Explore The 2023 Tour Homes
Showcasing Amazing Examples of Residential Landscape Architecture
About 48 hours before Tour Day, watch your email for a printable PDF map and info packet, as well as links to a dynamic online map for easy navigation.
Travel at your own pace as you visit the homes in any order you wish between 9AM and 3PM Saturday, May 6th 9
Showcasing Amazing Examples of Residential Landscape Architecture
The clients main living area contained a wall of windows that faced out onto the backyard. Our goal was to create a beautiful extension of the home and also a place to relax and entertain outdoors. With such a large yard, we had the opportunity to fill it with many entertaining zones…pool and lounge areas, dining area, outdoor kitchen area, fire pit area, and putt putt/game area. Bringing the indoor style to the exterior spaces created a seamless transition to the outdoor oasis! Texture was important to the homeowner. Many textures were brought in to achieve a layered look. We incorporated brick, tongue and groove, shiplap, concrete and distressed tile laid in a herringbone pattern. Layers of lighting were applied thru candle lanterns, string lights, basket light, sconces, pool lighting, and fire pit flames. The end result was an inviting classic outdoor area to enjoy for years to come!
images: Jeanne Chizzonite
This backyard pond is 4′ deep and 15′ wide. Two biofalls for biological filtration, two waterfalls for additional viewing pleasure. original resident koi from Mayfield Park were rehomed in this pond, which now acts as the most coveted kid friendly play destination, rivaling even the presence of a traditional pool, sport court, and elaborate playscape!
images: Kurt Forschen
This oddly shaped backyard had a lot of retaining and a huge Critical Root Zone to contend with, so the constraints meant fitting a pool in the remaining trapezoid. The pool replaced the existing retaining wall, and we fit star jasmine vines in the small void between the pool and fence. We reduced erosion to discourage root disturbance by adding steel-retained steps that connected to the upper level. We wanted this to be barefoot friendly, soft, and permeable, so the artificial turf with a permeable base allowed for a living space with a light touch. Shade-loving plants surround the tree to encourage water percolation and add texture and color to frame the corner. The upper deck is re-clad to match the boardwalk by the pool, which are both Timbertech Azec Vintage. We screened the pool equipment with a steel horizontal flat bar.
The front was sloped and grassy, so we terraced and added steps for function and curb appeal. Plants are installed in the remaining slope and at the street in river stone beds. Circulation is encouraged at the planter by the porch.
images: Sarah Powell and Zach Casper
The unique geography of the hillside residence lot allowed for a fully collaborative design effort with the architect that resulted in a stunning home that seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor spaces. Our design solution maximizes every square foot of the uniquely wedge-shaped, sloping lot for both functionality and beauty.
By combining natural elements, clean, modern design, and ample lighting, we created simple, sophisticated and welcoming spaces that act as a visual continuation of the home’s interior. Dimensionality and visual layers were created with concrete elements, timber ceilings and steel retaining walls accented by native landscaping.
Finally, a prominent double-sided fireplace and sleek swimming pool complete the outdoor design and provide a calming space that feels entirely integrated with the home’s interior.
images: Leonid Furmansky
A hidden oasis in east Austin. On this project, our clients wanted to create a landscape project where the pool acted as a central space, and we accommodated different and unique lounging spaces.
Following the beautiful eclectic design aesthetic the client and ourselves love, we mark each space with a unique personality, taking into count, of course, the design and color scheme relate. These distinctive areas include an outdoor shower area with concrete pavers and an astroturf path leading to a custom hardwood bench and a hardwood shower. A hardwood deck that leads to a gravel custom concrete firepit and tile floating bench and connects to a textured concrete paver lounge area. All of this is accentuated with differently hand-made tile and native planting.
images: Colectivo Creative
The homeowner brought us into the project in late 2019 with the task of addressing their sloped backyard, lack of curb appeal and the overall desire to live in the space. As they tackled an interior renovation, new siding, and new paint, we designed an exterior to give them a place to relax and entertain. A single pitched cedar pergola covers the outdoor kitchen, while preserving the view to the West, .Charcoal Lueder stair treads run the entire length of the gravel patio and serve as access to the Texas Tiny pool, rolling deck, and artificial turf. A new horizontal cedar fence serves as a backdrop to the drought tolerant garden filled with Mexican mint marigold, batface cuphea, ornamental grasses, hardy herbs, and fruit trees. The dry creek bed provides as an exit point for the homes sump pump while blending with the xeric feeling to the yard. The blend of hard and soft textures is balanced throughout creating an oasis for this home on the edge of downtown.
images: Rain Lily Design and Landscaping
As with any property on a hill the fun challenges were halting erosion, directing water flow, and building spaces for the clients to sit outside and enjoy their space. Our client wanted to be able to spend a lot of time in the privacy of his backyard with his dog, bees, butterflies, and birds. He described his style as “responsible, funky, and native.”
