Austin Home Winter 2024

Space as a Muse

WINTER 2024

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Celebrating Texas Artists

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WINTER 2024

CONTENTS

FEATURES

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Street Theater

Best Interior Designers

In a poignant essay and interview, four Austin artists tell us what their space for making means to them.

A passion for travel and storytelling inspired this romantic haven for a local author.

Nestled in Austin’s tree canopy, artist and collector Sara Carter builds a home as her canvas—designed to cultivate art, nature, and imagination.

Snøhetta’s plaza design for the Blanton Museum of Art ushers in a new era of vibrant urbanism for Austin’s streetscape.

We polled homeowners and industry pros to create this list of the top interior designers in the Austin area.

Space as a Muse

BY GIL ZABARSKY

Balcones Hills

BY LAUREN JONES

Artist in Residence

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BY AARON SEWARD

BY NICOLE HADDAD

ON THE COVER RF ALVAREZ IN HIS HOME. PHOTO BY ROBERT GOMEZ.

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WINTER 2024

CONTENTS 18 Editor’s Letter 36 Elements These new local lines platform the power of collaboration between manufacturers, artists, and designers.

BY KIERNAN MCCORMICK

38 Extra Space | A Tale of Two Structures Murray Legge designs an addition with a library at its heart for an architectural historian and his artist wife.

BY ANA WORREL

42 Design Futures | Cedar’s Secret Weapon A homegrown tech platform brings on Kristen Padavic, former Director of Architecture for Storybuilt, to offer full-spectrum services for developers large and small.

BY KAREN ZABARSKY BLASHEK

44 Shopping | The Art of Hardware Multi-hyphenate Studio Bookmark’s architectural hardware line references the enduring work of some of the Modernist movement’s defining artists.

BY KIERNAN MCCORMICK

46 What’s New | Bringing Soho House Home Why the international house of cool decided to make Austin one of their select spots to showcase Soho Home.

48 Design Inspiration | Sacred Sound After fulfilling his dream of creating the ultimate recording space, one local Renaissance man is passing the torch to Austin’s next studio owner.

BY DEVEN WILSON

50 Art | Cottage of Curiosities World-renowned artist RF. Alvarez shares the home and collection that inspire his emotive oil-based vignettes.

BY NICHOLAS CAMPBELL

96 In Photos | Fall Editor’s Preview Take a look at the movers and shakers that attended our inaugural Editor’s Preview in a stunning Zilker home.

98 Curtains | Casa Marianella Low Design Office (LowDO) and Forge Landscape Architecture are manifesting a new community dwelling, garden, and playscape for the local non-profit organization.

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BOTTOM LEFT BY ROBERT GOMEZ. TOP RIGHT COURTESTY OF STUDIO BOOKMARK.

BY KAREN ZABARSKY BLASHEK

Editorial

Hearst Media

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

GENERAL MANAGER

Karen Zabarsky Blashek

Randi Stevenson

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Circulation

Nicholas Campbell, Nicole Haddad, Lauren Jones, Kiernan McCormick, Aaron Seward, Deven Wilson, Ana Worrel, Gil Zabarsky

Art CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Mara Esquivel CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Casey Dunn, Leonid Furmansky, Robert Gomez

Digital DIGITAL MANAGER

Abigail Stewart

Advertising CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

Kate Weber SENIOR MARKETING DIRECTOR

Sara Bryant ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Dana Horner Jennifer Tully Teddy Ivanova

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Tom Nork

Contact MAILING ADDRESS

Austin Home, Hearst Newspapers P.O. Box 2171 San Antonio, Texas 78297-2171 Phone 512-263-9133 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES

512-263-9133 or subscriptions@austinhomemag.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

advertising@austinmonthly.com STORY IDEAS

editor@austinhomemag.com POSTMASTER

Send address changes to Austin Home, Hearst Newspapers P.O. Box 2171 San Antonio, Texas 78297-2171

Events EVENTS DIRECTOR

Lauren Sposetta

CUSTOMER SUCCESS SPECIALIST

Kiely Whelan

© Copyright: Austin Home is published by Hearst Newspapers, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the publisher. Editorial content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher of this magazine.

Editorial or advertising does not constitute advice but is considered informative. Austin Home is locally operated.

Statement of Ownership, management and circulation (required by 39 U.S.C. 3685). 1. Austin Home Magazine 2. Publication No. USPS 001-514 3. Oct 1, 24. 4. Quarterly, 5. No. of issues published annually. 4, 6. Annual subscription price $14.95; 7. PO Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297-2171 9. Names and addresses of Publisher and Editors are: Publisher, Mark Medici, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, Texas 78297-2171. Editor, Karen Zabarsky Blashek, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, Texas 78297-2171. 10. Owner: Hearst Newspapers, LLC, mailing address: 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Members of Hearst Newspapers, LLC are: Hearst Communications, Inc. (Managing Member), and Newspaper Holding, Inc., mailing address: 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019 11. See Item 10 above. 15. A. Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run). Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 14,885. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date 17,850. B. Legitimate Paid and/or Requested Distribution. 1. Outside-County Subscriptions. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 2,746. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,706. 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales and other outside USPS. Average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,683. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 4,584. C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 4,429. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date 7,290. D. Nonrequested Distribution. 1. Outside County, Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 7,053. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 7,159. 4. Outside the Mail, Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 2,398. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,560. E. Total Nonrequested Distribution. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 9,451.

Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 9,719. F. Total Distribution. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 13,880. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date 17,009. G. Copies not Distributed. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,005. Actual no. copies each issue published nearest to filing date, 841. H. Total Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 14,885. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 17,850. I. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation. Average no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months 32%. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date 43%. 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. Mark Medici, Publisher.

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KAREN ZABARSKY BLASHEK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @KZBLASHEK

How is creativity sparked? How do our surroundings light and sustain the fire?

It’s hard to believe, but I’m approaching the end of my first year as Editor-in-Chief of Austin Home. When I started out in this role in January, my hope was to center issues around the values that we hold most dear as a city.

Things like environmentalism, innovation, caring for our neighbors.

This winter issue, showcasing a sliver of the artistic soul of our city, embodies this entirely.

It is a celebration of our creatives – artists, musicians, authors, photographers – and the spaces that bring their moments of magic to life.

In a poignant essay and interview entitled “Space as a Muse,” filmmaker Gil Zabarsky explores the impact that the studio spaces of four Austin artists have on the process, product, and energy of their work. We had the honor of working with Robert Gomez, renowned photographer with a special gift

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of capturing the emotional quality of both spaces and people, to shoot this entire piece, as well as several others in the issue. Each artist featured, including musician Ben Kweller and photographer Casey Dunn, have such an insightful take on what makes their studio their second home, it made me want to take another look at my own home office.

Throughout the issue, creative dreams become reality. A church in East Austin converted into a recording studio, an architectural historian’s home addition designed around a library, a painter’s cantilevered studio in West Lake floating among a canopy of trees. In most cases, these artists shaped their creative space in their image. In all cases, the spaces have shaped them profoundly in return.

In another effort to bolster the creative heart of Austin, we’ve made a significant shift in our freelance writing team: they almost all live here.

Our local writers are visiting the sites they are covering, speaking face-to-face with homeowners and design teams, and expanding their repertoire.

So feel free to chat with them about their pieces when you pass them on the street!

At the end of this issue, we present an inaugural piece by Aaron Seward, former Editor-in-Chief of the Architect’s Newspaper and Editor of Texas Architect, and currently, the Managing Editor for Perkins&Will. His inimitable assessment of the Blanton Museum’s new plaza will hopefully be the first of many, as we open the aperture of Austin Home to include the urban scale of development in our city.

Looking ahead to 2025, I am thrilled to continue our path of growth, depth, and display of the Austin lens of design. To check out our editorial calendar, please visit austinhomemag. com/editorialcalendar. Don’t be a stranger! I’m here for great projects, ideas, and of course – creative sparks.

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BUTTER LUTZ INTERIORS | GOSSETT & CO | CHASE DANIEL PHOTOGRAPHY

700 N. Lamar Blvd, Austin 512.383.9906 ARETEKITCHENS.COM

WINTER 2024

CONTRIBUTORS

Sara Carter’s Residence, shot by Jason Schmidt.

Robert Gomez

Gil Zabarsky

Nicholas Campbell

Robert’s particular ability to capture the emotional quality of both spaces and people through photography can be seen throughout the issue. He captured artist RF Alvarez’s Cherrywood bungalow (pg. 50), the studio space of artist Sara Carter (pg. 78), and all four artists’ spaces in “Space as a Muse” (pg. 60).

Author and interviewer of poignant essay “Space as a Muse” (pg. 60) is Gil, an awardwinning screenwriter and actor, whose work has premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, and has been featured on ABC, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Funny or Die, United Airlines flights, and at SeriesFest.

Our Arts Contributor takes a deeper dive than usual into one artist and friend, RF Alvarez (pg. 50). Nick is the founder of Campbell Art Advisory and Campbell Art Collective. Having worked as an independent art advisor in the United Kingdom since 2010, he moved to Austin with his wife in 2022, and now lends our city his inimitable taste in art.

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Telling the Austin design story.

PHOTO:

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To learn more and nominate today, head to austinhomemag.com/ nominate.

