Clarksville is one of Austin’s few truly walkable neighborhoods, with a main commercial street, schools, and public parks within nearly a square mile that meet the needs of daily living. It was here that romance blossomed between architect Michael Hsu and his now wife, Sarah, a contemporary art consultant. Soon after the couple met in 2020, she moved into a bungalow just down the road from the plot she had recently purchased, envisioning settling in the area. “It was definitely the center of gravity for our relationship,” says Michael, recalling early dates at local haunts.
At that time, he had begun designing a new house for his estate. But he welcomed Sarah’s input, consulting with her on materials and finishes. In March 2023, the couple got married and eight months later they, along with their son and their two dogs, moved into the full residence: a massive 4,300-square-foot mansion topped with a sloping roof. It’s a historic neighborhood, so we didn’t want to create something that didn’t fit in perfectly,” says the architect, referring to Clarksville’s origins as one of the earliest black communities in Texas, founded and populated by former enslaved people in 1871. But we also didn’t want to just build an ersatz traditional house.”
The lot’s existing structure, built on the site of a 1928 house, offered both a guide and foil for the ground-up residence, which was constructed on more or less the same footprint, with a uniform height. From the front, the new house appears as two parallel volumes, each topped by a curved gable that echoes the vernacular of the area. While beautiful brickwork renders the left side – dedicated to the primary suite – almost opaque, special pivoting window walls provide transparency to the living and dining areas of the right half. Beyond them, the kitchen, library, office and another bedroom exist to surround the courtyard’s pool.
