Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
A former landscape architecture student's firm received two honor awards for residential design in the 2010 American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards contest.
The Hocker Design Group was recognized by the ASLA for its work on the Power House, an urban garden within the walls of a former electric substation, and The Pool House, an urban retreat for an artist and car enthusiast.
The firm was founded in 2005 by principal David Hocker, who earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from Texas A&M in 2001.
The substation incorporated into the Power House was built in 1923 by Dallas Power and Light Company in a mixed residential and commercial area of town. Vacant for 20 years, the three-story substation was transformed into a single-family residence; it's Hocker-designed garden, which occupies a large portion of the nearly half-acre site, is organized into spaces that directly relate back to its original industrial predecessor.
"This is art! Compelling and monumental," raved the ASLA awards jury. "Its layers of industrial use that define the site are remnants the design pulls together. It celebrates its past use.”
A carpet of buffalo grass, Groves of Eve's necklace trees and high-rise live oaks are featured at the residence's exterior, seen by the many pedestrians who frequently pass by on their way to a nearby hike and bike trail.
In an interior courtyard, a windswept native live oak resembles a living sculpture, rising from a fitted basalt boulder mound, providing shade. The courtyard is enclosed with a living green screen that provides privacy and a sense of enclosure.
The Pool House, functioning as a center for family and social gatherings, is a series of transitional garden spaces.
The central spine of the site is a six-foot high privacy wall, a stainless steel cage filled with blue recycled glass slag. It's lit from within, and emits a smoldering glow at night.
"Very unique and playful," said the awards jury. "The detailing is exquisite. The informality of it all just works. The glass wall when lit up is lovely. Very elegant plants collection. The proportions are spot on."
A small water feature cast into the pool's concrete deck provides subtle noise to eliminate distractions from beyond the house's garden walls. Large stone slabs become connectors throughout the site, providing transitions from space to space. These organic, sinuous pathways culminate by encircling a fire pit, and a minimal plant palette creates mass plantings used for large textural impact and screening for privacy.
For more about the Power House award, visit www.asla.org
For more about the Pool House award, visit www.asla.org/2010awards
The Hocker Design Group's website is www.hockerdesign.com
- Posted: Oct. 5, 2010 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
