Gary Skotnicki founded ArchiTexas in 1978 in Dallas with a request for a rendering and two willing partners. As the Principal tasked with office graphic imagery, renderings and architectural design for 34 years, I worked to establish the firm’s exceptional professional reputation in Dallas-Ft.Worth, the opening of an Austin office, and receiving over fifty local, sate and national design awards. We were recognized for excellence in preservation, restored numerous notable Texas landmarks and became the largest historic preservation-focused practice in Texas. From the Sammons Center for the Arts, The Hill County Courthouse, Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe, to the spectacular Joule Hotel in the heart of Downtown Dallas, I earned the depth of experience to design in classic or modern, new or old, and can produce complex projects on time and on budget.

I offer a full range of architectural services, as well as planning, preservation, rendering and photography and offer years of experience designing and illustrating significant buildings, urban spaces, interiors and furnishings, designing projects that accommodate contemporary needs, projects that will last, and reinforce both urban and rural settings. These designs express the importance of sensitive design in sensitive places, participatory programming, master planning, fund-raising efforts and events, and have produced dramatic results in both urban and rural places. Weaving structural and mechanical systems through historic fabric is a specialized skill learned through years of hands-on experience. Doing this while meeting modern building codes is complicated work; integrating these systems early an efficient plan is revealed.

The ability to rapidly see the crux of a design prtoblem and develop a strategy to find an optimum solution together with the client, produces an efficient and rapid response to the design issues and decisions. Designing and building modern structures from the ground up that can also be a difficult challenge, so I’m always appreciative of those new challenges and opportunities.

Architecture stands on a given ground and is the most public, imposing and permanent of the arts, and if done really well enriches the lives of everyone for generations. Whether modest or monumental, I always try to create a design that matters, and enrich a community or a home. But it can’t happen without an equally dedicated client, to help reveal an outstanding design. When can we get started?

Registration

Architect, State of Texas, #8357

Education

University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Architecture, Magna Cum Laude, 1974

Public Service

Fair Park Task Force, Landmark Commission, 2008-present   Catholic Foundation Plaza, Art Wall Competition annual juror, 2005-present   West End Task Force, Landmark Commission, 1984-1990

Publications

A Field Guide to American Houses, Second Edition, 2013, by Virginia Savage McAlester/ Pictorial Key, illustrations contributor Hill County Courthouse Restoration Campaign Poster, 1992   Texas Theater Restoration Campaign Poster, 1990  Sammons Center for the Arts, competition entry rendering, 1982

Key Projects

Sammons Center for the Arts, adaptive-use, Dallas The Starck Club, with Phillipe Starck, adaptive-use, Dallas The Inwood Theater and Lounge, renovations, Dallas The Black-eyed Pea, prototype and 10 restaurants, Texas The Old Bedford School Arts Center, restoration/addition/landscape, Bedford Grace United Methodist Church, restorations/renovations, Dallas Grapevine Historic District, preservation planning and designation, Grapevine Grapevine CVB at the Wallis Hotel, new reconstruction and Liberty Park Plaza, Grapevine City Hall, new building and plaza, Grapevine Palace Theater Complex, restoration/renovation/plaza, Grapevine Hill County Courthouse, restoration/square/town square, Hillsboro Bosque, Cass, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Gray, Harris, Harrison, Hopkins, Johnson, Lamar, Red River, and Rockwall County Courthouses, full restorations, Texas Sixth Floor Museum and Visitors Center, expansion/restoration/addition, Dallas Super Conducting Super Collider, HABS mitigation and documentation, site and buildings, Ellis County Girls Fast-Pitch Softball Park Pavillions, with MESA Design, new buildings, North Richland Hills The Centennial Building and murals, restorations, Fair Park, Dallas The Tower Building and bas-relief murals, restorations, Fair Park, Dallas Fair Park Master Plan, with Hargreaves and Associates, historic preservation planning, Dallas Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe, master plan, restorations, bell tower additons, furnishings, Dallas Stone Street Garden/Woolworth’s Building, urban plaza design and restorations, Dallas LBJ Library and plaza, restorations, Austin Watt Residence, restoration/addition/landscape, Highland Park The Lumen Hotel, renovation, University Park The Joule Hotel, with Adam Tihany, restoration/addition/urban design/interiors, Dallas The Joule Hotel Expansion, with Adam Tihany, facade restorations/additions/Mercantile Bank art collection installation White Rock Lake Waterworks Boathouse, adaptive use/restorations, Dallas Flag Pole Hill Park, restorations/new entry pylons, Dallas Stoddard Hall at TWU, exterior restoration,Denton Wylie Municipal Complex, with Holtzman-Moss, new buildings and site, Wylie Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau Building, new building, Grapevine First Unitarian Church, master plan/restoration/addition, University Park Society of Petroleum Engineers, interior renovation, Richardson

Watt Residence, renovation residence, 3711 Willowick Drive, Houston Karotkin Residence, new residence, 1856 Marshall St, Houston Armstrong/Peters Residence, renovation/addition residence, 2607-09 State St, Dallas Knights of Pythias Temple, National Register Nomination, 2551 Elm St, Deep Ellum, Dallas Wright Residence, renovation/restoration/addition residence, 213 E. College St, Grapevine Messina Hof Winery, Wallis Hotel interior bar conversion, One Liberty Park Plaza, Grapevine

Watt Residence, renovation/restoration/addition residence, 9823 Preston Road, Dallas Watt Residence, renovation/addition residence, Allentown, Pa Minteer Team Office, renovation/addition, 216 Wall St, Grapevine Fulk Residence, renovation/addition residence, 704 Marshall St, Houston Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe Block Master Plan, museum and diocese offices additions, 2215 Ross Ave, Arts District, Dallas Pittman Hotel/Knights of Pythias Temple, renovation/restoration/addition hotel conversion, 2551 Elm St, Deep Ellum, Dallas Grapevine Vintage Railroad Depot, depot renovation and dock replacement, 636 S. Main St, Grapevine Fair Park Master Plan Update, master plan update w/ new community park, Dallas