Texas Design Week Dallas — Divine Design Deliberations with Alexa Hampton, Bobby McAlpine, and Peter Pennoyer

Get Tickets to Texas Design Week Dallas Now

BY Caitlin Hsu // 10.10.23

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Alexa Hampton's home in NYC. (Photo by Steven Freihon)

Alex Hampton will speak and sign books at Visual Comfort and Co. (photo by Victoria Stevens)

In a living room designed by Alexa Hampton, a Massimo Listri photograph is above the sofa. (Photo by Steven Freihon)

Bobby McAlpine will speak and sign books at JD Staron.

In Bobby McAlpine's home, an ethereal subterranean room. (Photo by Simon Upton)

A house in the Bahamas designed by McAlpine, is like an acropolis on a pedestal by the sea. (Photo by Simon Upton)

A McAlpine-designed living room in a house in the Bahamas. (Photo by Simon Upton)

A dining area designed by McAlpine in a house in the Bahamas. (Photo by Simon Upton)

Located in a bucolic landscape in the middle of Tennessee, this is a quintessential farmhouse in the country designed by McAlpine, with a bit of "American Gothic" stoicism. (Photo by Simon Upton)

A waterfront house designed by McAlpine that's lit like a lantern at night. (Photo by Simon Upton)

Peter Pennoyer with speak and sign books at Sherle Wagner International. (Photo by Jay Ackerman)

The great window in the double-height living room overlooking the pond, designed by Peter Pennoyer, is flanked by pedimented doorways and upper windows supported by brackets. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

A dining room in a Rosario Candela-designed Upper East Side duplex designed by Peter Pennoyer. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

An enfilade of arches connects the entry hall and stair hall in an Arts and Crafts-style home in Ohio designed by Peter Pennoyer. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

Lit by three arched French doors, a conservatory in a house designed by architect Peter Pennoyer, has wood floors painted to simulate stone; interior design Redd Kaihoi. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

In restoring one of Suffolk County’s oldest structures, Peter Pennoyer used traditional wood shingles, reflecting mid-eighteenth-century building practices, and designed a new batten door and overhang inspired by a neighboring house of the same period. The sage-green paint for the window frames and door is historically based. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

In the kitchen, new glossy variegated-white tile on the walls and marble countertops join the salvaged wood beams of the ceiling and historic floor planks, in a house designed by Peter Pennoyer. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

Alexa Hampton's home in NYC. (Photo by Steven Freihon)

The great window in the double-height living room overlooking the pond, designed by Peter Pennoyer, is flanked by pedimented doorways and upper windows supported by brackets. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

In restoring one of Suffolk County’s oldest structures, Peter Pennoyer used traditional wood shingles, reflecting mid-eighteenth-century building practices, and designed a new batten door and overhang inspired by a neighboring house of the same period. The sage-green paint for the window frames and door is historically based. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

In the kitchen, new glossy variegated-white tile on the walls and marble countertops join the salvaged wood beams of the ceiling and historic floor planks, in a house designed by Peter Pennoyer. (Photo by Eric Piasecki)

Some of the dreamiest designers and architects are making their way across the United States to land at Texas Design Week Dallas, October 30 through November 3. From Alexa Hampton and Bobby McAlpine, to Peter Pennoyer, here’s what’s top of their minds vis-à-vis paint hues, books, home scents, and second homes.

This is part of a series on Texas Design Week Dallas 2023.

Alexa Hampton

Mark Hampton LLC, NYC

The moment you knew you were going to be part of the design world.

It was inevitable. I could draw at an early age, and I decided that, well, if my father can draw and I can draw, it only seemed right to look up to him as an inspiration for my future in the design world.

Design books everyone should have in their library.

SHOP

Swipe

Neoclassicism in the North: Swedish Furniture and Interiors 1770-1850 by Håkan Groth; Mark Hampton: An American Decorator by Duane Hampton.

The first important piece you purchased.

Two Aptware urns from A. Smith Antiques on 60th Street. I love them every bit as much today as I did then.

You collect.

Souvenirs of the Grand Tour, Athenian and Spartan busts and helmets, obelisks, intaglios.

Museums you love.

Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Home scent.

Candle: Victoria Cator Cuir Sacré.

Personal fragrance.

Narciso.

Movie you love because of the design elements.

