2025 RDAA | Project of the Year | Alterstudio Architecture | Pecan Grove Residence

A theme of restraint emerged among many of this year’s design award winners, a quality that the Pecan Grove Residence exemplifies beautifully. A judge summed up its practically uncontested rise to star of show: “Lots of intelligent decisions were made on a very small footprint.” 

Exquisite is not too strong a word. In an older, urban neighborhood of houses on good-sized lots, the architects could have maximized the square footage. Instead, they designed a floor plan and section that simultaneously immerses the occupants in nature and provides veils of privacy from the street. What’s more, the brick and stucco exterior and wood-forward interiors lend an earthiness that grounds the house within its urban context. 

Austin’s South Congress neighborhood sits on a small rise above the river and is the center of much of the city’s hipness, says Kevin Alter. Walkable to downtown, its boutiques and restaurants draw foot traffic, and its popularity has encouraged residents to build additions. The houses on either side of Pecan Grove were bigger than their original footprint, so this one had to provide privacy. “There was a desire to have it feel solid,” Kevin says. “We found an inexpensive brick manufactured for working with historic homes; it’s tumbled and each brick has its own character. With the dark grout and thin, recessed mortar joints, you see all their eccentricities. Then we used uncolored stucco in a similar authentic way.”

Those materials are also compatible with the mature pecan trees that populate the neighborhood. Here they provided a lovely backyard that included an existing guest house and pool. Protecting the trees meant building up, resulting in traditional-feeling second-floor bedrooms that pinwheel around a double-height space above the kitchen. The scheme creates transparency across the house. Clerestories span the open kitchen and dining room on the long west wall, while floor-to-ceiling glass lets in north and south light. Ever mindful of pedestrian traffic, the designers added a latticed brick landscape wall to screen the dining room from street view to the north, while the rear sliding window-wall opens to a patio on the south. 

Stained oak kitchen cabinets and a marble-clad island establish an anchor against the “ever-present pull of the outdoors,” Kevin says. The casework’s warm brown stain matches the mahogany windows, and the island’s careful detailing suggests heft. On the end facing the dining room, the marble countertop is mitered to fold down on three sides, creating the illusion of a solid block of stone. 

Despite its cocoon-like detailing, the living room on the southeast corner also connects powerfully to the outdoors. Its built-in sofa immerses occupants in a tangle of river fern and leopard plant growing outside the glass wall. “The ground floor is primarily concrete, but you step into this carpeted sunken area and a fluffy seat, where you’re at eye level with plantings next to the house,” Kevin says. An exposed section of board-formed concrete foundation wall further juxtaposes the sense of hard and soft, rough and refined, landscape and lair.

Upstairs, a bridge overlooking the kitchen connects four corner bedrooms. The architects’ preference for natural pattern reveals itself in the primary bath, where striated marble tiles line the wall behind the tub. “We like freestanding tubs when they feel special rather than cut into a corner,” Kevin says. “The tiles aren’t super fancy, but lovely in large format with grooves cut in them. From the side you get a sense of the depth.” The black-painted wood vanity’s soapstone countertop also has subtle patterning. 

“As a general aesthetic, we love that wabi sabi thing where the decorative aspects come in their veining or grain,” says Kevin. “We like to prime the canvas for the wood grain to show. Variegation is coming less from a pattern we imposed than something found.” The primary bedroom and its Douglas fir ceiling extend out to a brick-lattice-enclosed balcony above the backyard. One of the two front bedrooms has a similar but smaller balcony. Part of the street elevation, it’s a compositional counterpoint to the brick screen outside the dining room.

“I love modernism and the power of connection to the outdoors but also cozy architecture, beautiful rooms,” Kevin says. “What I like about work coming through Asia or Scandinavia is that you could get these Miesian-like buildings that are outdoor connected but also contained. In this scheme, the house is in a liminal position between the oasis in back and a somewhat proper front that addresses the street [in a way that says] you know your neighbors.”

The jury agreed, adding: “It’s modern and homey at same time—you know it’s a place people want to gather. It feels comfortable but not stodgy or old. The hand of the architect isn’t so strong that you feel you’re being inundated with the moves, which is kind of a hard thing to do.”

2025 RDAA Project of the Year

Alterstudio Architecture
Pecan Grove Residence
Austin, Texas

Project Credits

Architect: Kevin Alter, principal in charge; Ernesto Cragnolino, FAIA, Tim Whitehill, Shelley McDavid, AIA, Michael Woodland, AIA, Haifa Hammami, project team, Alterstudio Architecture, Austin, Texas

Builder: Garret Boon, Five Stones Construction, Austin

Interior designer: Haifa Hammami, Alterstudio Architecture

Landscape architect: Mark Word, Word + Carr Design Group, Austin

Structural engineer: Samuel Young, MJ Structures, Austin

Project size: 3,098 square feet

Site size: 0.22 acre

Construction cost: Withheld

Photography: Casey Dunn

Key Products

Acoustic: Owens Corning

Built-in sofa upholstery: Schumacher

Cabinetry hardware: MadeMeasure

Ceiling fans: Minka-Aire

Cladding: Old Texas Brick, Prime Wall Systems (stucco)

Cooking vent hood: Wolf

Cooktop: Wolf

Countertops: Stone Solutions, MetroQuartz

Dishwasher: Bosch

Fasteners: Simpson Strong-Tie

Faucets: California Faucets, Waterworks, VOLA, Aquabrass, Riobel

Flooring: Polished concrete

HVAC systems: Mitsubishi, AprilAire (air cleaner)

Lighting: WAC, PureEdge, Oluce, Lee Broom, Flos

Paints/stains/coatings: Farrow & Ball, Sherwin-Williams, Rubio Monocoat

Passage door hardware: Chant Pro Magnetic Catches

Refrigerator: Sub-Zero

Sinks: Kohler

Skylights: VELUX

Steam bath: Mr. Steam

Subflooring: Huber AdvanTech

Toilets: TOTO

Tub: Victoria + Albert

Underlayment: Huber ZIP System

Wall coverings: Twenty2, Pierre Frey, Maharam

Washer/dryer: Electrolux

Water heater: Navien

Windows: Quantum Windows & Doors, Marvin