Nomination deadline: February 1, 2025

Austin Home is seeking nominations for the Best Landscape Designers in town. The annual list is part of our mission to showcase standouts in a region that provides international inspiration.

Groups with the most nominations will be highlighted in an upcoming issue of Austin Home and online.

We invite you to nominate your favorite firm or your own, and to share the opportunity with colleagues and collaborators. Designers who do residential work in Austin or a surrounding county are eligible.

IMAGE COURTESY OF ISTOCK BY RUDCHENKO

CALL FOR ENTRIES Best Landscape Designers

Are you one of Austin’s Best Landscape Designers?

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CALL FOR ENTRIES Best Real Estate Developers

Are you one of Austin’s Best Real Estate Developers?

To learn more and nominate today, head to austinhomemag.com/nominate.

Nomination deadline: February 1, 2025

Austin Home is seeking nominations for the Best Real Estate Developers in town. The annual list is part of our mission to showcase standouts in a region that provides international inspiration.

Groups with the most nominations will be highlighted in an upcoming issue of Austin Home and online.

We invite you to nominate your favorite firm or your own, and to share the opportunity with colleagues and collaborators. Designers who do residential work in Austin or a surrounding county are eligible.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SOHO HOME

ACCENTS

London-based Soho House opens one of four Soho Home showrooms in the country here in Austin.

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ACCENTS WHAT’S NEW

ELEMENTS

WRITTEN BY KIERNAN MCCORMICK

These new local lines platform the power of collaboration between manufacturers, artists, and designers.

Born out of an eight-year working relationship with Austin’s Clay Imports, design-build firm Rock Paper Build’s new tile line reflects a shared commitment to detailed craftsmanship. Rock Paper Build coowners and husband-and-wife duo, Davey McEathron and Rebecca Holliday, took inspiration from the simple patterns and colors of vintage cowboy boots, pop art, and tiles from Portugal and Spain. The result: happy, retro pieces that pair well together. clayimports.com/collections/rock-paper-build

Off the Wall Formed in 2018 by interior designer Lilianne Steckel, Looksee Collective features one-of-a-kind sustainable wallpaper designed by local artists. Its winter collection, focused on imbuing homes with joy year-round, includes the work of five artists. For example, Hallie Brewer’s wallpaper designs (shown above) combine a sense of tranquility with modern, abstract elements, while Will Bryant’s whimsical pieces (shown below) create uplifting environments. The collection is available for purchase on their website and at Supply Showroom. lookseecollective.com

Re-Frame Your Perception Looking to enhance both your personal space and overall outlook in 2025? Austin-native Keli Hogsett’s company CoCollect, an art consultancy that leases fine art through annual memberships, just launched a new edit titled “How Art Reveals New Ways of Seeing: Perspectives for the New Year.” The line focuses on the ways artwork enriches the lives of others by changing their perceptions of familiar spaces and ideas. It features twelve artists, many of whom concentrate on legacy through their work. cocollect.art

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OFF THE WALL: LOOKSEE COLLECTIVE. TILE, SET, MATCH: CLAY IMPORTS. RE-FRAME YOUR PERCEPTION: ART COURTESY OF RUIZ-HEALY ART AND THE ESTATE OF CHUCK RAMIREZ, PORTRAIT OF KELI HOGSETT BY MCKINSEY SMITH KELLEY. ON OPPOSITE PAGE: JENN SMITH

Tile, Set, Match

Flair With FLOR Lindsie Davis, founder of interiors firm Blueberry Jones Design, partnered with sustainable rug brand FLOR to design her own signature piece. A nod to Davis’ love of 1960s-inspired optical art, her rug Hounds Flair is structured, geometric, bold, and unique. Hounds Flair, comprised of FLOR’s Made You Look carpet tiles, is available in any three colors of choice. flor.com/blueberryjones

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PHOTO: PHOTOS:

ACCENTS EXTRA SPACE

A TALE OF TWO STRUCTURES Murray Legge designs an addition with a library at its heart for an architectural historian and his artist wife.

WRITTEN BY ANA WORREL PHOTOGRAPHY LEONID FURMANSKY

“It’s a great honor to be hired by an architectural historian to design a house,” expresses award-winning architect Murray Legge. He’s reflecting on the moment an architectural historian came to him with an idea to expand his Rosedale bungalow in 2021.

The historian and his wife, a visual artist, felt their 850 square foot arts and crafts cottage was getting a little tight, but they didn’t want to just tear it down and rebuild. Rosedale is a rapidly changing area of town, and the homeowners wanted to preserve the charm and character of their 1940’s

home. Their solution? Build a complementary house in the backyard, and live in both homes together. “So from the street, you still read it as like a cute little bungalow,” Legge explains, “but then you’ve got this really interesting modern house in the back.”

The historian’s vision for the companion house was specific. “His dream really was to refurbish an old abandoned warehouse, the kind of building that Austin doesn’t really have,” project architect Lincoln Davidson adds. “So we basically built one.”

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ACCENTS EXTRA SPACE

Rosedale Bungalow ARCHITECTURE MURRAY LEGGE

BUILD ALEX FERDMAN

In order to preserve the fig and pecan trees in the backyard, the team had to get creative about the shape of the new building. “Basically, the house is conceived of two blocks: a twostory block and a one-story block that come together,” Legge describes. The two blocks are attached via a glass connector, making them one single unit.

The main structure features a stainless steel kitchen and open-concept living area on the first floor. The second floor has a bedroom and bathroom loft,with a bathtub near the bed, perched beneath a skylight. Legge calls the smaller one-story volume a utility block. It’s home to the washer/dryer, a second bathroom, and the electrical panels.

The most prominent feature of the 1,650 square foot addition is undoubtedly its library, a double height bookcase that can be seen

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from virtually any angle within. “It’s a house for this book collection,” Legge muses. “I think the books are as important as the people in this instance. They’re like the third person in the couple.” With the bookshelf as the central focus in this warm, sun-drenched space, Legge envisioned a home that would invite a celebration of creativity and knowledge into every aspect of the couple’s daily life. The library serves as a physical representation of the homeowners’ artistic and academic interests, an aesthetic catalog from which new connections and inspiration can emerge.

There’s no sheetrock in the entire companion home. “It’s concrete block-exposed on the outside and concrete block-exposed on the inside. So it has that very raw feeling,” Legge explains. A web net guardrail and exposed HVAC and electrical conduits add to the

industrial, loft-like feel, while wood finishes, including Douglas fir floor and roof structures, add a warm, richer palette.

The homeowners now divide their time between the 1940’s bungalow and the modern addition. In fact, their center of gravity is shifting; the bungalow now houses their offices and a guest room, and they live primarily in the new build. The addition allows for future flexibility; they now have the option to move entirely into their new space and rent out their original home.

Designing a space for an architectural expert doesn’t come without its challenges.

“They were really pushing us hard to be very clear and concise in the way we’re thinking and detailing things,” Legge remembers. But it’s that very constructive tension, he says, that produces the best projects.

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ACCENTS DESIGN FUTURES

CEDAR’S NEW SECRET WEAPON

WRITTEN BY KAREN ZABARSKY BLASHEK

A homegrown tech platform brings on Kristen Padavic, former Director of Architecture for Storybuilt, to offer full-spectrum services for developers large and small. together thousands of zoning rules, land codes, and environmental factors into an intuitive interface that’s easy to understand. Using Cedar, developers have been able to quickly see what land is best for their project, spot limitations, and even uncover potential incentives.

One of Cedar’s standout features is modeling compatibility setbacks, something that enormously impacts development in the city of Austin. Soon, they’ll be adding

topography analysis, which will help with civil engineering assessments for things like drainage and water flow, making the process even smoother.

Now, Cedar is moving beyond virtual site analysis. They are joined by Kristen Padavic, former Director of Architecture at Storybuilt.

Though the developer’s downfall is quickly becoming notorious Austin lore, it was also wellknown for its innovation in process and design.

HEADSHOT BY ANDREW BENNETT. ON OPPOSITE PAGE: RENDERING BY CEDAR + NORVISKA, SITE PLAN BY CEDAR.

Cedar is breaking new ground in Austin’s housing scene. What started as a tool to help developers figure out what, where, and how much can be built on a plot of land has evolved into a full-service design and development powerhouse. Cedar now has the ability to guide developers through every step of the process, from land planning to design and permitting.

The platform itself was a game-changer when it was released in the last couple of years, pulling

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During her time there, Kristen streamlined the design process, ensuring every step—from concept to material pricing—was efficient, seamless, and geared towards communitybuilding. She carried that same approach into her own design firm, where she started collaborating with Cedar. The partnership was so successful that Kristen officially joined Cedar, helping to flesh out their ability to offer not just tech solutions but full design and development services.

Since joining forces, they’ve branched into designing housing prototypes that range from 300 to 3,000 square feet, covering everything from apartments to single-family homes. These designs are permit-ready and can be customized to fit clients’ needs, speeding up the building process without sacrificing quality. And unlike traditional architecture firms, Cedar’s services are open to anyone, not just full-time developers.

They’re known for their quick turnaround times, providing clients with multiple development scenarios in two to three days—a huge step up from the industry’s typical five- to six-week wait.

Cedar is also positioned to help developers take advantage of Austin’s new zoning changes, which now allow for more varied housing options on a single lot. These changes are key to solving Austin’s “missing middle” housing problem—bridging the gap between single-family homes and larger multifamily developments. Cedar is already working on several projects, including 8- to 21-unit townhome developments, and hopes to kick off even more in the coming months.

