rechannels some of the open energy, hemming in passageways and delineating spaces without closing off the rooms, lengthening the structure without making it feel overly long. The millwork in the kitchen is thoughtful and detail-oriented, as is characteristic of the craftsman. Open shelves sit atop thin, shaker style white oak cabinets, with plenty of nooks and crannies for storage and appliances. Custom sliding doors hide the microwave, and a wine cooler faces the living room.
Craftsman windows are typically double hung, repeated along the sides of the home. For Gamut House we’ve preserved some of those openings, but others are big, square, and modern, an innovation on craftsman typology. To allow entry to natural light while also offering residents a sense of privacy, Gamut House peers out from high, clerestory windows.
It’s a joy to work with clients who speak our language. As a designer himself, Gamut House’s owner intuitively understood how to read architectural drawings. He chose the muted sage color of the house’s exterior, wrote code to determine the pattern of the hex tile in the bathroom, and was all around an instrumental collaborator through the architectural process, from early schematics to construction details.
As part of Plural's commitment to social equity, even as the firm innovates, we strive to preserve the context of our projects. Development pressures are high in historic neighborhoods, which can put the economy and aesthetic of places like Bishop Arts at risk. Tearing structures down and building anew disrespects heritage and raises cost of living. By starting from its source typology, Gamut House honors the spirit of community that makes Bishop Arts great, inspiring confidence that it will endure well into the future.
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