There is an old saying: a ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Homes, however, are. Built not just to weather storms, but to provide calm.
Perhaps that’s why, some 50 years ago, the owners of a three-acre parcel on Lake Austin’s western shore set down their sails and built instead. What rose was an 8,300-square-foot lakefront residence shaped with patience and precision, a three-year undertaking that resulted in one of the most singular homes in the Texas capital. Now, for the first time since completion, the property comes to market and invites its next steward.
A short drive from downtown, the home set into West Austin’s sculpted terrain is both lakefront and hillside. “Austin’s standouts win on a stylish design, impressive size or a hillside or waterfront setting,” says Amy Deane of Moreland Properties, who holds the listing. “This property brings all of those elements together.”
Although anchored on these sloping shores, its design intentionally follows the wake of its owners’ nautical past. From the water, a glossy redwood profile recalls the hull of a ship. The structure pushes forward in measured cantilevers that appear to float over the landscape’s slope. Continuing inside, shiplap boards line walls, cabinets and ceilings in a warm sequence of cypress, walnut and redwood.
Neighbors affectionately call it the “yacht wrapped around the hills.” A charming descriptor, if a touch misleading. The building does not engulf the site. Instead, it yields to it. An asymmetrical design traces the contours of the hillside. Stone piers and walls break through the woodwork in deliberate intervals, as if the earth itself were surfacing inside the rooms.
It nods to Frank Lloyd Wright’s call for a house to be “of the hill.” The celebrated architect’s principles manifest here beyond mere theory. Strong horizontal lines ground the composition. Built-in elements define space without clutter. Stained glass catches and sifts Texas light.
Despite being rooted in mid-century ideas, the plan anticipates 21st-century tastes with ease, including oversized windows, an emphasis on organic materials and a free-flowing progression between semi-closed rooms. Such foresight left little to update as preferences evolved. The home has remained faithful to its original concept, avoiding the kind of heavy renovation that can loosen a building’s logic.
“Even though it dates to the 1970s, the house reads contemporary,” Deane notes. “It’s impeccably maintained, and with a few minor updates to the amenities, you get a home catered to modern life that still has that irreplaceable midcentury charm.” The lone late addition, a modern gym, sits apart from the house, perched high above the lake.
Downslope, the property meets the water with intention. Over 550 feet of shoreline and a two-slip dock mean the home’s nautical leanings needn’t be purely theoretical. An intimate boathouse sits close to the water, doubling as a guesthouse when needed.
The grounds, on the other hand, are a study in the more verdant benefits of life ashore. A gated entrance gives way to gardens stepped into the slope. A gardener’s greenhouse, once tended by the home’s matron, became a quiet engine for color and care. Over five decades, it produced tulips by the thousands, orchids in careful rotation and other species cultivated with the kind of patience that only a long stewardship can produce.
Moreland Properties is a member of Forbes Global Properties, an invitation-only network of top-tier independent brokerages worldwide and the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
