River Road Reorganizes a Ranch Home for Easy Flow and Southern Light
River Road is a house in Austin, United States, by Furman + Keil Architects. The commission rethinks a remodeled 1954 ranch, restoring order with a clear plan and daylight. Across two levels, the team keeps much of the structure intact and threads new rooms with a warm material palette, shaping contemporary places for daily living and relaxed gatherings with friends.
Morning light slides across honed limestone and white oak, leading the eye inward from the entry. The house opens patiently, its rooms revealing a steady sequence from street to pool and southern views.
This is a house, remade in plan, in central west Austin. Furman + Keil Architects keep the 1954 ranch largely intact, stack a second floor over the existing garage, and use circulation to restore cohesion. The story centers on how rooms connect, where people gather, and how movement ties public life to private retreat.
Recentering the House
At the core sits a central kitchen, treated as the social hub. Paths from entry, dining, living, and porch meet here, making the daily loop intuitive and quick to read for guests and family. Public rooms align around it so conversation, cooking, and lingering can overlap without confusion, while doors and short halls peel away toward quieter quarters. The plan reads as a clear figure, not a maze.
Link Front To Rear
A continuous wood ceiling plane stitches the approach together. Lower ceilings shape intimate zones near the street, then lift toward the back where taller volumes pull the eye out to the yard, pool, and long southern views. That single datum makes the move legible—front to rear, close to open—so orientation never wavers. The existing structure stays in play, with the new second floor stacked over the garage to hold budget and simplify circulation.
Carve Social Groupings
Daily life runs on small, distinct moments. Conversation, TV, music, and games each find a place—near enough for company, set apart enough to keep noise from bleeding across rooms. Seating pockets and media zones sit on the main path but don’t block it, letting movement slip by as gatherings expand or shrink. The result is easy to use on a Tuesday and lively when friends drop in.
Open To Breeze And Light
A screened porch swings the plan outward. Doors slide to invite breezes climbing the hill, cooling the house naturally and drawing family life to the edge between indoors and yard. Steel and white oak screens mark thresholds at the dining room, entry, and stair, filtering light into the interior while signaling turns in the route. Diffused daylight from the tree canopy softens edges and steadies the mood throughout the day.
Anchor The Sequence
Material edits reinforce the choreography. White oak millwork and honed limestone define the core so movement always has a landmark, while porches and limestone walls hold the ground around the perimeter. Views toward Taylor Slough punctuate the walk, small pauses that connect errands to landscape. Even the custom rhythm of Hardie siding records shadow and time, a quiet backdrop to coming and going.
By dusk, the route home is second nature. Ceilings step, light cools, and the house settles into distinct rooms without losing its through-line. The plan does the daily work, and it does it with ease.
Photography courtesy of Furman + Keil Architects
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