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A rchitect Bill Curtis wasn't expecting to land a new project over breakfast. But one morning, while ordering his usual at Agnes — the neighborhood cafe he heads to most mornings in Houston's Museum District — a familiar voice caught his attention. His firm, Curtis & Windham Architects, had already designed several homes for her family, including a ranch in Independence for her father and a house in Austin for her sister. Now, it was her turn. "I'm thinking about building a house," she told him. "I want to talk to you about it." They met soon after, and within a week, Curtis & Windham had the job. Known for their classical and traditional expertise, the firm has designed residences in styles ranging from Regency to Mediterranean, particularly throughout Houston's River Oaks neighborhood, where the clients were already living. A real estate professional and an engineer in the oil and gas industry, the couple had recently purchased a lot two doors down from their existing house, on a quiet side street lined with classic 1940s and '50s houses. Less grand than River Oaks Boulevard, the street is distinguished by an elliptical green space that sweeps gracefully through its core. For the project, Curtis collaborated with the firm's associate principal architect, Daniel Ostendorf, who had also previously worked with the client's family. "The clients had a short time frame to build the house, so they were ready to rock and roll," Curtis says. To complete the team and help bring the vision to life, the clients brought in New York interior design firm Ashe Leandro, known for its classic contemporary style with a European edge and a client roster that includes Naomi Watts, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Seth Meyers. This was Ariel Ashe's first design project in Houston, but she had collaborated on a house in Austin with Curtis & Windham for the client's sister. "We had worked with the team and the family previously, so we knew the collaboration would be interesting, cohesive, and exciting," says Ashe, who leads the New York–based design firm with partner Reinaldo Leandro. The AD100 team's intention was to bring a Among the client's inspirations were Villa Borsani and Villa Necchi Campiglio, both significant examples of Milanese residential design. refined, historically attuned aesthetic to the project, favoring natural materials, rich textures, and fine craftsmanship shaped by mid-century and Italian Deco influences. From the start, the clients came to the table impressively prepared. "They were well organized," Ostendorf says. "They even brought floor plans they had drawn, and they were actually to scale." While the finished design evolved in a different direction, the concepts behind those early sketches remained. "They came with a clear sense of the relationship between rooms, the hierarchy of spaces, how they wanted 88