Raven Lake Ranch by Michael Malone Architects

Raven Lake Ranch it was designed by Michael Malone Architects

Raven Lake Ranch by Michael Malone Architects

“Eileen Bennett was leaning toward Arts and Crafts but her architect encouraged her to “come to the dark side.” Modern was a better choice, he insisted, for the splendid acreage she and her husband, local attorney Martin Bennett, had purchased just south of Athens in northeast Texas. Warming to the idea, she asked Michael Malone, AIA, to design a sprawling 2,700-sf house she describes as “modern ranch,” the centerpiece of the couple’s 100-acre Raven Lake Ranch. Both architect and client realized that the house would be very different from anything else around town, a place permeated with a suburbanesque cookie-cutter “builder” aesthetic. Nevertheless, Malone says, Eileen Bennett “was fully supportive of our ideas and concepts for the house, even though they varied dramatically from the other homes in Athens.” With a background in real estate, she also proved to be a client eagerly engaged in the process from beginning to end. “Her eye for detail meant she looked through the plans thoroughly and asked a lot of questions,” Malone asserts. “We find it gratifying when the clients make an effort to understand what is contained in the construction documents and the result is a better, more collaborative product, one the client has an emotional investment in…”