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ACCENTS SHOPPING

THE ART OF HARDWARE: SCULPTOR SERIES Multi-hyphenate Studio Bookmark’s architectural hardware line references the enduring work of some of the Modernist movement’s defining artists.

In December of 2021, husband and wife Dustin Coffey and Hannah-Rose Freedner, co-founders of multidisciplinary design firm Studio Bookmark, visited the Modern Museum of Art’s “Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction” exhibit in New York. There, a 1929 desk the artist designed for Ernest Rott’s Paris apartment drew them in.

“It was so striking in its simplicity,” Coffey explains. “She had a great sense of how to communicate graphically.”

The couple paid particular attention to the desk’s post and ball knobs, as Coffey had been dabbling in creating hardware at the time. This acted as the impetus for their Sculptor Series, a collection of 14 different pieces of handcrafted modern hardware available in 8 distinct finishes.

Studio Bookmark partnered with J&L Hardware for the collection, offered at their exclusive to-the-trade Austin showroom.

The hand-cast brass and bronze hardware line honors the sculptors who shaped modern art and design. In addition to Taeuber-Arp, various artists such as her husband Hans Arp, Henry Moore, and Harry Bertoia inspired the collection. These experts’ interest in paring down forms along with their love of nature resonated with Coffey and Freedner, who grew up in rural areas.

The duo’s idea of imbuing modern hardware with a cultural vibe and ethos guided the project. They spent over a year developing the Sculptor Series with J&L, which involved an

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PHOTOS OF SCULPTOR SERIES BY CLAY GRIER. IMAGES OF BRANDING COURTESY OF STUDIO BOOKMARK.

WRITTEN BY KIERNAN MCCORMICK

Studio Bookmark’s work traverses mediums and industries. Below is a decorative piece they designed, and to the right is a snippet of their branding work for Death Valley Nails, a small-batch, non-toxic beauty brand based in Austin.

extremely detailed creative process. Freedner created the hand-sculpted patterns that were used to form the molds for the sand-casting process performed by Coffey. This method entails pouring molten bronze into a mold at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. After a cooling period, each piece was cleaned and polished by hand.

“The thing that keeps us in love with [the intricate process] is the final product,” Coffey says. “Once you see it, there’s no other way to get that organic quality.”

This commitment to hands-on, high-caliber design translates to Studio Bookmark’s other services. Aside from architectural hardware, Coffey and Freender offer art and objects, brand identity consulting, and furniture and lighting design, as well as packaging, product, and website design. As the team’s first hardware collection, the Sculptor Series plays an integral role in their goal of completing a project that combines all of their offerings.

“Our dream is to create a holistic vision where all of these different facets come together to create an experience,” Freedner says. They also want to contribute a new perspective to the flourishing Austin creative community they love through their version of good, beautiful design.

“Our ambitions aren’t to change the world of design, but we want to, in our small way, create a more beautiful place,” Coffey says.

“That’s always our guiding light.”

THIS COLLABORATION PROVES THE POWER OF BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN CREATIVE DISCIPLINES.

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ACCENTS WHAT’S NEW

BRINGING SOHO HOUSE HOME

INTERVIEW BY KAREN ZABARSKY BLASHEK

Why the international house of cool decided to make Austin one of their select spots to showcase Soho Home.

The Soho Home showroom, located inside of Soho House on Music Lane.

Soho House, a global private club where members work, socialize, and party the night away, planted its flag in Austin in 2021. You may have walked by it on Music Lane without noticing; its purposely subtle IYKYK entrance hints at its exclusivity and understated cool. In 2018, Soho House launched a home furnishings line

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inspired by the renowned interior aesthetic of the houses. Now, Austin joins Brooklyn, Chicago, and Hollywood as host to a showroom for Soho Home. The Austin studio is led by trade consultant Camden McBride and interior designer Maddalena Mattiello. We had a chat with the global Soho Home team about the launch.

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Tell us about the genesis of Soho Home and how it has grown to this point.

Soho Home was born out of a desire from members to recreate the comfortable and characterful interiors of Soho Houses within their own homes.

In response to this, we initially launched with a small collection of products including Barwell crystal glassware in 2016, followed by our first full homewares collection in 2020. We have now evolved into a diverse interiors brand including furniture, tableware, upholstery, lighting and textiles. The collection was received well by our members and customers and since then, we’ve launched two collections per year. Following members’ feedback, we’ve since expanded into new categories such as outdoor, entryway, and drapery.

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What is behind the strategy of opening showrooms inside of Houses?

We’ve had feedback from members and customers that they love getting inspiration from seeing our collection in person. They also value the expert advice from our team, including our Interior Design Service which provides customers with the resources to personalize their space and help bring their visions to life.

In response to this, we wanted to continue growing our physical footprint to help members discover Soho Home, particularly in North America. We’ve worked closely with our teams to find spaces within our Houses where our product and room-sets would work well.

Creating carefully curated Soho Home product moments within our Houses has enabled us to meet members in a place where they already love spending time. We have a small team working from each of our spaces that specializes in interior design, and supports the needs of architects and interior designers who are looking to have Soho Home featured in their projects.

We’ve opened spaces in Chicago, New York, and now Austin through 2024, all of which have been greatly received by Soho House members and the interior design community.

Why Austin? In the context of other cities you chose for showrooms, what makes Austin an attractive market for you?

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As Soho Home expands into new markets across the United States, we chose Austin, Texas due to its thriving creative and design scene.

Soho House Austin, which opened in 2021, attracts a dynamic crowd with its renowned food scene and musical heritage. Located on Music Lane near South Congress Avenue, the latest Soho Home space aims to engage further with this vibrant community, bringing the relaxed, globally inspired designs of Soho House into the homes of our members and customers in Austin.

Describe the showroom experience – what can guests expect?

1 Blair Tub Armchair, Floral Ikat Print, Natural Linen 2 Delphi Rug 3 Cassie Table Lamp 4 Lyla Footstool,Wimpole Stripe 5 Pascal Coffee Table

The pieces in our Studio draw inspiration from the aesthetics of Soho House Austin. You’ll find a collection of pieces including armchairs, sofas, lighting, dining tables, coffee tables, and textiles, alongside our full swatch library. Our interior design and trade team are available Monday to Friday to support both Soho House members and those in the interior design and architecture industries. Consultations with the team are by appointment only, and can be booked at sohohome.com.

The consultation can be held virtually or in person at the Studio.

During this meeting, customers will share their ideas with our team, that will then start to create a plan for their space taking into account their tastes and budget. This will be presented back to customers for final input and approval before finalizing.

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ACCENTS DESIGN INSPIRATION

SACRED SOUND

WRITTEN BY DEVEN WILSON

It’s not often that daydreams become reality.

Fantasy kitchens and paradise pools rarely make it off the Pinterest board, but one local Renaissance man manifested his dream recording studio, 12th Street Sound, in a fascinating adaptive reuse endeavor.

“I’ve never been a professional musician,” local doctor Paul Wesley Riekert reflects. “I play guitar and piano and sing. I made a record, and I have a Spotify.” While he was able to satisfy this artistic side, he understood there is a certain quality in recording that can’t be captured at home without a complete overhaul of wiring and HVAC systems to eliminate sound bleeding. He set out to bring a truly professional studio to life.

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Eventually, Dr. Riekert found his vessel for the future on East 12th Street. Sitting abandoned for years with the pews long gone and the congregation dispersed, a former Baptist Church was an unexpected opportunity. The high ceilings and acoustics made it a uniquely perfect shell for a temple of tunes. “You could never make a great-sounding studio out of an office building” Riekert relates, continuing that while he isn’t the first to do so, the specialized layout of a church afforded them the invisible asset of built-in acoustics. After acquiring the building, he reached out to what he refers to as one of the six best acoustics architects in the world: Wes Lachot Design Group.

Lachot came on board to completely transform the church. He and Riekert took several walks around the dilapidated church, which they’d eventually have to work down to the masonry in order to satisfy the complex specifications required to construct a studio.

Lachot placed an emphasis on the early phase of design to know precisely what the Doctor wanted to order.

One unique feature is the series of individual but interconnected recording booths inside the main recording space.

“You get better performances if everyone’s in the same room together, but what you lose from that is [sound] isolation,” Dr Riekert

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MORELAND PROPERTIES

After fulfilling his dream of creating the ultimate recording space, one local Renaissance man is passing the torch to Austin’s next studio owner.

explains. Window walls in every booth allow for sightlines across the board and into the main space, while fostering exceptional acoustical isolation. This allows musicians to check in with each other and have a sense of unity while playing, while a sound engineer can perfectly isolate whoever is in those booths without a hertz leaking out.

Riekert’s dedication to detail for 12th Street Sound is reflected on the church’s exterior. Before the renovation, the facade was featureless. To make sure his new neighbors could see the positive change he wanted to bring to the street, he installed two iconic stained glass windows from a catholic church

in Wisconsin. Flanking a heavy wooden door and illuminated from behind, the windows make the building beam with life once again.

From inside to out, this passion project turned world class studio sings.

