Why We Submitted a “Humble” House to the Homes Tour

If you drive past the North Hills Residence, there is a good chance you will not even notice it. It sits across the street from a school, in a normal neighborhood, next to houses that look a lot like it. That is exactly why we wanted it on this year’s Austin Homes Tour.

A house that looks like a house

A lot of what people expect to see on an architecture tour are the big, dramatic projects. Large budgets, striking silhouettes, the kind of home that photographs like a piece of art before anyone even opens the front door. We have built projects like that, and we are proud of them. But this year, we wanted to submit something different.

North Hills Residence started life as a fairly ordinary ranch home. Our clients did not come to us wanting to make a statement to the street. They wanted a house that worked for their family, that felt calm and connected to the outdoors, and that did not disrupt the character of the neighborhood they already loved.

I think that is exactly the kind of project that deserves a spot on a tour like this. Architecture does not have to be extravagant to be excellent. Sometimes the more interesting design problem is the quiet one: how do you take a completely normal house and make it exceptional without making it loud?

The surprise on the inside

The neighbors have told us how much they appreciate that the home did not disturb the streetscape. One woman who lives nearby actually went out of her way to thank the homeowners for keeping the remodel in step with the neighborhood, rather than tearing the house down and putting up something that looked out of place. That mattered to us. We were not trying to hide what we built. We just did not think a family home needed to shout to be worth admiring.

But walk through the front door, and the reaction changes. The homeowner told us that people stop and take photos of the house all the time, and that when guests walk in for the first time, the first word out of their mouth is usually just, “Wow.” Floor to ceiling windows open the main living space up to the backyard and let in an enormous amount of natural light, while still feeling completely private from the street.

Upstairs, the house almost feels like a treehouse, surrounded by green, filled with light, but still tucked quietly into its site. It is a house that gives away very little about itself until you are standing inside it.

That contrast, quiet from the street, dramatic once you are inside, is really the whole idea behind this project.

Restraint as a design decision

People sometimes assume that a humble house means a house with fewer decisions behind it. In our experience, it is often the opposite. Getting the proportions of the roofline and overhangs right on this project took countless rounds of back and forth between our team and the clients. Every detail, down to how a window is cased or how a stair railing lines up, had to be considered carefully, because there was nowhere for a design to hide behind a big, showy gesture. When a house is this quiet, every choice has to earn its place.

Those overhangs are not just a visual decision either. They are doing real work. The homeowner has mentioned more than once how surprised she is that the house stays comfortable without running the air conditioning constantly, even with all that glass. That is regional design doing what it is supposed to do: responding to our climate instead of fighting it.

The homeowner put it simply when she talked about what she wanted going into the project: a space that felt organized, calm, and connected to the outdoors, without anything unnecessary or out of place. She told us that everything in the house just works, that there is nothing superfluous, nothing left over or tacked on. That is about as clear a description of good functional design as I have ever heard, and it came from the person who actually lives there.

Why it belongs on the tour

The Austin Homes Tour does not exist just to showcase the most extravagant homes in the city. Every year, the jurors put together a mix, some larger and more dramatic projects alongside homes that are more grounded and relatable. I think that mix is part of what makes the tour so good. Not everyone walking through these homes is shopping for an architect to build them a mansion. A lot of people are simply looking for proof that thoughtful, well-designed architecture is possible for a real family, on a real lot, in a real neighborhood.

That is what North Hills Drive represents. It is a normal home that happens to be extraordinary once you are standing inside it, and I think that is exactly the kind of story worth telling on a tour like this.

Come see it yourself

North Hills Residence will be open as part of the 2026 AIA Austin Homes Tour, October 24-25. You can read more about the North Hills Residence on our website, or get your tickets at Eventbrite.