Sponsored by Ola Kuzmiankova, Exp Realty

San Leandro

Story by Ola Kuzmiankova

I remember the first time I came across this home.

It was mid fall, just as it hit the market. I saw the stucco exterior, the Southwestern landscaping, the iron fence — and I genuinely could not believe this was in Dallas.

And then I stepped inside.

It took me a good twenty minutes just to take it in. To walk through it slowly. To step outside, then back in again. To notice the solid logs of wood outlining the balcony, the way the screens softened the transition to the outdoors, the way the house seemed to guide you rather than reveal itself all at once.

And then there was the sunken lower level.

The home felt so different from anything you typically see in Dallas, and yet somehow, completely right. It understands something about how we live here — how we seek shade, how we move between inside and outside, how we want to be connected to the outdoors without being exposed to it.

That was the moment I knew.

Over the past few months, the home has drawn significant attention, including features in D Home and Candy’s Dirt. I had the chance to share it on my page early on, and later help bring it into the White Rock Home Tour — and it’s easy to understand why it resonated so quickly.

Set on a double lot in Little Forest Hills, just minutes from White Rock Lake, the home was designed in 2017 by Far + Dang. Founded in 2011 by Bang Dang and Rizwan Faruqui, the firm is known for its process-driven approach and its refusal to adhere to a single architectural language, allowing each project to respond directly to its environment and intent.

That philosophy is clearly at work here.

Often described as Santa Fe–inspired, the house draws on a Southwestern vocabulary that feels unusual for Dallas. It is a notable departure from the more overtly contemporary work many associate with Far + Dang, and that deviation is part of what makes it so compelling. This is not a house trying to blend in. It is a house that creates its own context.

Because the home is elevated, it immediately carries a sense of retreat. The landscaping reinforces that feeling — desert spoon, agave, yucca — creating a layered buffer between the house and the street. You feel slightly removed, but not disconnected.

Inside, the scale is striking.

The great room stretches across the home, expansive yet grounded, anchored by a series of hand-worked beams that bring both texture and weight. The wraparound balcony frames the entire perimeter, creating a continuous relationship between interior and exterior space.

And then there is the screened sunroom.

At over 500 square feet, it is not an afterthought or an accessory space. It is a true extension of the living room, one of the most successful transitions between indoor and outdoor living you will find in Dallas. It allows you to experience the outside fully, while still being protected from it.

The home keeps revealing itself in layers.

The decision to step the house down rather than up introduces a completely different spatial experience. The sunken lower level, with direct access to the exterior, reinforces the feeling that the main living areas are perched above the landscape. It is an unusual move, but one that works beautifully here.

Even the details carry intention.

Barrel ceilings define the entry, creating immediate impact and architectural interest. A live-edge built-in in the bar area introduces warmth and tactility, grounding the home in materiality. And then, almost unexpectedly, there is the five-car garage — a feature that feels almost surreal in Dallas, yet somehow entirely fitting within the ambition of the house.

And for all its architectural presence, the home still functions as a place to live.

For its current owner, whose life centers around health, balance, and intentional living, the home offers something rare. It works as a retreat, a place to host, and a place to work — without those roles competing with one another. The architecture supports that lifestyle rather than interrupting it.

It is a home that allows for both energy and stillness.

And perhaps that is what stayed with me from that first visit.

Not just how different it felt, but how clearly it knew what it was.

Bringing it into the White Rock Home Tour felt, at first, like a departure. It is not the mid-century modern we so often celebrate here.

But it speaks to something larger: a commitment to thoughtful design. To individuality. To architecture that is both expressive and resolved.

In that sense, it felt not like an exception, but an essential part of the White Rock Home Tour.

Photography by Ethan Wardman