Proper Terrace Penthouse: A downtown Austin residence rebuilt from the studs
Condominium renovationAustin, TexasPublished Updated
Proper Terrace Penthouse is a private residence at the Austin Proper, the downtown high-rise above the Proper Hotel. It was taken down to the studs and rebuilt, with every surface and piece of millwork designed for this space.
The brief
The clients were trading a larger home on a wooded lot for downtown Austin. They worried a high-rise would feel clinical, impersonal and sterile, the way new construction often does. Those concerns became the brief: a downtown residence that feels like it has always been lived in.
Scope
Full rebuild of the residence. Cravotta designed the custom furniture and rugs and managed fabrication end to end through the best shop for each piece.
The design
The kitchen is finished in black tile, precise and low-contrast until the light shifts, then quietly dramatic.
Custom shelving along one wall is built from perforated steel and colored glass panes. It filters the view without giving up the light, and it works as both storage and sculpture.
Every architectural detail and furnishing was made by hand, by people who understood what they were making. The result feels like it has always been lived in, which is the hardest thing to achieve in a space that didn’t exist before.
- Collaborators
- Architect: Sanders Architecture. Photography: Ryann Ford. Styling: Adam Fortner.
- Materials and makers
- Custom furniture and rugs designed by Cravotta Interiors.