Out of the Quiet Out of the Quiet

RARELY TAKING THE SPOTLIGHT, DAVID CADWALLADER DESIGNS A HOME OF HIS OWN.

RARELY TAKING THE SPOTLIGHT, DAVID CADWALLADER DESIGNS A HOME OF HIS OWN.

BY PEGGY LEVINSON

BY PEGGY LEVINSON

David Cadwallader has designed some of the most distinguished homes in Dallas for many of the preeminent art collectors in this city and the whole country. He is sought after and admired for his understated, elegant design that serves as a background for a fine-art collection. So when he designed his own home, he had the same design ethos: keeping the background spare and peaceful as well as crafting a perfect home for himself and his dogs, for a growing art collection, and for aging in place. The home also has a study and fully equipped extra bedroom that will serve as his office at some point in the future, when he downsizes. Not too soon, though.

Cadwallader bought a property in a transitional neighborhood— his neighbors have lived there for many generations. It’s been a ride, though: He bought the property four years ago and consulted with three architectural firms before choosing one that could translate his own design into working drawings to build. The house is simply clad with corrugated metal and concrete panels. An Ipe fence with a gravel driveway and concrete-block steps lead to the front door.

The house slopes down to the west around a courtyard with windows and doors that provide ample light throughout the space, minus harsh sunlight. Furniture by Richard Schultz 1966 from Knoll provides seating for outdoor entertainment. The clean, classic landscape provided by Lee Roth warms the exterior and will provide complete privacy on the corner lot when it grows in.

Cadwallader’s furniture fits the house: classic modern with many of the original Knoll designs from the ’50s and ’60s along with finds from the Paris flea market and Japanese classics. The kitchen is open to the entry hall and living room and complements the room with porcelain countertops and walnut cabinets. It is also a living place for art, such as a wooden-box wall construction by Gail Peter Borden from Galleri Urbane. Floors throughout the house are perfectly polished concrete, and all the walls are the same shade of white, providing pleasing continuity in the house, with no jarring detail to disturb the soothing background.

create a dining room cameo within the living space. Gunpowder on Metal by Australian artist Andrew Bennett is installed above the console. The argon light sculpture on the Liaigre console is by Flukinger and Harrah. Around the corner stands a tall Plexiglas piece by Tom Hollenback from William Campbell Gallery. The meteorite fragment composition is by Shinji Turner-Yamamoto from a New York gallery.

In the living room Cadwallader’s most recent acquisition, Lisbon Gate by John Fraser, is from a gallery in Chicago. He had admired the artist through galleries in Chicago and William Campbell, and the artist offered to send him this painting. Fraser works in all disciplines of drawing, sculpture, and photography to address the world through abstract construction.

Across from the Walter Knoll sofa and an elliptical marble coffee table from Scott + Cooner is a painting by Todd Norton called Black and White from a San Antonio gallery. A chair by John Hutton and architectural stacked wooden end table lead into the hallway.

The hallway leading to the private living areas serves as an art gallery, with a lacquered puzzle work by Steven Price purchased at 500X Gallery and a drawing, Blueprint, by Brennan Bechtol facing the windows.

The primary bedroom opens to the courtyard windows and the gallery but can be closed off for privacy. The bedroom is peaceful, in all shades of white with bright colors provided by the art. A color block by Pard Morrison hangs over the bed and two strong color blocks by Eric Cruikshank are on the side wall. A traditional Japanese lounge chair with an Otis Jones charcoal is where Cadwallader likes to sit and read.

The closet and bath continue the gallery-like quality of the house. A figurative painting of socks by Charles Meng (probably the only figurative piece in the house) hangs above a dressing bench with vintage men’s apparel by William Passarelli. In the bath, No Smiling by Hills Snyder was acquired through David Quadrini.

An office/studio includes a vintage Acerbis cabinet and a small Lance Letscher painting. A Corbusier lounge from Cassina completes the room. A bicycle by Lance Letscher is the focal point of this room. The abstract artist’s highly colored collages have migrated to bicycles, with images he has cut and lacquered onto the surface. No room in the home lacks art—a small or large piece that captures one’s interest and moves the eye. It all flows together without being conflicting or busy because the art is structural, conceptual, and abstract. Cadwallader’s design philosophy is one he lives with, created from “the energy of architecture, and the power of art.” P