12th Street Sound hosts a cornucopia of creatives, from local musicians, bands, symphony members, and orchestras to Grammy-winning names in sound engineering like Ryan Hewitt, the mixer and engineer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kacey Musgraves. The studio’s passion for getting as close to perfect as possible might attract top talent, but the egalitarian spot welcomes anyone pursuing the chance to record immaculately.

Today, after a decade of living his dream, Riekert is pursuing a political science degree at UT Austin to work in the field overseas.

This path means that being hands-on in the studio will only get more complex, so he decided to list it on the market with the help of Amy Deane of Moreland Properties.

However, this could be an answered prayer for anyone who has long dreamed of operating a recording studio in the Live Music Capital of the country. Avoiding the lengthy process and financial strains of a renovation, any aspiring studio owner has the rare chance to simply turn the key and keep this miracle for musicians alive.

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ACCENTS ART

COTTAGE OF CURIOSITIES World-renowned artist RF Alvarez shares the home and collection that inspire his emotive oil-based vignettes.

WRITTEN BY NICHOLAS CAMPBELL

PHOTO:

PHOTOGRAPHY ROBERT GOMEZ

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Avlarez finds inspiration for his world-renowned paintings in his own home. Pictured above is My Spot in Bed, and to the right, Galley ToIthaca.

As I step into RF Alvarez’s 1940s bungalow in Cherrywood, designed and curated in collaboration with Benjamin Stelly of Stelly Selway, it’s immediately clear that this home is more than just a house. It’s a living, breathing muse that has profoundly shaped the evolution of his artistic practice.

“This house shows up a lot in my work,” Alvarez tells me, gesturing at his eclectic space.

“The things that [my husband and I] are interested in sort of breathe life into every corner.”

Indeed, Alvarez’s paintings are deeply intertwined with the environment that surrounds him. He has immortalized the various rooms

and elements of his home on canvas: three windows framing friends sitting around the dining table, light spilling onto the bathroom sink, his husband Chase asleep in the guest bedroom while they were watching TV. “I just finished a painting of the kitchen sink,” he says. “This middle room is the only one that hasn’t shown up – no, that’s not true.”

He uses these lived-in spaces as a springboard for his exploration of the queer body within the Texas landscape.

“I’m deeply inspired by this injection of the joy of a life into a space, and I get to live amongst the little mementos and knickknacks

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ACCENTS ART

ALVAREZ’S HOME IS A LAYERED TESTAMENT TO HIS FAMILY, HISTORY, AND ARTISTIC INSTINCT.

of all the things that we’ve been able to experience or things that we love,” Alvarez explains, his eyes sweeping over the shelves and surfaces adorned with treasured objects including Mexican masks and a longhorn skull from his family’s ranch.

This personal connection to his living space is evident in the deliberate use of color that permeates the home. While Alvarez admits the palette evolved organically rather than being pre-planned, the resulting scheme of vibrant blues, mustard yellows, and pops of red has become a signature of his artistic style.

“If I lived in a really clean, modern, you know, minimalist space, I think it would be

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really hard to feel creative,” he says. “I want a home that feels like it has a life that started before me and it’ll have a life after me. You know, I almost feel like I’m like a steward of this space for now.”

Beyond the visual inspiration, Alvarez’s daily routines and rituals within the home have also been integral to his creative process.

The act of preparing meals, the quiet moments of journaling in the morning. These mundane tasks provide a sense of grounding and balance, helping Alvarez navigate the “tempestuous” nature of the painting process.

“Dinner is a big part of our routine,” he says. “I love the idea of [my husband] coming

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The magnificent color-blocking throughout the home extends to bedding, artwork, and floors.

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MOMENTS, BOTH PROFOUND AND PEDESTRIAN, ARE TRANSFORMED INTO MOVING ARTWORKS IN ALVEREZ’S VIGNETTES.

home and there’s the smell of bolognese and an open bottle of wine.”

Designer and friend Benjamin Stelly’s imprint on the house draws from his organic interactions with Alvarez, as well. “One of the beautiful parts of my relationship with RF is our ability to be friends, as well as students of and teachers to one another... I love that our dinner conversations (undoubtedly overflowing with wine) end up being about color theory and Greek mythology, or how to properly dress a dinner table.”

Various artworks adorn the walls, some his own, others by friends and contemporaries. This eclectic mix of personal mementos and creative expressions further reinforces the notion that his home is not just a living space, but a living, breathing extension of his artistic identity.

“I feel like I have to respect the house. When we moved in, you had to sort of greet it, like someone who has their own thing going on,” he says, underscoring the sense of reverence he holds for his surroundings.

In many ways, Alvarez’s bungalow has become a vital collaborator in his artistic journey, providing not only visual inspiration but also a nurturing environment that supports his creative process.

Most recently, Alvarez has had a successful solo show in London, was part of a group show in Rome, and will soon be featured at art fairs in Miami and LA. Closer to home, you can see Alvarez’s work at Soho House and Este, at his Austin gallery Martha’s Contemporary, or in his personal studio.

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S AV E T H E D AT E

YO U A R E I N V I T E D TO T H E R E - I M AG I N E D

2025

HOME & DESIGN AWARDS MARCH 27, 2025

J O I N U S A S W E C E L E B R AT E A W O R L D - C L A S S PA N E L O F J U D G E S , N E W C AT E G O R I E S , A N D T H E B E S T O F A U S T I N D E S I G N I N A N I G H T TO R E M E M B E R .

AUSTINHOMEMAG.COM/HDA-EVENT

To learn more and nominate today, head to austinhomemag.com/ nominate.

Nomination deadline: February 1, 2025

Austin Home is seeking nominations for the Best Landscape Designers in town. The annual list is part of our mission to showcase standouts in a region that provides international inspiration.

Groups with the most nominations will be highlighted in an upcoming issue of Austin Home and online.

We invite you to nominate your favorite firm or your own, and to share the opportunity with colleagues and collaborators. Designers who do residential work in Austin or a surrounding county are eligible.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF ISTOCK BY RUDCHENKO

CALL FOR ENTRIES Best Landscape Designers

Are you one of Austin’s Best Landscape Designers?

PHOTO BY ROBERT GOMEZ

SPACE AS AS MUSE

BALCONES HILLS

LAKESHORE HOUSE + STUDIO

STREET THEATER

BEST INTERIOR DESIGNERS

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FEATURES

Side Angle Side produced a picturesque studio for architectural photographer Casey Dunn kitty-corner to his East Austin abode.

How do our surroundings spark a chord progression, a brushstroke, an exquisite shot? Four Austin artists bring us into the spaces that inspire them to create.

PHOTO:

SPACE AS A MUSE

WRITTEN BY GIL ZABARSKY PHOTOGRAPHY ROBERT GOMEZ

Gil Zabarsky is an award-winning screenwriter and actor, whose work has premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, and has been featured on ABC, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Funny or Die, United Airlines flights, and at SeriesFest.

In my college years, as an NYC Theater Arts kid, I was consistently in the presence of artists that had a drive to create, but often no ideal place to cobble. The dream for many of us, the ideal, was to work towards a space that was optimized for inspiration, but often, the very lack of that space, of needing to make do, spotlighted something neat: The space in which you create, or what you bring into that space, can’t help but work its way into the DNA of what you create. And, sometimes, be informed by it in return.

I remember especially a young woman who used to live down the hall from us when I was a super-fresh grad in Astoria, Queens. She was a painter who roomed with five (count ‘em) other recent grads, and her process was fairly to-the-point: She needed zero noise pollution, and she needed calm. Thank you. Then, she could listen to her music and paint. As fate would have it, the only complication was the reality of the five roommates, their schedules, boisterous lives, etc. Her solution: She would paint at night, in their living room, when everyone else was asleep. Just her, an IKEA floor lamp (RÖDFLIK), a silent apartment, her music, a bay window, and the night sky outside, overlooking a luminous Manhattan in the distance.

And her paintings couldn’t help but reflect that. Her work felt private, calm, carrying some strange unspoken solidarity with an intangible moment that’s only available in the middle of the night. She also used a lot of blues, purples, and blacks, but that may not be related. It feels cool to know her story, like I’m in on some little piece of magic, but there are better-known examples, spaces that served as flavor incubators or, at least, influencers of the creative process: Consider Richard O’Brien writing The Rocky Horror Picture Show in his lonely flat in the dead of winter, to keep himself warm.

Georgia O’Keefe returning to the landscapes of New Mexico again and again, for decades, to completely alter the trajectory of her art.

Wes Anderson herding his A-list cast into forests and stables in order to record the voices for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Frida Kahlo being hospitalized for several weeks, and coming home in a full-body cast, where she took up painting in order to kill the time.

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Ben Kweller on guitar in his barn-turned-recording studio in Dripping Springs, accompanied by wife, Liz, and dog, Ruby.

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“I’M A LIGHT GUY. NOT A DARKNESS GUY.”

And, my personal favorite: “Weird Al” Yankovic recording My Bologna in the men’s bathroom across from his university’s radio station, in order to avoid paying for a recording studio.

In these cases, there is no question that the space informed the art. For Ben Kweller, Dawn Okoro, Casey Dunn, and Tammie Rubin, four Austin-based artists who create in a wide range of mediums, their relationship to their space is integral to how they create, and what they create – sometimes in ways you would not expect.