Great Expectations, 1940s; Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Oliver.

Farrow & Ball hue that always works.

Oval Room Blue.

Second home.

My parents’ home in Southampton.

Next for you.

I would love to design a hotel, do the White House, design lattes, have a design competition show, etc., etc., etc.

What, When, Where: Illustrated talk, book signing, and afternoon wine with Alexa Hampton Tuesday, October 31, 1 to 3 pm, at Visual Comfort & Co., 2000 N. Stemmons Fwy., Suite 1D111, Ground Floor, Dallas. For tickets go to TexasDesignWeek.com.

Texas Design Week Dallas is October 30 through November 3 — a full week of salon talks, panel discussions, book signings, product launches, and cocktails with some of the most celebrated designers and architects in the country. For information and tickets, go to TexasDesignWeek.com.

Bobby McAlpine

McAlpine, Atlanta, Nashville, Montgomery, NYC

The moment you knew you were destined to be part of the design and architecture worlds.

It’s all I have known since I was five.

Design books everyone should have in their library.

Mine! Seriously, the ones that speak to your soul. For me, it is any book about Sir Edwin Lutyens. And my interior design icons John Saladino and Anouska Hempel.

First important piece you bought.

I have bought so much. . . Probably a period William and Mary highboy.

You collect.

Critters. Wood, stone, metal, fur, thatch, live.

Museums you love.

Musée Rodin, Paris; Sir John Soane’s Museum, London; The Met Cloisters, NYC.

Home scent.

Cire Trudon Cyrnos.

Personal fragrance.

Don’t really have one.

Movie you love because of the design elements.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940 version).

Farrow & Ball hue that always works.

For me, it’s Smelt Black.

Second home.

I divide my time between my house in Atlanta and my house at Lake Martin, Alabama — the latter being the second home, which is my real home.

Next for you.

Fulfilling the next client’s dream.

What, When, Where: Afternoon cocktails with Bobby McAlpine who will speak and sign his new book Wednesday, November 1, 1:30 to 3:30 pm, at JD Staron showroom, 1025 N. Stemmons, Suite 280, Dallas. For tickets go TexasDesignWeek.com.

Peter Pennoyer

Peter Pennoyer Architects, NYC

The moment you knew you were going to be part of the design and architecture worlds.

I was fascinated by architecture from a young age. Growing up in New York City, I was surrounded by extraordinary buildings and streetscapes. I wrote an essay comparing the Plaza Hotel to a new concrete apartment tower for my school bulletin in eighth grade. My teacher would say that was the beginning of my architecture career.

Design books everyone should have in their library. 

With a library of thousands, it’s hard to choose my favorites, but a few special ones are The Aesthetics of Architecture by Roger Scruton; A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander; and The Story of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski.

First important piece you acquired.

For my very first apartment, I bought an American Classical breakfast table and four Hoffmann Fledermaus chairs.

You collect.

I have a number of passionate collections, many of which stem from my love of history, including scientific demonstration models, architectural books, prints and photographs of New York from 1900 to 1940, American furniture, American 19th-century sculpture, and various curiosities from the 19th century, from scrimshaw to antique tools and dies.

Museums you love.

The Morgan Library & Museum, NYC; Guild Hall in East Hampton (which we have been fortunate to be involved in the restoration of); and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Home scent.

I like to open the windows to bring in the fragrances of our garden at our country house.

Personal fragrance.

No fragrance for me.

Movie you love because of the design elements.

Can I name two? Rear Window and Poor Little Rich Girl.

Benjamin Moore color you gravitate to.

Marblehead Gold.

Second home.

My wife, interior designer Katie Ridder, and I are lucky to get to spend our weekends (and as much time as we can) at our country house in Millbrook, New York.

Next for you.

Among many other projects — including our new book, Peter Pennoyer Architects: City | Country, my firm is working on a new apartment tower in New York City; the restoration of a great Italianate mansion in Savannah, Georgia; we are competing to design a new memorial in Washington, D.C.; and I’m contributing to a book on the architect Rosario Candela that will be published by Rizzoli.

What, When, Where: Illustrated talk, book signing, and afternoon cocktails with Peter Pennoyer Monday, October 30, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, at Sherle Wagner International, 1025 Slocum St., Dallas. For tickets go to TexasDesignWeek.com ..