Our judges called The Roost “a beautiful pavilion.” Located at the bend of a tributary of Lake Austin, it replaces a moldering boathouse that contained an illegal apartment. The waterway, which is often stagnant, swells during periodic downpours and floods its banks, along with anything else nearby, until the Lake Austin dam is opened. Stormwater sweeps debris along its path, depositing a good deal of it right at this bend. The clients came to Furman + Keil for a replacement structure that would remediate the natural water flow issues and provide them with an elevated platform for lounging and birdwatching.
As a protected wetlands, the construction challenges onsite were myriad. “We had to bring everything in on a 15-foot flat bottom boat, and the demo material had to go out that way as well,” says principal Troy Miller. The team salvaged most of the existing steel piles and lifted the new structure above the flood plain. A storage shed below is “designed to flood” because, says Troy, “that’s unavoidable.”
Part screened porch and part aerie, The Roost has lived up to its name, attracting owls who hunt along the waterway. Everyone, it seems, enjoys the shelter it now provides from the hot Texas sun. “Shade is such a privilege here sometimes,” Troy notes. “That’s what the project was doing—creating shade without being closed off to the environment around it.”
Citation
Custom Outdoor Living Design
Furman + Keil
The Roost
Austin, Texas
Project Credits
Architect: Troy Miller; Phillip Keil; Gary Furman; Maanasa Nathan; Dawson Williams, Furman + Keil, Austin, Texas
Builder: Crowell Builders, Austin
Landscape Architect: Word + Carr Design Group, Austin
Lighting Design: Studio Lumina, Austin
Project Size: 880 square feet
Site Size: 0.80 acre
Construction Cost: Withheld
Photography: Leonid Furmansky
Key Products
Ceiling Fans: Modern Fan. Co.
Cladding/Decking: Ipe
Flooring/Roofing: Douglas fir
Door Hardware: Baldwin
Lighting Control: Lutron
Paints/Stains: Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams
Pavers: Lueders limestone
Refrigerator: Summit