For Ben Kweller, beloved indie rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, his NoiseCo Studio, situated on 30 acres of Dripping Springs land, is a sanctuary. “That was my goal, to create this upstate Woodstock,” says Ben. “Green grass everywhere, deer all the time…

There’s a swimming hole and trails.” Native American ceremonies were once performed here, evidenced by a surviving grove of nine oak trees that served as a birth circle. “There’s a lot of magic that’s taken place on this land.”

Separately, “witness trees” from a time when the Spanish used machetes to slash X markers into trees as they surveyed the land, reveal a breathtaking history that feels ever-present.

The recording studio itself—a converted barn from the 1800s that was once a quarter of the Missouri Pacific Railroad station, divided equally among four brothers—has large windows and high peaked ceilings, as far away as you can get from the stereotypical mechanical dark rooms you see in band biopics.

“This is sort of an untraditional space,” Ben explains. “This is what we call a one room studio…The traditional way you have a recording studio, it’s all about isolation. You

have a control room which has this recording console…And then, the glass between you and the band…and technically, that’s great, but one of the pitfalls is the separation of the wall. The glass is really just a roadblock when you’re creating.” Ben’s recording console is right next to him, part of the open space where armless chairs support optimal guitar playing, and the sun fills the room with natural light.

“I’m a light guy. Not a darkness guy.”

The location, the open barn structure, and the inevitably sacred vibe of it all nurture an organic, natural creative flow that Ben strives for. “When I listen to an artist, I love it when I feel like I’m learning something about them or who they are. I feel like I’m hanging out with them. That’s my favorite kind of music to make.” In poignant rhythm with the space’s former identity as a train station, NoiseCo sees journeyers coming in and out, artists filling the space with their sound, with dedicated lodging available to them on site.

Ben and his wife, Liz, lost their son, Dorian, in a tragic and well-publicized accident last year. Dorian’s artist’s name is ZEV, and one of his songs is How I Am. The ranch on which NoiseCo sits was one of Dorian’s favorite places to hang out, the conversion of the barn largely inspired by Ben’s vow to continue making music after this tragedy, and go full steam, stronger than ever before. Written into the dried floor foundation of the studio, in memory of his son, is the phrase That’s just how I am.

“I have an intimate relationship with this space,” says Ben. “Like no other space that came before it… It’s probably my life’s work, this whole ranch.”

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FEATURE SPACE AS A MUSE

“[MY SPACE] IS A TINY BIT DISHEVELED. SO, A LITTLE BIT OF A LOOK INSIDE MY MIND.”

Dawn Okoro is a multidisciplinary visual artist with a phenomenal ability to conduct powerhouse explorations of social themes in an undeniably vibrant, hypnotic, and wholly unique way. Her studio, a devoted room in her home, functions as a practical, modular canvas of sorts. Despite Dawn’s observation that the room is “...a tiny bit disheveled. So, a little bit of a look inside my mind,” the space feels like the controlled wildfire of creative energy you sort of dream you could have if you were an artist doing their thing. At one meta point, the space contained a miniature model of the space itself, for an exhibition at Meow Wolf.

The ceilings are deceptively high, the windows deceptively tall, the walls decked with Dawn’s work, representing a variety of collections, a constellation of thoughtful artistic expression worth several deep dives.

Art supplies and tools are stacked everywhere.

Also a mannequin head. A drawing desk has

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work piled on top of it. “Everything has to be movable,” explains Dawn. “Creativity involves, for me, a lot of problem solving.”

An easel shifts out of the way to create a larger workspace. The tables are on wheels. So is a lone, dutiful stool, ready to roll from station to station.

Even the lights serve a purpose that transcends the obvious. “I can change the color to a daylight for balance when I’m working. And, then, when I’m not actually making something, I like color, I like the vibe and ambience. So whenever I’m sitting here, I like it to be pink or something, just so I can relax and think.”

Mood is important for the work, too, and the generous windows help. “I chose this room as my studio because of that big window. I love not only the natural light, but the feel of the sun. You know, just on my skin while I’m working, and it helps my mood, and that’s my favorite part of this room.”

While the room serves many a purpose (a studio for Dawn’s Youtube videos that invite the world into her artist’s life, a place to configure and tinker and execute on an idea), “...the most fun part is just to be able to come in here and configure the space however I need it to be, to maybe work on something that no one else is going to see, just for me, to experiment.”

Because Dawn is as cool as I wish I was, she skateboards, and often enters the room to create after a skateboarding session. “It’s great to have something non-art-related to focus on. It gets me physically active. It’s challenging. It’s scary…I feel more energized and like my mind opens up a bit.”

Dawn is grateful for her space, but has visions for a more ideal one: “I actually saw a space the other day…this airplane hangar, it’s huge, just tons of space to move around and have different projects set up. And someday I envision having a space like that…Oh, and I would also have some skate ramps in there.”

Dawn Okoro experiments with a relatively new medium for her, ink on paper, in her in-home studio that explodes with color and texture.

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Casey Dunn in his converted-shed photography studio. Behind him, a photo he took of Donald Judd’s library in Marfa, and to his left, his shot of Georgia O’Keefe’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For Casey Dunn, a world-renowned photographer whose architectural and editorial images are a precisely visualized feast of hue and perspective so polished that you could serve them at The French Laundry, his backyard-shed-turned pre-/post-production studio, designed by Side Angle Side, is a galactic dock of sorts, where he can gear up for a mission or land safely from one. “All of my work is location-based. So I’m going out and I’m shooting houses on location,” says Casey.

As for the studio? “Everything comes through here.” In pre-production, “I’m still kind of piecing the photographs together and imagining them here, in that in-between space. Thinking about the timeline and trying to capture light.

When do I want to be where? It’s a big, broad swath of what angles can happen, when do they need to happen? What makes sense? What feels right for the house?” Afterwards, for post, there’s color treatment and retouching and working

with an in-house producer to organize all the jobs coming his way.

Casey’s home is fifteen yards away, but, when he bought the lot in 2013, there was no house.

Just the shed. When the house was completed around 2017, the shed remained steadfastly in place, seemingly not going anywhere, and Casey’s transition from a co-working space to his own place inspired the transformation.

The studio itself is a room as meticulously aligned as the angles in Casey’s photographs: a rectangular space with a desk that interacts perfectly with a photograph Casey took of Donald Judd’s library in Marfa, hanging majestically on the wall. Even the various work piles that have accumulated on Casey’s desk look in sync. “I never wanted to put one of my own photographs up in my own space, just because I’m a perfectionist, I would be like, ‘I wish I’d have done X, Y, and Z.’ But this specific photograph…the dimensional aspect of it, it

almost feels like a portal to the West, and it’s facing west.” Usually, Casey and his wife will go and spend at least a couple of weeks there in the beginning of the year. “That’s a really special area for me…kind of a reminder of the way that things feel out there.”

Outside, an orchard of Mexican plums has become Casey’s visual go-to when he’s thinking, considering, getting inspired. Between the studio and the orchard, there’s a screened-in porch that, while not built with this purpose in mind, ended up acting as a big, dark, soft box, a tool photographers use to diffuse light. When Casey is retouching, he can’t have light blaring in.

The porch is “like this luminous box that light is never intensely coming into.” An amazingly happy accident of architectural design.

On location, “My philosophy is that I’m a mirror,” says Casey. “I’m responding.” In the studio, Casey plans and perfects. “I’m in a room by myself, with an orchard and a portal to the West.”

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FEATURE SPACE AS A MUSE

Tammie Rubin’s sculptures brilliantly transform the most unassuming objects into the mythical and unlock the infinite meaning they’re capable of possessing. For her, space is less a muse, and more a silent observer. “When I feel like the space is serving me well, and I’m settled, I feel really comfortable…” says Tammie, “Then the space works. You know what I mean?

There’s nothing magical about it.”

Tammie seeks out intuitive spaces “where I’m not having to stop and start. And I’m responding. And I’m really present in that moment of creating.” Tammie found one such space at And&And Studios, formerly a church. “This was the east side of Austin, which was the historically Black and Latino side of Austin, and had been gentrified long before I got there. This was one of those A-frame neighborhood churches that I’m very familiar with coming from the south side of Chicago. It was deconsecrated, and an artist named Lisa Woods bought this place and decided to rehab it as a creative space…The bones of that original church, the rafters are still there.”

“I don’t want to get hokey,” Tammie continues, “but there is something spiritual about going into that space and knowing what it’s for.” At the same time, Tammie clarifies, “We have a lot of nonsense that we see in movies and TV shows about what artist spaces look like…

So there’s always this fairy tale nostalgia about what [that] is, and to me, space is a place where you make work. And, so, you need to figure out how to make that work for you.”

There are practicalities, Tammie says, which have her moving furniture and getting strategic and removing a monitor from her space because she found herself attending too much to the business, which she strives to keep out of the creating space.

The space is not necessarily the muse, but the artist can transform the space into a deliberate realm of creation. Tammie, in fact, creates “dream-like spaces” with her installations. But getting there can be practical as hell. “When I was out of grad school, I lived in this converted Victorian house in Seattle,” Tammie recalls. “I lived on the first floor, it wasn’t fancy at all, but I did have a clawfoot tub. I loved that clawfoot tub. Really high ceilings, but just, not very well taken care of. But I made my living room my studio…Do I need this living room space? Really, I need a studio. And this is going to be practical for me.” And that’s what she did. “If you want to make,” Tammie concludes, “you’re going to figure out how to make.”

