Lakefront oasis asks $1.5M

Classic 1980 design by noted architect Alan Taniguchi

By Cindy Widner@CurbedAustin Jan 15, 2019, 3:03pm CST

Balcony of home overlooking river and Hill Country — 3409 Far View Drive

Overlooking Lake Austin from a private, two-acre lot, this towering contemporary was built in 1980, but its design pulls from classic modernism in its simple lines and materials, incorporation of its natural surroundings, and emphasis on indoor-outdoor living. That the style now seems almost classic is due in part to how expertly incorporated it is into the Hill Country landscape. Not entirely surprising, given that its architect was the late Alan Taniguchi.

Taniguchi, whose family was interned in a Texas camp during World War II, was a former dean of the UT School of Architecture whose private firm designed buildings all over the world and developed the original Town (now Lady Bird) Lake Master Plan. According to Texas Monthly’s Jan Jarboe Russell, Taniguchi garnered some local fame for publicly backing a student protest against the removal of several trees on Waller Creek to make room for a football-stadium expansion on the UT campus.

It was 1969: There was a sit-in, there were arrests, and the trees ultimately came down. But Taniguchi’s tree-hugging proclivities live on in this home where, in a bit of a twist, the trees seem to hug the house.