TRIBEZA

Growing Panes

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Story by Christopher Carbone

“There’s a lot of contemporary design being done in Austin,” says architect Burton Baldridge, relaxing in the kitchen of his recently built modernist glass house. “Not a lot is done with a sense of restraint, really.”

His family’s livable, modern L-shaped house sits on a quiet stretch of Mohle Drive. The wraparound, fencedin patio—which also has an outdoor fireplace—seems tailor-made for barbecuing on summer nights as well as giving the family’s puppy plenty of room to play. The kitchen, living room, and dining room in the front are surrounded on three and a half sides by floor-toceiling windows that flood the house with sunlight, though a measure of privacy is maintained with raw silk curtains on one side.

Baldridge, who worked for Peter Gluck & Partners Architects in New York City and was project architect for the Floating Box house in Westlake, wanted to create a house that balanced his family’s day-to-day needs, was intelligent in its overall use of the land, served as something of a business card for his young firm, and didn’t ruffle too many feathers in the neighborhood.

A lawyer-turned-architect, Baldridge translated his lifelong passion for architecture into a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1999. “Being an architect was my ambition since I was a child,” he says. “I realized quickly that law was a mistake.” After diligently searching for something that was in very poor condition and hadn’t been renovated, he settled on a small house, originally built in 1939, that sat on a 135-by-75-foot lot. “The house was pretty bad,” says Baldridge. “It had a really heroic rat infestation.” Habitat for Humanity ended up carting off two Dumpsters filled with rubble and took the rest of the materials to the Habitat ReStore to sell.

The only obstacle to overcome was the subsequent annexation of the property into the old West Austin neighborhood district, which is a national historic district. After appearing before the historic commission and carefully explaining his plan for the site, he won the neighbors over. “Everybody was cooperative—given that it’s a large lot and that we were building something small,” he says.

Walking through the house and seeing the master bedroom, bathrooms, and children’s rooms, it’s clear that Baldridge stuck to his design principles throughout. “We wanted to make something that would fit [with the rest of the neighborhood], and we wanted it to feel substantial and durable. A lot of what’s getting built right now is flimsy.” The house is a mix of Lueders limestone, stucco, stainless steel, and light woods, like oak and maple; it’s solidly built, and although the interior is painted white, it’s not a sterile environment. The colors that were chosen—such as the red couch in the den that doubles as a guest room or the black B&B Italia dining room table—tend to pop against the stark backdrop.

After nine years in New York, Baldridge and his family moved back to Austin in 2002. When he’d purchased the house, in late 2001, the concept of green or sustainable design was much more of a novelty. “At that time, most of the buildings that were allegedly green had the appeal of a granola wrapper,” Baldridge contends. “I think the best way to be green is to build small.” The house itself is 2,400 square feet.

Form follows function. If that maxim—made famous by architect Louis Sullivan, the father of modernism—is to be followed, then it stands to reason that Baldridge, a relative newcomer to his profession, has an ideal design philosophy for Austin’s hyper-growth marketplace. “We didn’t want to max out the space,” he says.

In addition, he made the house adaptable to Austin’s notoriously hot summers. “There are significant overhangs on all the front edges, and on the east and west sides the overhangs are closer to 12 feet,” he says, adding that during the hottest part of the summer the sun doesn’t strike the one-inch-thick insulated glass. Solar panels were an option, but the city nixed the idea because of the trees in the area. However, a portion of the exterior is clad in a sustainable wood called ipe; it’s a rain screen that functions like a radiator, so that when sun strikes the building, the heat dissipates out the top.

Baldridge intended for his glass house to be highly functional. “I didn’t want there to be a room in the house that we didn’t use every day,” he says. “We built this as a home.” Baldridge eschews flashy ultra-luxury appliances and overly fussy materials in favor of durability, strength, and function.

Although new firms generally expect gradual growth, Burton Baldridge Architects has seen a whirlwind of activity. Burton completed his work on the Floating Box project before the 16-month Mohle Drive house renovation, and during the latter, he left his position at Peter Gluck & Partners.

Burton says that his wife, a broadcast journalist who works out of the office in the front of the house, was tolerant of his ideas for the home’s aesthetic. And what about the initial concerns of the neighbors? “By and large, the neighbors have responded positively to it.”

In each of our conversations, Burton reiterates the fact of his good fortune. Here he is, less than a decade into his new profession, and he’s working on projects that would make others envious. BBA, which has three employees other than Burton and was launched in January 2006, is in the final stages of building a bed-and-breakfast behind the Continental Club on South Congress and is also working on a few other residential projects in that area.

Burton hired a group of skilled craftsmen and artisans, but he did the reveal work himself—including carpentry, welding, and constructing the fireplace. “There isn’t anything that was off the shelf—it was all custombuilt,” he says.

Although there are houses in the greater neighborhood that were constructed in the 1960s and share some style elements with the Mohle Drive house, it is in a class by itself. “It’s truly modern because it’s functionally derived.”

RESOURCES
Burton Baldridge Architects
www.baldridge-architects.com
(512) 441 1700

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