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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Tammie Rubin finds her artistic home in And&And Studios, an adaptively reused church turned co-op space in East Austin.

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PHOTOS:

WRITING TAKES ROOT IN BALCONES HILLS A passion for travel and storytelling inspired this romantic haven for a local author.

Balcones Hills Residence ARCHITECTURE BMH DESIGN STUDIO INTERIOR DESIGN VIKI CHUPIK

WRITTEN BY LAUREN JONES

BUILD DAVID WILKES BUILDERS

PHOTOGRAPHY CASEY DUNN

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FEATURE BALCONES HILLS

When it came time for a prominent local author, one with a love for history, literature, and travel, to build a new home with his wife, they wanted it to feel like it was growing from the ground up, rooted in place just like the 100-year-old oak canopy and protected aquifer on their property.

“It was really important to them to bring a sense of permanence to their new home,” says architect Gregory Brooks, principal of BMH Design Studio.

Just like the provenance that comes with collecting antiques, that sense of history was crucial to impart. Old World materials such as hand-troweled plaster, Spanish tile, reclaimed stone, and stained glass as seen in

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the double-height second floor passthrough and wine cellar meld the qualities of the places the couple love in their Texas refuge. It’s equal parts charm as it is comfort, and honors both owners’ desire for a modern, inviting sanctuary.

Over two years, BMH Design Studio, David Wilkes Builders, and interior designer Viki Chupik collaborated to bring the vision to life.

Despite supply chain delays and even a severe ice storm, “Everyone worked together to overcome [the challenges],” says builder David Wilkes. “The end result was worth the wait.”

One of the most important aspects of the design is its integration with nature. It’s located atop one of West Austin’s highest points, where an original two-story structure failed to capture

the beauty of rolling hills and the downtown skyline. Brooks and his partner Patrice MaillouxHuberdeau first discovered the view after they climbed onto the roof. “It had a perfectly framed view between the trees of the UT Tower,” Brooks notes. Thus, for the new build, they opted for an untraditional flipped floor plan with the public zones on the second floor.

The naturally sloped land, coupled with a protected spring at the base, further allowed the architects to provide a terraced landscape, an outdoor wine garden, and set the home in the heritage oaks. “[They] can be seen from every room of the house,” says Chupik who worked to blend the interior design with the surrounding environment.

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JEWEL TONES AND EARTHY COLORS WERE INSPIRED BY THE COUPLE’S TRAVELS.

Upon arrival, visitors are greeted by a custom-designed wooden gate and large mahogany doors that lead into a minimalist yet effective foyer where light creates ever-changing choreography. The centerpiece, a grand curving staircase with a custom bronze handrail and stained glass window, leads guests upstairs. The same soft geometry is seen in “arched windows, doors, and passages,” all of which mirror the curved roofline, Brooks adds. For the interiors, Chupik chose a palette of earthy jewel tones, colors linked to the homeowners’ travels.

That adoration for color and sentimentality is clear in each room. “They wanted to bring in rich, deep colors but put them against a soft neutral backdrop,” Chupik says. The plaster walls, which seem to part like curtains around the doors and windows, act as a quiet backdrop for bold furniture, antique pieces, and their continuously growing art collection.

In the dining room, a large red art piece, Matt Clark’s “We are the space between the fish and the moon,” adds just the right amount of color and balance to the room, while in the second-story sitting room, a turquoise sofa bridges the gap between the greenery outside and the vivid, spirited interiors.

One of the key elements was the seamless integration of the old and new. “It’s that yin and yang that people don’t necessarily know they want,” Chupik says. “The tension between the old and the new creates a balance that just feels right.” For example, a vintage sofa could take on a new personality when draped in a modern fabric.

The home’s thoughtful details like the reclaimed Turkish marble floors in the bathroom, arched doorways, and built-in breakfast nook, reflect that balance, telling both the story of the couple that lives here and the land on which it sits.

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FEATURE LAKESHORE RESIDENCE + STUDIO

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Nestled in Austin’s tree canopy, artist and collector Sara Carter builds a home as her canvas—designed to cultivate art, nature, and imagination.

WRITTEN BY NICOLE HADDAD PHOTOGRAPHY OF HOUSE JASON SCHMIDT PHOTOGRAPHY OF STUDIO ROBERT GOMEZ

Lakeshore Residence + Studio ARCHITECTURE DILLON KYLE ARCHITECTS

INTERIOR DESIGN MOBLEY BLOOMFIELD BUILD CROWELL BUILDERS

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FEATURE LAKESHORE RESIDENCE + STUDIO

On a seemingly ordinary afternoon, artist and collector Sara Carter—whose work has been shown in galleries around the world— found herself scrolling through Zillow when she came across a plot of land that ignited a spark. With a move to Austin already in mind, she promptly booked a flight from California, informed her husband, and called her cousin, architect Dillon Kyle, to visit the site with her.

“I promised my daughter, Eloise, I wouldn’t buy it outright,” laughs Carter. “But it was just too perfect—I put in an offer on the spot, and when she finally saw it months later, she understood.”

The land, dotted with live oak trees and a big slope, presented quite a few challenges, but Kyle was not deterred. Austin regulations preclude building on the slope, and each tree’s critical root zone had to be preserved. In essence, the layout of the home was determined by the trees. “Dillon really didn’t see it as a limitation,” Carter says. “He thought it would enhance the appeal.”

“Problems,” he agrees, “are an invitation to make things better.”

The land’s offbeat, lake-side charm and private nature only added to its allure. “It had a unique presentation that convinced us she could create her own little world up here, which was essential,” he adds. To align the architecture with the surrounding landscape, the home became a long, meandering, and attenuated structure with a few pushouts—optimized for the views.

“One of architecture’s foremost aspirations is to evoke a profound sensibility of feeling,” says Kyle. “Sara wasn’t trying to prove a point or be edgy with this house; she wanted to be comfortable and live with the things she loves.

It has a wonderful fluidity and discreteness.”

To create a stronger sense of privacy, the architect strategically positioned the more solid elements—fireplace, powder rooms, etc.—towards the front, covering the façade in mostly brick and allowing for the backside of the house to be almost entirely outfitted in floor-to-ceiling glass.

In an ingenious move, Kyle set up track lights that outline the entire interior space, allowing Carter incredible flexibility when it comes to rotating her collection of art. “I knew her home had to be a place where furniture from her past was comfortable. There are contemporary styles of architecture where antique furniture can be placed, but it feels overly objectified,” says Kyle. “That was not what we wanted.”

Sara in her newly constructed painter’s studio, cantilevered over the entrance driveway to the main house (photo by Robert Gomez).

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FEATURE LAKESHORE RESIDENCE + STUDIO

Gathering spaces are oriented towards framed vignettes of magnificent trees that complement the art collection throughout.

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To seamlessly integrate her collection of art and furnishings with the home’s architecture, Carter enlisted friends and longtime collaborators Jennifer Mobley and Bill Bloomfield of architecture and interior design studio Mobley Bloomfield. The synergy was undeniable.

Upon entering the house, guests are immediately disarmed. The deceptively innocuous exterior, which Kyle describes as “relatively ordinary” in its materiality, belies the warmth and casual yet cultivated nature of the home’s elongated interior. A striking Tulu rug, with wild tufts of red fibers seemingly glowing from within, commands attention underfoot.

“I felt like the entry hall needed something really outrageous—it’s almost like an extension of how I paint, a 3D version of my paintings— the whole house is really,” laughs Carter.

A glance up, and floor-to-ceiling glass gives the sensation of living amidst the trees. To the left, an Arts & Crafts-style table adorned with Neolithic pottery sits opposite one of Carter’s large-scale Grid series paintings. “Sara loves the mix of old and new,” explains Mobley. “And she really lives with her pieces and objects. She’s very intentional about what she brings in.”

Kyle adds, “Sara herself has characteristics that are very modern about her and others that are very traditional. The house lets her be both at the same time.”

To the right of the entry hall lies the couple’s living room and screened-in porch, a serene space where Carter often spends her mornings with a cup of coffee in a pondering, meditative state. Occasionally, she’ll rush out the door to her on-site studio, still in her robe, when inspiration hits. Its proximity—just steps away in a nearby building, removes any barriers to acting on her creativity.

The living room, meanwhile, is a study in contrasts: an antique Turkish Oushak rug, a contemporary Rose Tarlow sofa, Gainsborough chair reproductions upholstered in a strikingly modern Absinthe hue, and an English Tea Table, are paired with an Anne Appleby triptych that brings the outdoors in. A largescale painting by Carter sits behind the piano where her husband, a musician, often plays.

A long, peaceful walk to the other side of the house leads to the rest of the wellappointed rooms. The dining room, which can be accessed from the entry hall and the kitchen, features a custom-made dining table by

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ACUSTOM-DESIGNED SHELF PLAYS HOST TO A ROTATING COLLECTION OF INCREDIBLE ARTWORKS INCLUDING SEVERAL BY CARTER HERSELF.

Mobley Bloomfield complemented by heirloom Chippendale chairs Carter inherited. Les Rogers’ Fearless is positioned over vertical white siding designed to break up the monotony of smooth white walls.

On a solo wall, Regine Schumann’s fluorescent acrylic glass sculptures take center stage. “The wall did not want another painting.

