1300 Canterbury Residence Breaking Ground

 Our custom residence at 1300 Canterbury is breaking ground this month. This green, contemporary courtyard house fits well into the existing context of East Austin’s Holly Street Neighborhood. We’re excited to see the construction progress by Newcastle Homes in the coming months.

Hyde Park Residence Photos

Check out these updated photos on our website of our Hyde Park Residence, a green renovation and addition here in Central Austin. We’re currently still wrapping up landscaping but our client was excited to move in last week!

http://www.clarkrichardson.com/site/#/select-work/hyde-park-residence/

We always like to look at where we started when we finish a project here is our post from the beginning of demo about a year ago: http://clarkrichardson.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/demo-starts-on-hyde-park-residence/

Runnur’s New Retail Space

C|R was excited to work with Andrew Hamra at Go Runnur on the design and visualization for their first brick and mortar store for the Runnur, a hands free carry-all, that’s been getting a lot of attention both here in Austin & nationally.

At the Finish Line!

Historic Hyde Park Addition

Huisman Contracting is wrapping up the final weeks of construction on our Hyde Park Renovation and Addition project and we had the opportunity to peek below the floor coverings today.  We are excited to post some of our preliminary pictures from our little point and shoot but will be adding much better ones from our photographer Andrea Calo  soon!

A few glimpses of the office, master suite and screened porch

This little 1920′s Bungalow has come a long way and is now on track to recieving a 5 Star Rating from the Austin Energy Green Building Program!

Repurposed, Rejuvinated, Revitalized

Multi-Family Renovation

At the beginning of the new year we look for ways to start fresh, find inspiration in our surroundings and create new identities. Our homes, our places of business, our neighborhoods where we live are projections of ourselves. They give us a sense of belonging and add to our sense of self. These places frame our lives.

Happy New Year 2013! May you have an inspiring New Year to come!

Murphy’s Paw – Austin Barkitecture

It is time for Barkitecture! Presented by Animal Lovers of Austin, this dog house auction goes to benefit local dog rescue organizations and if you have never been it is lots of fun. We are excited to be participating this year – here is a sneak preview of our piece!

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“Murphy’s Paw”

Anything that can possibly be built for the Paw will be built for the Paw. It’s Austin. It’s hot here. And we LOVE our dogs. We want them inside! But we are also sick of their unsightly dog beds. Additionally, larger dogs with larger beds can take up a lot of space.

The idea for “Murphy’s Paw” was born out of the desire to keep our large four legged friends in the house, en vogue. This dog bed can be stowed away in elegant modern style. We have also included a fold away storage area for doggy toys and treats.

This is a truly urban form of Barkitecture, its Murphy’s Paw!  Please stop by and see us this Saturday!  Additional details about the event can be found here.

Update: Our Murphy’s Paw project won ‘Best Urban Dwelling’ at the Barkitecture show!  Also based on the excellent feedback we received we’ve decided to sell this design as a furniture peice; see more at on Etsy or at  Murphy’s Paw Design

“No that tree is my sister!” – The Life of a House

The story goes something like this:  At one of our construction sites for a historic renovation and addition two siblings came to the site.  They told one of the construction workers on the site that they came to see their trees that were themselves.  “So this tree is you?” asked the construction worker. “No that tree is my sister. I’m that tree.”  The woman pointed to another 28″ herritage pecan tree on the site. Their parents had planted a tree for each of them at the time of their births some sixty plus years earlier. Their house was still there though years of rental tenants had left the cottage in ill repair, so much so that our historic renovation became close to new construction.  Their trees remained towering over the home, bringing back memories of childhood and love.

Heritage Trees on Site of a Historic Renovation and Addition in the Austin Hyde Park Neighborhood.

Our renovation adds another chapter to the story of the trees.  Our client, a photographer and avid bird watcher wanted to inhabit the trees.  We designed a roof top balcony for her tucked away from the street view, nestled up in the trees of the previous owners childhood.  Homes have many lives. Lives that evolve through time, memories become imbedded in the walls and the spaces the walls frame.

“Oh, there were empty houses and houses half-constructed where, as children, we stamped about on the bare winter-pale wood sending up clouds of sawdust into the half-formed rooms, where the wall-frames rose up like thin unfleshed arms and the roof was partly sky, summer-blue, endless as our visions of childhood and life without death. ”  

This quote by Jane Frame, Living in the Manioto was taken from the book House as a Mirror of Self by Clare Cooper Marcus.   This is one of those few books I read in college almost 20 years ago that has stayed in my thoughts.  It describes how the spaces we are raised in affect our perception of the world for the rest of our lives.  Our homes are where we feel the safest and the most love. These spaces imprint on our psyche, and inform our kinesthetic sense guiding the types of spaces we seek out for the rest of our lives.  This makes our job as architects so important, it is a privelage to work with people to imagine the spaces of their future memories.