ResidentialAdaptive Reuse

Choquette House

A residential renovation with a faceted addition for a working photographer

Type: Residential / Renovation + Photo Studio Addition
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: [Size — drop in]
Year: 2018
Status: Built

The Choquette House is the renovation of an existing mid-century ranch combined with a new addition — a faceted grey-clad photo studio at the rear of the lot. The strategy is a single architectural decision: keep the front of the house reading as the neighborly mid-century building it has always been, and concentrate every move of architectural ambition where the program asked for it — the working photo studio at the back. The result is two buildings reading as one project: a quiet street face, a striking studio elevation, and a sequence of interior rooms that pulls a visitor through the transition. The project was published on ArchDaily as 'Photographer's Studio' and received the 2019 AIA Austin Design Award.

Daytime view of the front of the Choquette House from the street, showing a single-story mid-century ranch in pale-blue painted brick with a dark roof, garage, simple front door, and modest landscape — the original house essentially unchanged from the curb — Front street face — the existing mid-century ranch, kept reading as the neighbor it has always been. Photo: Craig Washburn

Wide rear elevation at dusk, showing the faceted grey cementitious-panel volume above the glass-walled ground floor, the studio's clerestory windows lit from inside, and the timber porch deck below — Back elevation — the faceted volume's panel pattern reads as one continuous geometric drawing. Photo: Craig Washburn

Twilight silhouette view of the addition framed by two trees, showing the faceted dark grey volume reading as black against the deep blue sky, with warm interior light glowing from the floor-to-ceiling glass below — Twilight silhouette — the addition reads as a deliberate volume against the sky, the original house disappearing at left. Photo: Craig Washburn

Wide daylight view of the addition from the back yard, showing the faceted grey volume in full light, the original ranch's roofline visible at left, and the timber porch deck running along the glass ground-floor wall — Daylight — the panel facets read more graphically against bright sky than at dusk. Photo: Craig Washburn

Interior view from the dining area through a vertical timber screen into the den space beyond, showing pendant globe lights overhead, polished concrete floor, a wood dining table at left, and the addition's grey paneled wall in the distance — Den from the dining — the timber screen marks the threshold between the renovation and the addition. Photo: Craig Washburn

Interior view of the den looking back through the timber screen toward the dining area and original house, with floor-to-ceiling glass at right opening to the back yard, polished concrete floor, and a brick wall on the right edge of the frame — Looking back through the screen — the existing brick remains as a wall in the new room. Photo: Craig Washburn

Wide interior view of the den with a smooth grey paneled feature wall at the rear, polished concrete floor, full-height glass to the back yard at right, and the timber screen at the left edge of the frame — Den — the grey wall reads continuously inside the addition the way the panel pattern reads outside. Photo: Craig Washburn

Den corner view showing the meeting of the smooth grey wall, the timber screen, the polished concrete floor, and the door to the back hallway — Corner — the cleanest joint in the addition's interior. Photo: Craig Washburn

Tight portrait detail of the timber screen meeting the polished concrete floor, with five vertical solid timber slats standing free in the room and a thin marble threshold at their base — Screen detail — the slats are structural, not decorative. Photo: Craig Washburn

Photo studio interior with a black steel spiral stair at right rising to the loft above, polished concrete floor, full-height glass at left opening to the back yard, and the existing house visible through the glass — Studio with spiral stair — the studio is double-height, with a loft above for storage and overflow. Photo: Craig Washburn

Photo studio interior with the spiral stair on the left, a single skylight in the vaulted ceiling, polished concrete floor, white walls, and the photographer's lighting equipment — a softbox umbrella on a stand — at right — Studio with skylight — the room was sized and lit for the photography it was built to host. Photo: Craig Washburn

Studio interior detail showing the meeting of the polished concrete floor, the white wall, and a small black-framed window in the corner — Studio interior — the room is the instrument; everything else is an accommodation to it. Photo: Craig Washburn

Loft above the studio looking down through the steel spiral stair railing, with light wood plank floor, a clerestory window at right pulling daylight in, and a black metal handrail wrapping the open void — Loft — the floor above the studio is open, daylit by clerestory windows that read out as the upper band on the addition's elevation. Photo: Craig Washburn

Loft interior with clerestory windows running along the upper wall, black-framed glass admitting daylight, light wood plank floor, and white walls on three sides — Clerestory in plan — the upper band of windows daylights the loft without ever giving sight lines down to the street. Photo: Craig Washburn

Studio bathroom with white subway tile on all walls, a round mirror above a wall-mounted basin, a black shower fixture, a small black-framed window, and a bathtub at right — Studio bath — every fitting is matte black, every surface is white tile, every joint is visible. Photo: Craig Washburn

Compact laundry room with a stacked washer-dryer at right, a built-in storage closet at left, and a tiled wall above — Laundry — even the utility room got the same restraint as the rest of the project. Photo: Craig Washburn

Process: Design 5 drawings

Design-phase artifacts — sketches, massing studies, schematic boards, and the drawings that informed the building's organization.

