Four Seasons Penthouse: Two units combined into a 5,400-square-foot Austin home
Condominium renovationAustin, TexasA Manhattan couple relocated to Austin and combined two units at the Four Seasons Residences Austin into a single 5,400-square-foot home. Cravotta Interiors worked with architect David Webber of Webber + Studio on a residence built from decisions that reward close attention.
The brief
They had come from a beautiful New York apartment. They wanted something uniquely theirs: glamorous without apology, and clearly the home of people with serious aesthetic conviction. “I want a home that inspires people to write big checks,” the client told Mark Cravotta. His answer: I love to dream big on behalf of my clients.
Scope
Combination of two units into one. Webber + Studio designed a series of partial walls that separate spaces while keeping them open. Cravotta Interiors designed the finishes, floors, ceilings, wall treatments, lighting and furnishings.
The design
The entry wall is fire-engine red hand-sculpted tile by Natalie Blake Studio.
The floors are hand-scraped oak in a chateau pattern, with the interlocking border set one-sixteenth of an inch higher than the square centers. The partial walls are clad in French walnut commissioned from a furniture maker. The ceilings in the entry, living and dining rooms are hand-painted silk, with the texture of travertine and the warmth of something alive.
In the dining room hangs a seven-foot Murano glass chandelier, all 480 pieces, recovered from a demolished hotel in Venice.
The central corridor is lined with a mosaic leather wall ninety linear feet long and nine feet tall. It’s bridle leather in six thicknesses and five widths, fabricated by Mark Cravotta’s father with a precision that still astonishes.
- Collaborators
- Architect: Webber + Studio (David Webber).
- Materials and makers
- Natalie Blake Studio (entry tile). French walnut wall cladding by a commissioned furniture maker. Leather mosaic wall fabricated by Mark Cravotta’s father. Hand-painted silk ceilings.
- Press
- The Wall Street Journal, 1stDibs Introspective, Austin Home.