The Canal Street Residence embraces a dialogue between old and new in Houston’s rapidly changing East Downtown neighborhood. The site holds an existing building previously housing both a hair salon and auto shop. Instead of clearing the site and starting with a clean slate, the design asks what parts of the existing building can be preserved and re-used. While the majority of the ceiling and interior structure require replacing, the existing block wall that wraps the perimeter provides a stable element that separates the public and private realms while also maintaining an aspect of the neighborhood’s existing context.

The perimeter wall serves as a threshold between the public realm and the home within while the rotated grids that form the site are used to generate dynamic spatial relationships. On the ground floor, kitchen and living spaces connect to interior courtyards with privacy from the street being provided by the perimeter wall and the vegetation that fill its open spaces. At the upper levels, windows and balconies frame views of the surrounding neighborhood as well as Houston’s downtown skyline.