Although its title lacks creativity, the subject of the new monograph Highland Park (Oscar Riera Ojeda, $49.99) most assuredly does not. The book documents a remarkable work of architecture designed by Alterstudio, the Austin-based firm of Kevin Alter, with landscape by Dallas-based David Hocker. Located on Lexington Avenue in Highland Park, the house is fronted by a wall of vertical panels of limestone set behind a landscape of native grasses, giving it the appearance of something closer to a natural formation than a private residence. As Alter writes, the house “offers a counterproposal to the contemporary Tudor mansions and French chateaus of this tony Dallas neighborhood.”
The exterior is rough-textured, but the interiors are deftly crafted with slatted wood room dividers and broad windows that open onto a stepped rear garden. Designed for a family with an extensive art collection, it boasts a linked gallery structure.
The book covers the house in extensive detail, from construction to completion, with photography by Casey Dunn and essays by historian Robert McCarter and the architects Marlon Blackwell and Carlos Jimenez.