It needed to be spare and blank and a reprieve from the idea of a painting, with some punch and drama,” explains Carter.

The kitchen is pure elegance, featuring an earthy palette of stone, wood, and concrete.

Just steps away is the couple’s “cozy room,” a stunning spot from which to take in the views and read. A plush Flexform sofa and woven leather ottomans provide comfort while a custom-designed shelf Kyle painted in a warm hue plays host to a rotating collection of incredible artworks by artists ranging from Manny Krakowski, Helmut Barnett, David Simpson, Florence Pierce, and Carter herself.

Lastly, a nearby family room offers a relaxing spot to end the day. The latter’s moody ambiance is enhanced by shelves painted in a rich, sensuous shade, gorgeous chaise lounges reupholstered in a Belgian linen fabric from Christopher Farr, and a patinated bronze coffee table by Garry Hutton. A Turkish rug underfoot adds a pop of color, perfectly tying into the painterly accent pillows with fabric made from cut-up pieces of one of Carter’s original paintings.

The second floor, home to the private spaces, includes a charming guest room with an en suite bath that boasts a bright yellow tub.

The couple’s bedroom is defined by a stunning, hand-painted de Gournay wallcovering depicting a weeping willow. “We wanted to bring the outside in on this accent wall,” says Bloomfield. “To form a sort of continuation of the exterior landscape without it being a direct reinterpretation.”

“The home is an incredible representation of living with art. It reflects her dual identity— as an artist, but also as a collector, and how much she appreciates art,” says Mobley.

Carter explains, “Art has always been the way I’ve animated myself. It’s about seeing art and living with it. It provides a consistent hum and feeling of,‘that’s what I do.’ Every part of this house—there is not one part more important than the other—is an essential bedrock for every single thing I find creative or exciting. I can be anywhere in the house, and it’s going to feed that process and the mechanism of my creativity.”

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PHOTOS:

On a recent morning at my local coffee shop, I was showing a friend three drawings by the 16th-century Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio. Done in one-point perspective, they are of stage settings for the quintessential theatrical genres of ancient Greece. What’s interesting about them is that they each set the action of the play on a street. Tragedy is presented as an avenue of classically styled public edifices; comedy as a residential lane flanked by gothic buildings; and satyr—ribald romps combining elements of comedy and tragedy—as a forested path running between two woodcutters’ shacks. Serlio’s exercise, I said to my friend who listened politely, epitomizes a long tradition of architects and urban planners designing the streets of real cities as rooms where human dramas are meant to unfold.

Without missing a beat, my friend looked out the window, at the City of Austin surrounding the coffee shop, and quipped: “So what do we have here? Intermission?”

Ouch. But also, fair. While great strides have been made in recent years to tame traffic speeds and improve cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, there is little to recommend our streets as places to hang out, see and be seen, socialize, and generally be part of a community.

Rather, they tend to be designed more along the lines of certain bodily canals responsible for the evacuation of waste—smooth ribbons of pavement for driving along as quickly as possible.

Exceptions exist. The 2nd Street District is a well-intentioned attempt at bringing, per the city’s website, “a dense, walkable urban experience to downtown.” The Music Lane development stamps out a cozy pedestrian alley lined by shops and bistros beside the drag strip that is South Congress Avenue. And East 6th Street, though a bit of a mixed bag architecturally, is boisterously alive.

But there are two fresher examples that more precisely resemble the Serlioan model of street-as-stage-setting: the grounds of the

Blanton Museum of Art, which have recently been reinvented by Snøhetta; and the Capitol Mall, a four-block stretch of Congress Avenue between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 16th Street that is being converted to pedestrian use according to a master plan by Page.

These two spaces meet along the same axis, the one completing and counterpointing the other. Seen from MLK, they even have the same arrangement as Serlio’s drawings—buildings flanking the ground of action and a scenic backdrop. Looking south there are rectangular lawns, allées of young trees, buttoned-up state office buildings, and the priapic pink granite dome of the capitol thrusting into the sky. It’s a setting, à la Serlio, ideal for tragedy, the hard rectilinearity of its elements almost militant in their unyielding seriousness.

The view north toward the Blanton, on the other hand, puts us in quite different territory.

Snøhetta has transformed what was a sort of blah plaza into a space that not only sings with intrigue but is also quite comfortable to hang out in even on hot summer days. The design, which was led by Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar, both UT Austin grads, introduces a small forest of towering, sculptural shade structures. Perforations in their surfaces cast a dappled light onto the ground. In places, the pavement has been replaced with gardens and river-rock shaped seating framing a winding path, not dissimilar from the path in Serlio’s setting for satyr. Moisture from the gardens rises and is caught by the breeze funneling between the buildings, cooling the whole plaza.

While that’s nifty enough, more remarkable is how Snøhetta’s design changes the tenor of the space, making it more playful. While the Blanton buildings are solid, their mien is unsmiling and they aren’t exactly memorable.

Intended to recall the great academic buildings

by Cass Gilbert and Paul Philippe Cret on campus, they instead come off as pale copies, replicating the materials but leaving out the

STREET THEATER

decorations and refined details that make their predecessors so cherished.

If you ever want to have a good cry, look up what happened to the original design for the museum by Herzog & de Meuron. There’s no time to get into it here but suffice it to say a cyclops deep-sixed the scheme. Snøhetta has in a way righted this injustice. They mostly left the buildings alone, only adding arched portals demarcating the entries, both in canary yellow and faced with glass, one right side up, the other lifted and upside down. The latter, in the gallery building, encloses bleacher seating—the house, as it were, overlooking the stage that is the plaza.

Actual street theater!

I’m riffing here, but you might see these two arched portals, one smiling and one frowning, as the classical masks of comedy and tragedy. Or, to take it a step further, if you put them together you get an oval much like the single staring eye of a cyclops. And before you cry out, “Aaron, stop with this tomfoolery!” let me just add that the one satyr play that survives to this day in its entirety is Euripides’ Cyclops, which recounts Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus. In the beginning of the play, the old satyr Silenus, a captive of Polyphemus, laments his fate: “He has made us the slaves of his house. So now, instead of enjoying your joyful Bacchic celebrations we have to look after this godless beast’s flock of sheep! No more wine for us, no more dancing, no more merry singing!” By the end of the play Silenus is drunk, dancing, and singing quite merrily while the cyclops has been blinded and Odysseus and his men have escaped to their ship to continue the journey home.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this project is a sign, I think, that Austin’s long intermission may be over. The play, in fact, may have already begun. We now just have to wait and see if it will turn out to be a tragedy or a comedy, or some bizarre combination of both.

WRITTEN BY AARON SEWARD PHOTOGRAPHY CASEY DUNN

Snøhetta’s plaza design for the Blanton Museum of Art ushers in a new era of vibrant urbanism for Austin’s streetscape.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF ISTOCK BY RIDERFOOT

AUSTIN’S BEST INTERIOR DESIGNERS

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BEST INTERIOR DESIGNERS

We polled homeowners and industry pros to create this list of the top interior designers in the Austin area.

Aidan Lane Designs 512-387-1735 hello@aidanlanedesigns aidanlanedesigns.com @aidanlanedesigns Allison Burke Interior Design 512-220-7903 office@allison-burke.com allison-burke.com @allisonburke.id Alyssa Rome Design 903-920-1579 alyssa@alyssaromedesign.com alyssaromedesign.com @alyssaromedesign Amity Worrel & Co. 512-387-3146 info@amityworrel.com amityworrel.com @amityworrelco Annie Downing Interiors 512-651-5742 studio@anniedowning.com anniedowning.com @anniedowninginteriors Ashby Collective 512-524-1220 info@ashbycollective.com ashbycollective.com @ashby_collective Audrey Scheck Design contact@audreyscheckdesign.com audreyscheckdesign.com @audreyscheckdesign BANDD/DESIGN 512-888-9313 hi@banddesign.com bandddesign.com @jointhebandd Blueberry Jones Design 512-488-5678 lindsie@blueberryjones.com blueberryjones.com @blueberryjonesdesign Brooklinteriors 512-256-3771 hello@brooklinteriors.com brooklinteriors.com @brooklinteriors Britt Design Group 512-458-8963 info@brittdesigngroup.com brittdesigngroup.com @brittdesign.group Butter Lutz Interiors 512-358-1744 info@butterlutz.com butterlutz.com @butterlutzinteriors

Cathryn Lindsey Design cathryn@cathrynlindseydesign.com cathrynlindseydesign.com @cathrynlindseydesign Cedar & Oak info@cedarandoakhomes.com cedarandoakhomes.com @cedarandoakhomes CG&S Design Build 512-444-1580 db@cgsdb.com cgsdb.com @cgsdesignbuild Chupik Design 512-302-1900 hello@chupik.com chupikdesign.com @chupikdesign Christina Cole Studio christina@christinacole.com christinacole.com @christinacolestudio Christina Cruz Interiors 310-696-9597 christina@christinacruzinteriors.com christinacruzinteriors.com @christinacruzinteriors Claire Zinnecker Design 512-277-5445 info@clairezinneckerdesign.com clairezinneckerdesign.com @clairezinneckerdesign Cravotta Interiors 512-499-0400 info@cravottainteriors.com cravottainteriors.com @cravottainteriors Curated Studio 512-730-2554 info@curatedstudio.com curatedstudio.com @curated_studio_interiors Daley Home 512-537-9175 hello@daley-home.com daley-home.com @daleyhome Dréa Peters Interiors 512-518-4553 drea@dreapetersinteriors.com dreapetersinteriors.com @dreapetersinteriors Emily Lauren Interiors 512-270-9193 studio@emilylaureninteriors.com emilylaureninteriors.com @emilylaureninteriors

