Welcoming Grandiose Lakehouse
A grandiose lakehouse above Lake Texoma, designed to gather family and friends.
The Brief
The first words my client said to me set the whole project: I want the grandiose house to gather and celebrate life at the lake. A young couple wanted a lake retreat that would represent them and bring friends and family together for weekends and holidays, and where their children could build lasting memories. The lot sits on a hill at Rock Creek Golf Club & Resort in Gordonville, overlooking Lake Texoma.
The Design Idea
Perched on that hill, the house brings a refined, modernist touch to the traditional farmhouse. Its modernity rests on three decisions. The first is the concept: the flow, the axes and the circulations answer how people live and gather today. The second is aesthetic: classical elements and proportions meet clear, clean geometry. The third is a reduced ornament, so decoration comes from geometric gestures and from elements that serve how the house works.
The plan is built around two wings. One holds the family’s private spaces and the other the guests’ spaces, and both run from the garages to the back of the house, where they meet at the covered patio and the game room, connected to each other. Between the wings sits the meeting place of the house, the kitchen open to the living room.
At the front, the HOA restrictions of the development shaped the garage. Three cars plus a boat in a single building would have grown too large to stay subordinate to the house, so I split it into two volumes and faced their doors in a symmetrical layout. That gesture solved the scale and gave the house the solid, symmetrical, grandiose presence the client asked for from the start.
- Location
- Rock Creek Golf Club & Resort, Gordonville, Texas
- Lake or course
- Lake Texoma
- Style
- Modern farmhouse
- Square feet
- 4,095
- Stories
- 1
- Bedrooms
- 4
- Bathrooms
- 3
- Garage
- 4 bays, attached
- Builder
- Ceci Bates Custom Homes
- Year
- 2023
- Status
- Built
- Service
- Premiere
Inside the House
A gabled roofline and wood columns welcome guests at the entrance and frame a view straight through the house to the backyard. The foyer opens into a tall hallway that leads to the heart of the home, the Great Room. Beneath the central arch, living, dining and kitchen flow together under cathedral style coffers and exposed wood beams.
An oval skylight crowns the kitchen island. The idea came from the client, who returned from a trip overseas delighted by how light transformed a space. My task was to make it work here: a structural and functional solution that keeps the roof watertight for the long term, an opening sized for the intensity of the Texas sun, and indirect fixtures that carry the same sense of light from above into the evening. From inside it reads as soft daylight, and from outside it becomes a sculptural shape on the roof.
The game room continues the social spirit of the house, with a built in bar, lounge seating, a pool table and several entertainment areas for year round hosting. From its proportions to its purpose, the house was designed to host, to welcome, and to feel like home from the first step inside.
Questions about this house
Why is there an oval skylight above the kitchen island?
The idea came from my client, who returned from a trip overseas enchanted by the effect of light in a space. Adapting it meant resolving it structurally and functionally: a roof detail that stays watertight over the long term, an opening sized for Texas sun, and indirect fixtures that continue the overhead glow after dark. From inside it reads as soft daylight, and from outside it becomes a sculptural shape on the roof.
How does the house work for large gatherings?
It was planned for gatherings from the original concept. Two wings separate the family's private spaces from the guests' spaces and run from the garages to the back of the house, where they meet at the covered patio and the game room, connected to each other. Between the two wings sits the kitchen open to the living room, the natural meeting place of the house.
How does a modernist touch fit inside a farmhouse?
It comes from three things. The concept: a planned flow, clear axes and circulations, and solutions for how people live and gather today. The aesthetics: classical elements and proportions combined with clean geometry. And a reduced ornament, where decoration comes from geometric gestures and from elements useful to how the house works.
Where does the boat go?
The HOA restrictions of the development made the boat space a design challenge. A single building for three cars plus a boat would have been too large to stay subordinate to the house. Splitting the garage into two volumes with their doors facing each other in a symmetrical layout solved the scale and gave the front of the house the solid, grandiose image the client wanted from the beginning.
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