M.Hill Role: Design Team Member while w/Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.
The hilltop residence is located on a wooded eighty-five acre site overlooking downtown Austin and the University of Texas. The program included an independent entertainment area and extensive on-site parking to accommodate large family gatherings and business functions.
The building is organized around a horizontal spine, with the “family house” to the northwest and the “entertainment house” to the southeast treated as complex, figural objects within the landscape. The curved roof of the indoor lap pool creates a cross-axial boundary between the two zones. At the top of the hill, a manmade plateau was created to maximize views from the house while preserving existing vegetation. The change in level mediates between the service areas (including a staff apartment, mechanical rooms, and a six car garage) embedded at grade on the arrival side of the house, and the main floor and a series of outdoor terraces reached by way of the elliptical grand staircase in the skylit entry hall.
