Remember our mantra about buying the home of a builder or an architect, or a designer? We have a home run for you today. Our Inwood Home of the Week at 4310 Abbott Avenue is one of the most cutting-edge classic contemporary urban villas we’ve ever seen.
First Base
The home was built in 2001 by Urban Edge Developers founder Diane Cheatham. Cheatham is the brains behind Urban Reserve, the coolest neighborhood in Dallas, and perhaps in Texas. She is widely respected in the industry and one of the few female developers in America. Her company specializes in speculative, custom, and multi-family homes. The company’s awards would fill the rest of this post. She built 4310 Abbott for herself and her husband.
Second Base
Second Base
The classic contemporary urban villa was designed by Graham Greene of Oglesby Greene. Again, a firm with so many awards, we’d have no room for anything else if we listed all of them. We will, however, give you a little taste. They designed 40 Braewood Place, 3908 Euclid, Texas Discovery Gardens, and Greenland Hills United Methodist Church.
Third Base
Third Base
Jim Rimelspach bought the house from Cheatham and redesigned the interiors, because he’s known for interiors, of course. Rimelspach is a principal with Wilson Associates, a global design firm specializing in the hospitality industry. If you’ve stayed in The InterContinental in downtown Los Angeles, The Fairmount Quasar Istanbul, or the Four Seasons in Hong Kong, you’ll have a fair idea of the man’s design sensibilities. You don’t have to go that far. The firm also did the Omni Frisco Hotel.
Home Run
Home Run
Location, location, location. This 3,964-square-foot classic contemporary urban villa is right in the heart of Northern Heights. Where’s that you say? It’s a wonderful little neighborhood just outside of Highland Park, and within walking distance to Knox Street and The Katy Trail.
Cheatham built two homes side-by-side when she began the development, and we cannot put it better than Oglesby Greene does on their website:
The site orientation, setbacks, and program dictated a compact, intensely utilized volume to achieve an open flow within the interior spaces but also maintain a high degree of privacy and separation. The design response is based on the idea of a classic urban villa — strong street edge and public presence with a progression of spaces opening to a private urban scale garden — and adapts it to both the site and the pair of dwellings.
Facing the street are large translucent ‘bay windows’, providing both softened natural daylight throughout most of the interior and the framing for an open stairwell. Beyond the stair, the living/dining areas and the garden are treated as one large unified space, with only a clear plane of glass separating.
The classic contemporary urban villa has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. A three-car garage sits just below street level. It’s exactly what you need if you crave an urban lifestyle but don’t want to be in the middle of the city.
Allie Beth Allman agents Brittany Mathews and David Nichols have the property listed for $1.769 million.
And remember, this classic contemporary urban villa is a home run!
Karen Eubank is the owner of Eubank Staging and Design. She has been an award-winning professional home stager for more than 25 years and a professional writer for 20 years. Karen is the mother of a son who’s studying music at The University of Miami. An ardent animal lover, she doesn’t mind one bit if your fur baby jumps right into her lap. Find Karen at www.eubankstaging.com
