The Kinney Residence has been selected as a 2023 American Institute of Architects Austin Home Tour Project.

The Kinney Residence is a custom single-family residence in the Zilker neighborhood of Austin, Texas.  The site is a deep, narrow flag lot that backs to a dramatic ravine view.  The physical site constraints coupled with building envelope limitations, mature oak and elm trees, and an easement crossing the site at a peculiar angle, created a challenging site context.

From our earliest sketches, we were intrigued by the weathered limestone and its layered strata found in the ravine and creek bed. The phenomenal east and south facing views into the ravine at the rear of the site, led us to develop a series of alternatives based on the idea of maximizing visual connections from interior spaces to the opposite wall of the ravine and its layered limestone.  This visual relationship was respected as a critical and unique opportunity to establish a dialogue between the residence and its natural surrounds in an otherwise dense urban fabric.  Form, materiality, space organization, and physical relationships between the interior and exterior are central to the varying experiences as one moves through the upper main level and down into the lower level towards the ravine.