The house has the feel of a treehouse, perched on the edge of a fractured limestone cliff, which is a part of the eschelon of the Balcones fault. Rooms look either downhill into the tops of trees in the ravine below or uphill into the rock gardens behind the house.
We rebuilt and re-conceived a house originally on the site, designed in 1957 by Jonathan Bowman. We kept the site strategy of the original house, as well as its limestone rubble walls; we also wanted to maintain its modest Case-Study era scale. The house was redesigned with a steel structure and significantly larger and different window openings. Most of the windows slide completely away to one side, allowing direct connection to the outside. The airflow up the hill draws air through the house in most months.
While keeping the proportion of the original, we added square footage tucked behind the house. The new house on the old footprint has an intimate scale, and is lined in completely in straight-grain pine. The new floor area is built out in plaster and has a higher roof that twists to respond to the cliff and cups to collect rainwater. A continuous clerestory window between the two roofs lets in southern light along the length of the bedrooms. Many materials were designed and developed specifically for this project: a gravel-cast concrete topping slab, over-scale pine board doors, insulated tube skylights, as well as the cast concrete cladding at the entry. The house achieved a 5-star rating from Austin Energy’s Green Building program; sustainable design features include photovoltaic panels, a ‘cool’ roof, icynine foam insulation, rainwater collection (tank is in the tool shed down the hill), landscaping with native plants and drip irrigation.
Be sure to visit the vegetable garden up the hill!
4502 Balcones Drive
Austin, TX 78731
Architect, Designer and Home Owner:
Elizabeth Alford
Pollen Architecture & Design
www.pollenarchitecture.com
Meet Elizabeth Alford
About this Home:
3 bedrooms
3 bathrooms
2,800 sq ft
Go to Modern Home Tour Gallery
From 2012 Featured Architect Elizabeth Alford:
Q. What specific details should visitors look for when walking through your home; what makes this home unique?
A. The entry is really unusual; this was left from the original house on the site. You enter from below, up a stair dug into the hill at the back; you’re covered by roof, but not inside yet. It’s usually cooler here with a draw of air because its open. When you arrive at the front door you’ve turned and are looking out at treetops; it’s a nice contrast.
There’s also a contrast between the warmer, more intimate rooms lined in wood and the brighter, more spacious rooms done in plaster – one side looks down, one looks up. The long clerestory throws nice light across the ceiling and gives glimpses of treetops.
Try to find the diffusers; they’re detailed in a way so they’re really unobtrusive.
The concrete tiles Michael made for the entry are fantastic in the light coming from above; they’re really amazing at about 1:00.
Green features: pv’s on roof, rainwater collection (tank is in toolshed)
And make sure you see the vegetable garden!
Presented By
Incredible house! Everytime I drive clients past it on Balcones it always gets raving reviews and comments. Looking forward to the tour.
Ryan Rogers
Coldwell Banker United, REALTORS
512-413-9456
The most amazing house of the 2012 Modern Homes Tour!