The domed pizza oven didn't match the straight lines of the house, so Dan Shipley added a brick surround. He painted it black to make it recede into the background of the site. “These types of outbuildings are almost pure form,” he says. “They’re always a
Charles Davis Smith The domed pizza oven didn't match the straight lines of the house, so Dan Shipley added a brick surround. He painted it black to make it recede into the background of the site. “These types of outbuildings are almost pure form,” he says. “They’re always a

shipley architects, dallas

This pizza porch attached to a mid-century modern house in Dallas couldn't be more straightforward. “It's elemental and it works,” noted a judge. The 16-foot-by-16-foot porch sits atop four board-formed concrete piers, with an exposed steel frame and a floor of 2-foot-wide ipe boards. A brick chimney surrounds a simple clay pizza oven, while a FinnForm roof deck shelters the space. Metal candleholders attached to the floor beams outline the porch's edges.

“We were just trying to keep the lines as clean as possible,” says architect Dan Shipley, FAIA.

principal in charge / project architect: Dan Shipley, FAIA, Shipley Architects
general contractors: DSA, Dallas, with Mark Huss, Duncanville, Texas
landscape architect: David Rolston, David Rolston Landscape Architects, Dallas
project size: 256 square feet
site size: 1 acre
construction cost: $200 per square foot
photography: Charles Davis Smith

product specs
oven: Superior Clay Corp.