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From the street, Dan and Sylvia Sharplin’s home looks like a freshly painted and landscaped 1915 cottage overlooking the growing modern downtown area.
Located in the Castle Hill Local Historic District west of Lamar Boulevard and part of the West Line National Historic Register District in Old West Austin Rungs.
Behind this carefully preserved facade, however, hides a spacious modern home with all the comforts of the 21st century. The home is on this year’s AIA Austin Homes Tour put together by the Austin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
This year the tour includes nine houses, all of which can be visited virtually and three in person. Designed by LaRue Architecture and built by Foursquare Builders, this home is one of the three available to visit in person.
Perfect property, not a house
The Sharplins found this property in 2016. Sylvia is now a real estate agent and Dan is the Executive Chairman of FlashParking. They wanted to move from the suburbs to a nearby lot, but finding an available lot or a house that had space for renovation was a challenge. They found this property and were sold on the prospect.
“There is no other property like this in this area that offers such a view,” says Sylvia Sharplin.
It wasn’t for sale, but they caught up with the owner, a woman in her 80s who grew up in the house and lived there for more than 50 years.
They talked to her about her love for home and her desire to give it a new life. They saw themselves as administrators of this property. They would need to preserve the front facade as required due to the home’s inclusion in the Castle Hill Local Historic District.
The Sharplins had never been inside when the owner agreed to have the house bought, and they gave her time to gradually move while they worked with architect Jim LaRue for a year on the blueprint for the house.
The previous owner left behind treasures with the house: around 300 life magazines from the 50s and 60s, an original carved mantelpiece and a chandelier, both of which were originally located in the Driskill Hotel. The Sharplins had the covers of the magazines scanned and printed their favorites on glass, which now hang as art on a wall next to a staircase.
The mantelpiece was reconfigured and became the vanity unit for the wash basin in the guest toilet. The chandelier has been tidied up and downsized to become an eye-catching light fixture in this guest toilet.
There were also surprises inside: the original side walls, wooden floors and the original timber showed considerable damage, including from fire and water. The Sharplins rescued what they could from floors and walls and sold them to a company that specializes in recovering materials. They saved the front windows, but the rest of the house could not be saved and had to be rebuilt.
Inside, they also discovered that the house had some poorly executed additions, including a finished attic room. They wanted their own additions to the original footprint to feel like they were flowing from the main entrance – which itself is very reminiscent of the 1915 era – into the 21st century space that opens up from the foyer.
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From old to modern
When people look up at the house from Lamar Boulevard, they see the side profile of a modern glass and steel house. However, this can often be confusing because when someone then arrives on their street and sees a simple facade of a house, they cannot figure out where the modern home belongs. I moved this graphic up / EW
Once you’ve found it and entered the foyer, you’ll find a nod to the original home, with a recreated look of curved walls painted a bright blue.
The foyer is also deceptive. People will ask the Sharplins, where are the rooms they saw from the street? The walls hide two doors that match the wooden walls on either side of the room. One leads to an office, the other to a guest room with full bathroom. Both rooms have one of the house’s original ornate windows overlooking the street.
As soon as guests leave this area, the modern home opens with Texas mesquite floors; a large wall of glass doors and windows in the living room that overlooks the city; a modern kitchen; and a door to a second guest room. Both guest bathrooms have terrazzo floors and counters.
The glass doors in the living room can be opened fully to create an indoor / outdoor living area with a terrace and pool. “We sit out here a lot,” says Sylvia Sharplin.
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The Sharplins look down on a busy Lamar, and people can look up and see their house but not see inside.
“It’s amazing how much privacy we have,” says Sylvia Sharplin.
“When you consider that we are sitting in the middle of the city,” says LaRue of the house.
Although the home is now nearly 4,000 square feet, it’s still “the right size for the neighborhood,” says LaRue.
“We built this house as if it belonged here,” he says.
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A place for details
For the interiors, the Sharplins chose a clear palette of cream-colored walls and gray accents in tiles or cupboards as a blank slate so as not to compete with the cityscapes. The living room has a gray stone fireplace that is sleek and low on one wall. The lines of the fireplace are reflected in the cabinets in the kitchen across from the living area of this open floor plan.
In each room, the Sharplins selected interesting lighting fixtures that will become characteristic works of art. In the kitchen, they also chose rows of different colored tiles to create a pop in the backsplash and under the island.
They also piqued interest in a wine rack wall that blocks the view of the stairs that lead to the lower level. On the other side of the wine rack and visible through its mounts is the wall with the covers of the life magazines.
The Sharplins often entertain. In addition to the kitchen, they have created a butler sideboard with all appliances and plenty of storage space, which also leads to the laundry room.
LaRue was very aware that he didn’t want to look straight into a bedroom from the entrance to a long hallway. Instead, he created a wall after the kitchen that blocks this long view. The hallway leads to the master suite.
Outside the suite, LaRue designed a special vestibule for a grandfather clock that was a wedding present for the couple.
The master suite has two full walls of windows that offer the best views in the house. A gray wall treatment on the wall behind the headboard and gray window treatments that completely envelop the windows create the feeling of a luxurious cocoon when closed.
The master bathroom has stone floors, yellow onyx walls, and marble counters.
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The right house for a long time
At every step, when a decision had to be made, the Sharplins returned to their mantra: “Let’s build the best house we can,” says Sylvia Sharplin.
They also built it so that they could live in and adapt to it for a long time. The house is two stories with a lower level that has a garage, bedroom and exercise room. They designed the home to age locally or to take care of an aging relative. The lower bedroom can be used as a room for the home help. An elevator can take them from the garage to the main level without using stairs. Flush thresholds, parquet floors and wide doors make it accessible with a wheelchair or rollator.
Since the house is built into the hill, it is a technical masterpiece of hidden structure. One point where the structure becomes visible is in the wall of the lower patio next to the exercise room, where the concrete came out so well that LaRue chose not to hide it.
It took time to reach the structure and level of detail of this house. It was completed in February 2020.
“We decided what we wanted,” says Sylvia Sharplin. “We got everything we wanted. I love this house.”
AIA Austin Homes Tour
Nine houses are on the tour, but only three can be viewed in person.
Personal guidance: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 16
Virtual tours through all nine houses: Different times October 15th and 17th
Tickets: $ 25 virtual only, $ 50 virtual plus in person
Information: aiaaustinhomestour.com
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