We began by creating a small seating area surrounded by raised garden beds and sectioned it off with a limestone chop block wall that stepped down into a grass area for his dog. We terraced down another level using stacked flagstone to build a retaining wall around an extended back patio around a beautiful heritage oak. Between everything we worked in a dry creek to direct all the water running through the yard to move around the side of his house and let it filter down over boulders and down the hill in the front yard, where we extended his front porch with charcoal brick and surrounded that space with garden beds filled with grasses and flowers.
images: Danielle Dudek and Stephanie Nance
The Holmsten project is the kind of place to watch an Austin sunset with a cocktail in hand, cozied up alongside your loved ones.
Nestled just a stone’s throw away from the Mueller district with natural views of the Windsor Park landscape, ecotopes reimagined the untapped greenspace as a communal area, accessible to both the primary residence and the newly constructed accessory dwelling unit (ADU). Completed in late 2022, the project culminated in a delicate balance between assorted graveltops, the natural greens and browns of Central Texas vegetation, and the rusted patinas of hand-welded steel.
A circular gravel patio centers the design and houses a custom-designed outdoor couch, club chair, and individual seats for guests, all hand built with garapa hardwood in a mid-century aesthetic. Further along the perimeter lies a versatile graveltop counter, able to function as a bar, serving counter, charcoal cooking hub, or even a raised garden bed for succulents. An assortment of steel planters and vine-laden trellises frame the landscape, guiding the eye across river stones, rolling turf contours, and a variety of plants native to Central Texas.
images coming soon
This South Austin project involved taking a compact, heavily shaded yard and creating a comfortable, private outdoor living area that complemented a clean aesthetic in a recently constructed home. Additional considerations had us looking at ways to improve access for the client’s aging parents. The existing yard featured a multi-trunked live oak tree, minimal plantings, and an undersized builder-grade wood deck.
After consulting with the client, we proposed enlarging the wood deck, adding a welded steel raised seating area surrounded by steel planting boxes and trellises, and adding Lueders stone pathways from the gate to the deck and to the seating area. As our crew began work on the deck, we determined the existing structure lacked the quality and durability we’d have wanted to see, so the entire deck was rebuilt from scratch with new concrete footings, added joists, and new lumber to replace joists that were already showing signs of rot. An older fence separating the back yard from the side was removed, and a new fence and gate constructed – with a hog panel doggie window – that tied both yards together for more enclosed space.
Tough, shade-tolerant natives like Webberville sedge, inland seaoats, yaupon holly and turkscap were planted amidst the live oaks, and coral honeysuckle vines were interlaced into the trellises. A simple drip irrigation system was added to the boxes to help the plants get established.
images: Marc Opperman
This project was a full property landscape renovation. The homeowners were seeking an aesthetically pleasing, environmentally sensitive landscape that would complement the large custom deck, which is used both as a peaceful refuge and for some entertaining. The landscaping around the home had been largely untouched for over 20 years and had been in a state of decline in recent years, accelerated by the freeze.
The design solution in the backyard focused on expanding the idea of the peaceful refuge by installing meandering paths through diverse plantings intended to draw the user into the landscape, highlighting the presence of the large shade tree that is central to the sense of privacy and enclosure in the space, and implementing a large, calming water feature.
We also installed a custom keyhole garden with built in trellis supports and a nearby rain tank for produce gardening and irrigation.
In the front yard our focus was an update to the existing landscape to increase curb appeal and provide a sense of connection with the backyard landscape. New bed lines were defined to capture the areas that lawn would thrive, native and adapted planting were implemented along the perimeters of the landscape to draw the eye of passersby, and a new railing was added to the front porch to provide better accessibility for the homeowners.
images: coming soon