Etch Design Group 512-568-3224 info@etchdesigngroup.com etchinteriordesign.com @etchdesigngroup Fern Santini 512-300-2303 fern@fernsantini.com fernsantini.com @fernsantini HouseMill Design 512-277-9006 hello@housemilldesign.com housemilldesign.com @housemilldesign JS Dwellings info@jsdwellings.com jsdwellings.com @jsdwellings Joel Mozersky Design 512-913-3732 joel@joelmozersky.com joelmozersky.com @joelmozerskydesign Kelle Contine Interior Design 512-279-0804 info@kellecontine.com kellecontine.com @kellecontineinteriordesign Kim Lewis Designs hello@kimlewisdesigns.com kimlewisdesigns.com @kimlewisdesigns Liz MacPhail Interiors 512-551-2985 liz@lizmacphailinteriors.com lizmacphailinteriors.com @lizmacphailinteriors Lo & Behold Interiors 678-634-5613 lo@lobeholdinteriors. com loandbeholdinteriors.com @lo.interiors M. Elliott Studio 512-722-3442 montana@melliottstudio.com melliottstudio.com @melliottstudio Melanie Raines 512-800-2810 hello@melanieraines.com melanieraines.com @melanieraines Mimi Wittstruck Design 512-649-5125 mimi@mimiwittstruckdesign.com mimiwittstruckdesign.com @mimiwittstruckdesign

MK Workshop 857-472-9211 info@mkworkshop.net mkworkshop.net @mkworkshopbk O’Hara Interiors 512-222-3201 design@oharainteriors.com oharainteriors.com @ohara_interiors Palmetto Interiors & Renovations 512-222-6910 natalie@palmettoatx.com palmettoatx.com @palmettoatx Patrice Nichole Studio 512-632-6392 patricenichole@ pn.studio patricenichole.com @patricenicholestudio Scheer & Co. Interior Design 512-270-9322 info@scheer.com scheer.com @scheerandco Shannon Eddings Interiors hello@shannoneddings.com shannoneddings.com @shannoneddingsinteriors Studio Burgoon hello@studioburgoon.com studioburgoon.com @studioburgoon Tête-à-tête Interior Design 512-931-1054 tete@tete-interiors.com tete-interiors.com @tete.a.tete.interiors The Interior Collective hi@theinterior.co theinterior.co @theinteriorcollective

How This List Is Made Using an online survey, Austin Home solicited peer and public nominations, asking voters to nominate up to three interior designers they’ve worked with or know to produce outstanding work. Austin Home then tallied the results, selecting the top percentage of vote recipients before submitting the final list to our fact-checking process.

Companies do not and cannot pay to be a part of the list.

We recognize that many good interior designers are not included on the list; this is only a sampling of a huge array of talented professionals within the region. We encourage all consumers to do their own research before selecting an interior designer.

Austin Home uses best practices and exercises great care in assembling content for this list. It does not warrant that the data contained within the list are complete or accurate. Austin Home does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. All rights reserved.

No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without written permission from Austin Home. If you see an error in the information listed, please contact editor@ austinhomemag.com.

Interior Designers: Congratulations! If you’d like to display this accomplishment with a plaque, please visit our official store at austinhomemag. com/plaques.

Tribe Design Group 512-527-4773 brooke@tribedesigngroup.com tribedesigngroup.com @tribedesigngroup Urbane Design 512-522-6035 jlove@urbanedesignstudios.com urbanedesignstudios.com @theurbanedesign

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FACES OF INTERIOR DESIGN Get to know some of the best interior designers in Austin, as voted

by Austin Home readers and industry pros 92

IMAGE COURTESY OF ISTOCK BY FOLLOWTHEFLOW

FACES OF INTERIOR DESIGN

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Brooklinteriors

FACES OF INTERIOR DESIGN

ALICIA HASSEN OF BROOKLINTERIORS 512-256-3771 BROOKLINTERIORS.COM @BROOKLINTERIORS

Brooklinteriors, led by principal designer Alicia Hassen, is a distinguished interior design firm based in Austin, Texas, specializing in relaxed modern luxury for active families and business professionals. The firm excels at understanding each client’s lifestyle to create highly personalized spaces that blend sophistication and purpose. Alicia is passionate about sourcing pieces from artisans around the world as well as supporting small and local businesses from coast to coast. She operates a custom millwork studio, designing

PAIGE NEWTON

sustainable, hand-crafted furniture tailored to each project. Committed to honoring the home’s original character, Alicia integrates traditional elements into her designs, balancing contemporary aesthetics and timeless details. Whether revitalizing a historic residence or crafting a custom home from the ground up, Brooklinteriors’ high-touch services bring each client’s unique vision to life with exceptional detail.

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Patrice Nichole

FACES OF INTERIOR DESIGN

PATRICE NICHOLE 512-810-3730 PATRICENICHOLE.COM PATRICENICHOLE@PN.STUDIO @PATRICENICHOLESTUDIO 809 BAYLOR ST. AUSTIN, TX 78703

Patrice Nichole, a distinguished leader in Austin’s design scene for over 15 years, is once again recognized among Austin’s top designers, celebrated for her commitment to design excellence. Building on her reputation, she will debut her boutique design studio, Patrice Nichole Studio, in Clarksville in 2025. The studio will continue to offer full-service interior design alongside an expanded cabinetry division, which specializes in custom, high-end millwork that combines fine finishes with a unique personal touch.

Patrice Nichole is renowned for her refined, bold interiors that showcase an enduring quality. The cabinetry division offers bespoke, high-end solutions that harmonize with each space’s character and the client’s vision, reflecting Patrice’s dedication to using the finest materials. Through close collaboration with skilled artisans, builders, and other fellow interior designers, Patrice and her team deliver a design experience that prioritizes clients’ personal styles and enhances their everyday lives.

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Lindsie Davis

FACES OF INTERIOR DESIGN

BLUEBERRY JONES DESIGN 512-488-5678 BLUEBERRYJONES.COM LINDSIE@BLUEBERRYJONES.COM @BLUEBERRYJONESDESIGN 14500 RANCH ROAD 12, SUITE 19 WIMBERLEY, TX 78676

With a penchant for the bold and unexpected, Lindsie Davis is never one to play it safe. As the founder and principal of Blueberry Jones Design, she’s built a reputation for pushing creative boundaries with her unapologetic use of color, pattern, and texture. Her art background JENN ROSE SMITH

deeply influences her award-winning approach, creating whimsical yet refined spaces that put function at the forefront. As a designer, Lindsie’s ethos is simple: great design is never boring, and every project should involve an element of risk-taking. This results in layered and livable spaces that her clients love to call home.

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CURTAINS GATHERINGS

IN PHOTOS: FALL EDITOR’S PREVIEW 1

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In September, we kicked off our very first Editor’s Preview for the Fall Issue: Perspectives. More than 200 Austinites showed up for design. Beyond getting a first look at the magazine, guests heard from local leaders Sinclair Black, Ingrid Spencer, Kevin Alter, and more. And of course—partied the night away!

The preview was hosted in the jaw-dropping 1804 Margaret St. in Zilker, developed

by Homes by Parker, with architecture by Black+Motal, interiors by Housemill Design, and listed by Zilker Properties.

We are thrilled to continue hosting more gatherings for the design and homeowner community here in Austin, exchanging important ideas, and continuing to push the standards for what is possible in design higher and higher.

We’ll see you at the next Preview!

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1. Guests received the Fall Issue before it hit stands. 2. Taylor Moore, of Compass Real Estate and designer Jacky Droste 3. Editor-in-Chief Karen Zabarsky Blashek with Hunter Jones. 4. The design team and homeowners of our cover home, City Park Residence 5. Sinclair Black, AIA with Ingrid Spencer 6. Guests received bespoke poems on demand 7. Keli Hogsett of CoCollect and Jamie Williams Eagleston of Elysian Collective 8. Our renowned panel of speakers included Ingrid Spencer of AIA Austin, Kevin Alter of alterstudio, Victoria Shrader of Cantoni, and Gabriella Ainslie of Matriarchy Build. 9. Randi Stevenson of Hearst, Sarah Cox of Zilker Properties, and Lauren Ramirez of Housemill Design 10. Carina Coel and Alexandra Chaves of Restructure Studio, and Stefi Motal of Black + Motal Architecture. 11. Ainslie, Caroline Pinkston of Caroline Pinkston PR, and photographer Jenn Rose Smith 12. Johnny McGowan and the Rugged Gents playing the night away.

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For nearly four decades, non-profit Casa Marianella has been welcoming displaced immigrants arriving in Austin, and helping them get on their feet. Now, they’ve commisssioned Low Design Office (LowDO), in collaboration with Forge Landscape Architecture, to design a new community dwelling, garden, and playscape for their Posada Campus, which serves women and children. To learn more about the upcoming design and Casa Marianella, visit austinhomemag.com to read the full feature.

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