SERENE LIVING
Bernbaum/Magadini Architects & Rick Rozas Design Pair Up
Plus: Allison McAfee’s Textured Lifestyle Game, Set, Match: Banner House at T Bar M
BERNBAUM MAGADINI ARCHITECTS AND RICK ROZAS DESIGN CREATE A PRESTON HOLLOW IDYLL.
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“We built a house for our lifestyle now,” relates Lisa Kravitz. She and her husband, Ira, worked with architect Tricy Magadini of Bernbaum/Magadini Architects, designer Rick Rozas of Rick Rozas Design, and landscape architect Amy Bartell of studioOutside to create an oasis of serenity. With their children grown and grandchildren starting to arrive, Ira says, “We were ready for something new.”
After finding the perfect lot in Preston Hollow, they turned to Magadini, whose first challenge included how to site the home. “The lot was so much deeper than wide. It dictated how the house was laid out,” she offers. She incorporated strong exterior horizontal lines, balancing the verticality of the wooded lot. The park-like setting lent to the flow of the home.
Natural materials are a hallmark of Magadini and Rozas’ approaches. Rozas incorporates as many as possible in his interior design, in large part because of their durability: details such as porcelain floors and oak finishes ensure a home built to last. Architecturally, large picture windows wrap around the house, framing the bucolic setting and forming a perfect balance of gravity and lightness.
At the entrance, for example, a stone walkway is visually cooled by a reflecting pool running parallel alongside it. The solid wood front door, framed by windows, opens into an entry hall in which the exterior stonework continues into the interior. On a perpendicular wall, a large
sculpture ripples vertically. The couple first saw the artist’s work, crafted from parts of a shipwreck excavated from the ocean’s floor, while visiting San Miguel. He had just enough material to make this commissioned piece for them.
From the entry, hallways flow into public spaces. One direction leads past a wine room into an open kitchen and living room. While Rozas used white oak for the exposed wood, the fireplace is surrounded by eucalyptus, bringing pattern into the room. Otherwise, neutral tones serve as a calming canvas for the greenery beyond the windows. “It’s important for me for every space to have a peacefulness to it and to have stillness to it,” Rozas explains.
The living room is anchored by an ottoman from The Bright Group. Its moveable tabletop provides a surface for serving. With the tabletop pushed aside, the ottoman doubles as additional seating. Since the couple enjoys entertaining, Rozas offers, “We wanted the space to feel really useable.”
A granite-topped table by Draenert, with a built-in lazy Susan, gives gravity to an adjacent breakfast room. Its roundness is echoed in the Ted Bradley–designed LED-and-fired porcelain chandelier above it. This space overlooks a courtyard enhanced by three lifesized bronze sculptures from Deborah Ballard’s Celebration series.
With each figure by the Dallas-based sculptor facing a window into a different area of the home, the courtyard feels like the beating heart of the property.
A spacious outdoor pavilion extends the home’s entertaining capacity. “We made it very light and airy,” Magadini explains. With the pool on one side, a fireplace on the other, and pickleball court adjacent to it, it unifies the outdoor living spaces.
Dining rooms are often the focal point of Magadini’s homes. Here, Rozas faced a unique challenge: “Tricy’s architecture has a mass to it. I learned to scale furniture to fit these rooms,” he notes. A circular table that seats 14 people provides a strong anchor to the space and is counterbalanced by a large painting by Paul Manes. While a Texan by birth, Manes now lives in Colorado.
On the whole, Ira says, “We like to support regional artists.” With work by David Gibson, Linnea Glatt, Mary Vernon, and Cecil Touchon (formerly of Fort Worth), among others, their commitment to the local art scene is evident throughout their home. “We started collecting several years ago. We knew that we would eventually have a house with big white walls,” Lisa explains, adding, “We started buying what we liked.”
Two of the most dramatic works in their home are commissioned
pieces by local sculptor Jim Cinquemani. Between the dining room and the staircase, Magadini created a quiet alcove that she felt needed to be screened to retain its cocooned aura. Cinquemani, with whom she has a long history, was able to offer the perfect solution: he conceived of an iron screen studded with colored glass. Its balance of negative and positive space gives it a diaphanous feel, while the glass stones add depth. “We worked hand-in-hand with him on what we wanted,” Lisa says. It has become everyone’s favorite room, including Rozas’. “What Jim did was just stunning,” he enthuses. Ira shares, “We liked it so much, we asked, ‘what can you do with the wine room?’” Cinquemani created a similar, though far from identical, concept here, leaving gaps as placeholders so that the couple could continue to personalize it. “Whenever we have a bottle [of wine] to celebrate a special occasion, his studio will melt it down and fit it in here,” Ira shares.
In October 2023, after two and half years of building, the couple finally moved in. When they began the project, memories of the Covid lockdown inspired several rooms, including an upstairs gym. And once Ira realized that he could work from home regularly, he knew he wanted a dedicated office. This workspace breezily overlooks the wooded yard. A whimsical painting by Barnaby Fitzgerald behind his desk has echoes of the Ballard installation outdoors. Ira is fond of wood, so Rozas had a walnut desk fabricated locally by Grazzini Furniture.
Overall, the architecture and design work symbiotically, the result of a long working relationship between Magadini and Rozas. As Rozas says, “We already have a vocabulary.” The two credit one another for the success of the home, with Rozas complimenting Magadini, saying, “Tricy is the only one who designs each room for how her clients want to live in it.” Magadini adds, “It was very collaborative to work together, which always makes a much better project.” Their joint effort perfectly balances harmony and serenity. P
