“Courtyard House is so place based; it couldn’t be anywhere else,” the jury said. From its tall gabion landscape walls filled with stone from the Franklin Mountains on the horizon, to its gravel courtyard, 8-foot overhangs, and the use of COR-TEN steel and board-formed concrete, the design exhibits a firm grasp on the realities of living in El Paso. “El Paso is a tough environment, very dry, and the sun is intense,” says project manager Steve Raike, AIA. “We looked for a material palette that would be durable for the long run.” Those materials turn poetic in Lake | Flato’s hands.
Designed for entertaining, retreat, and a car collection, the U-shaped Courtyard House faces the original house across a large gravel square. The owner commissioned the main house when he was a bachelor. Now married with a family, he took the opportunity to purchase the adjacent property and make a two-building composition. “Bringing in the car collection, which was formerly housed in a warehouse, was a big part of the design,” Steve says. “He also has a wine collection and a lot of art; this project was all about creating those spaces the house didn’t have, but also to provide an office space, a craft and work room for his kids, and a gym and spa.”
In response to the main house’s site-cast concrete, the new building has concrete walls that screen the neighbors but is far more open and brighter, with floor-to-ceiling glass that focuses the view on the courtyard, and deep, COR-TEN-covered porches that overlook it. The COR-TEN and the gabion stone, with its high iron content, supply dark, rich reds that blend with the earth in that part of Texas and help to warm the concrete. The interior’s quartersawn walnut millwork and oak ceiling slats are equally inviting. “We used wood in places where you touch and interact with it,” Steve says. A curvaceous spa tub was formed from a single piece of sandstone, and the wall behind it is a patinaed bronze panel. “The wall has an undulating quality with built-in lights that throw light up and down the wall at night,” Steve says. An outdoor kitchen, shower, and meditation space commune with the courtyard.
Given El Paso’s arid climate, Courtyard House goes above and beyond its civic duty to harvest the seasonal downpours. Underground stormwater channels in the parking areas and courtyard capture more than the volume of precipitation required by jurisdiction and release it to the water table. And solar arrays on the low roof slope generate about 35 kilowatts of power—enough to feed back to the utility grid. The judges applauded these measures that not only impart an unmistakable sense of belonging, but are beautifully executed.
Honor Award
Custom Urban House
Lake|Flato Architects
Courtyard House
El Paso, Texas
Project Credits
Architect: Partner in charge: Steve Raike, AIA, Lake | Flato Architects, San Antonio, Texas
Builder: The Construction Zone, Phoenix, Arizona
Interior designer: Pamela Dailey and Lake | Flato Architects, San Antonio
Landscape architect: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Austin, Texas
Structural engineer: Architectural Engineers Collaborative, Austin
MEP engineer: Collaborative Engineering Group, Houston
Lighting design: Mazzetti, Denver, Colorado
Project size: 11,674 square feet
Site size: 1 acre
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: Casey Dunn
Key Products:
Cabinetry: Bulthaup
Cladding: COR-TEN steel
Cooktop/Ovens: Wolf
Dishwasher: Miele
Door hardware: Dormakaba
Faucets: Boffi
Fireplace: Spark Modern Fires
Flooring: Muscanell Millworks
Garage doors: Overhead Door Co.
HVAC systems: Daikin VRV
Icemaker: Scotsman
Lighting: Delray, Lumen, Ingo Maurer, Holly Hunt
Outdoor grill: Kalamazoo
Radiant heating: Bromic Heating
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Roofing: Carlisle TPO
Sinks: Franke
Toilets: TOTO
Tub: Stone Forest
Windows and doors: Brombal
Window shading systems: Lutron