Architectural site plan of the Choquette House showing the existing ranch footprint at the street, the new studio addition at the rear of the lot, surrounding trees, and the back yard between — Site plan — the new studio is set as far back on the lot as the building setback allows.

Architectural floor plans showing the layout of both the renovated existing house and the new addition, with the relationship between den, studio, kitchen, bedrooms, and stair clearly diagrammed — Floor plans — every room kept its existing wall where possible; the new walls are concentrated at the addition.

Architectural sections through the Choquette House showing the relationship between the renovated single-story ranch, the addition's double-height studio, and the loft above — Sections — the only addition that goes up is the studio, intentionally.

Three-dimensional axonometric of the first floor of the Choquette House, showing the relationship of the renovated house to the new studio addition with all walls and openings visible — 3D first-floor axonometric — the addition's geometry studied from above before construction.

Three-dimensional axonometric of the second floor (loft level) of the Choquette House, showing the loft above the studio and the relationship to the studio's clerestory windows — 3D second-floor axonometric — the loft as a single open room above the studio.

Client and program

The clients are a working photographer and his family, living in a mid-century ranch in central Austin that had become too small for the household and missing one essential room: a real photo studio. The brief was a renovation that would open the existing house’s interior, plus a new studio addition that could function as a working professional photo space — with the lighting, height, and circulation discipline that demands.

Site and constraint

The site is a tight residential lot with mature trees and a clear neighborhood scale. The constraints were the existing single-story footprint (worth keeping for what it gave the street), the property setback at the rear (which fixed where the addition could land), and the simple fact that the new building had to be visible from inside the existing house without dominating it from the curb.

Design move

The project is a single architectural decision applied at two scales: the existing front of the house stays unchanged, and every move of architectural ambition is concentrated at the rear. The new studio addition is a faceted grey-clad volume — cementitious panels arranged in a deliberate jigsaw pattern that reads as a single drawing on each elevation. Inside, a vertical timber screen marks the threshold between renovation and addition; a polished-concrete floor runs continuously through both. The studio itself is a double-height room, daylit by skylight and a continuous clerestory band that becomes the upper architectural band on the elevation outside.

Construction approach

Renovation sequencing for the existing house: selective interior demolition, structural review where new openings were cut, refinish where possible. The addition was built as a separate structure tied carefully back to the existing brick wall at the seam. The cementitious panels were specified for their tonal cool grey and detailed for the panel-pattern jointing that gives the elevation its read. The spiral stair in the studio is a single piece of black steel, set as far from the working studio floor as the loft above would allow.

Outcome

The Choquette House was published on ArchDaily as “Photographer’s Studio” in 2019 and received the 2019 AIA Austin Design Award. The project remains the studio’s clearest argument for residential adaptive reuse with a single bold addition: keep what the building already gave the neighborhood, and put every architectural decision into the room the client actually needed.

Credits

Client: Choquette family
Photography: Craig Washburn
Structural Engineer: [Structural Engineer of Record — drop in]
Contractor: [General Contractor — drop in]
Consultants: [MEP — drop in]

Recognition

Award · 2019

Design Award

ArchDaily · 2019

Photographer's Studio / Derrington Building Studio

Related projects

Adaptive Reuse

Crux South Congress

Climbing Center · South Congress, Austin, Texas · 2017

An East Austin metal-clad industrial building transformed into a striking new climbing center — a cantilevered glass volume reading the South Congress traffic from the corner, climbing volumes carved into the existing shell beyond.

Adaptive Reuse

Crux Central

Climbing Gym · East Austin, Texas · 2021

An East Austin warehouse renovated into the Crux network's second location — the project that proved the typology could move into existing buildings.

ResidentialAdaptive Reuse

Jesse Street House

Residential / Renovation + Addition · East Austin, Texas · 2018

A renovation and second-story addition that keeps the original concrete-block walls of an existing East Austin house exposed as the project's primary material — and adds a cedar-clad upper volume above.