Bluffview Pool House

Dallas, Texas

This graceful pool house pays homage to Texas modernism, expanding indoor and outdoor living for the existing 1940s residence and redefining the backyard. Upchurch Architects worked closely with Dallas landscape architect David Rolston to design the extended outdoor living spaces and tie the structure and the surrounding landscape back to the existing home and to enhance outdoor living while creating buffers for privacy. 

Designed as an outdoor living space, the pool house’s refined vocabulary and simple plan allow for flexible furnishings to accommodate family and friends comfortably for both entertaining and quiet relaxation. A standing-seam metal hip roof defines the volume, which is half interior space and half shaded porch, both sharing the soaring, unifying ceiling topped with a central light monitor. The interior, awash in abundant natural light, can be further opened up to enhance the connection to the outdoor living area where casual seating, dining, and cooking are bookended by a grill and fireplace on either side. Support spaces include a small kitchen, bathroom, and an outdoor shower.

The pool’s geometry visually opens the backyard between the home and the pool house, creating a formal, linear path between the two. Lueders limestone, a touchstone material of Texas modernism, surrounds the pool, continues to the sun deck and flows to the interior flooring. Limestone is also used for the porch columns. Exterior walls are smooth stucco, while black granite countertops, glass tile and ipe wood, used on privacy enclosures for the outdoor shower area and the elevated walkway, complete the refined material palette.