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Split-level stunner asks $1.3M

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Modern home designed in 1960 by noted Austin architect

Front of two-story modern home with flat roof, stacked stone and paneled walls, terraced to blue front door.
4515 Balcones Drive
Courtesy of Allison Cartwright/Twist Tours

Even for Balcones Park, which is a veritable hotbed of 1950s and '60s Austin modernism, this little split-level number is a showstopper (and, at 2,762 square feet, not that little actually). It was designed and built in 1960 by Austin architect Barton Riley as his personal residence. Although Riley worked on a few local commercial projects, he is known primarily for his striking, SoCal-style residential designs.

This two-story home, clad in stone and wood, features clerestory windows, vaulted wood ceilings with exposed beams, interior stone accent walls, and a cantilevered, concrete hearth in front of the fireplace. It has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, as well as three living areas. While its essential period features and style have been preserved, the bathrooms and the kitchen—which features stainless appliances, quartz counters, and a marble backsplash—have been updated.

Its location on a lush, half-acre lot allows room for spacious front and back yards, with a shaded deck and patio in back and landscaped, trellised beds leading up to the front door as well as a balcony along the front. The home is listed by Drew Marye of the Marye Company.

Large sunken living room with white walls, partial stone wall with fireplace, clerestory windows, beamed and vaulted white ceilings, and wood floors.
Dining area in front of partial stone wall, vaulted ceiling, one wall with floor to ceiling windows, and wood floors.
Modernist kitchen with white vaulted ceiling, wood floors, medium light brown cabinets, hanging globe pendant lamps, and wood floors.
Open modernist den with stone walls, open double stairwell, and wood floors.
Modern, open bedroom with vaulted, beamed, white ceiling, three sliding glass doors, and wood floors.
Backyard of modernist house with symmetrical peak roof, three floor-to-ceiling windows, and clerestory windows across the top.