2025 Home & Design Awards

We were so excited to have three projects as finalists in the Austin Home Magazine's Home & Design Awards.

They were:

Best Flexible Living - Inside Out

Best Site Work - Perching Pergola

Best Use of Daylight/Fenestration - Lightwell

And it was such a delight to win Best Site Work for Perching Pergola!

This project was so interesting because it backed up to a shared neighborhood drainage easement, which meant we could not change the drainage patterns except to improve stormwater permeating into the site instead of sending it to the engineered detention pond. By slowing water down and reducing velocity as well as adding plants with root structures, it was possible to permeate the groundplane. When adding this ecological element, we were also able to incorporate a playful natural area for the clients' small children. We added an above-swale steel grate catwalk to a steel swing, making this steeply-sloped area useful, interesting, aesthetically pleasing, and functional.

The initial design ask from the clients was to add a shaded outdoor living space. The bulk of the design orients around a pergola with concrete paver patio. A grassy play area sits on the same level, flanked by planting beds in fingers reaching inward. Privacy was also a concern as the houses are constructed right up to the build lines, creating only a small buffer between structures. Our solution is to install vertical louvered screens that block sun and the direct view of neighbors. We really enjoyed the challenge of the site, and are very proud of this project.

*Landscape construction by Praetorian Build