Faculty Studio Spotlight: Alterstudio
Alterstudio Partner Kevin Alter is the UTSOA Sid W. Richardson Centennial Professor of Architecture, serving as Academic Director for Architecture Programs and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs from 2001 to 2014. An accomplished faculty member and celebrated architect, Alter is one of three partners at the helm of Alterstudio, leading the firm alongside Ernesto Cragnolino (BArch 1997) and Tim Whitehill (BArch 2002). Founded in 2002, the studio includes several UTSOA graduates, including Dylan Treleven (MArch 2023), Matt Slusarek (MArch 2005), Daniel Shumaker (MArch 2011), and Will Powell (BArch 2020).
Often working with site constraints as opportunities for unique forms and building logic, Alterstudio’s residential work compliments its surroundings with high-performance details. Soaring light-filled spaces with compelling use of texture are consistent features of their portfolio as they find special meaning in thresholds between interior and exterior, creating thoughtful views and horizons framed with contemplative geometry.
Recently published for Oscar Riera Ojeda’s Masterpiece Series, the volume Highland Park profiles the Alterstudio-designed residence that was created for a client with a substantial collection of art while on a property without significant natural features in Dallas. As the book describes it: The Highland Park project “exposes how a series of expectations are created from the outset, with unanticipated spaces unfolding as the visitor is simultaneously drawn horizontally into the landscape and further into the house. Impeccably conceived and finished throughout, the building establishes both a tangible material presence and an abstract setting in which to enjoy the wonders of nature, art and social occasion.”
The studio recently won two Austin AIA Awards for the Pecan Grove and Falcon Ledge residences (marking their 17th consecutive year of winning Austin AIA Awards), a 2025 Texas Society of Architects Design Award, two 2025 RD Architecture Awards, and two Honor Awards from the Residential Architecture Design Awards in 2024. The studio was also included in the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program.
We sat down with Kevin Alter as part of the School of Architecture’s new series spotlighting our faculty’s professional practices to gain insight into the firm and the impact of teaching on his work:
Describe your practice in two sentences:
Alterstudio Architecture is a full-service architecture and design firm known for its intellect in design, inventiveness, craftsmanship, and details. The work is rooted in deep-seated virtues of architecture – generous space making, shrewd manipulation of day-lighting, and meticulous attention to detail.
Which project defines your practice’s ethos?
That’s a hard question because I believe that the studio’s ethos is, in fact, described by the sum total of all the projects – in the same way that all the members of one’s family are integral to its identity. Each building holds the qualities that we hold dear, but in differing degrees. Every project is concerned with its place in the world; with its thoughtful construction and detail; with its phenomenal experience; with light and shadow; with material identity; with its public presence; with its intimate engagement. In this regard, I could happily point to any one of our buildings to represent our office.
How does teaching inform your work and vice versa?
In my world, teaching and practice are intertwined. For sure, practice informs and guides my teaching: it grounds it in professionalism and the exigencies of the field. That said, teaching also informs my practice. The ambitiousness ubiquitous in academic conversations, and the belief that architecture is truly important permeates all our work and guides us to strive for designing buildings that will be significant contributions to society and to the field.
What words of wisdom do you have for the students entering the field?
One learns so much from the first professional experiences, and I would hope that our graduates might find a firm where they feel respected and engaged, but also one who’s ethos matches their respective interests. An architect who really enjoyed precision and exactitude, and best practices in building will enjoy the atmosphere in an office such as mine but might find his or herself frustrated at an office where a looser fit is required for flexibility, for example.
Any in-progress work that you’d like to share?
I’m happy to share any projects, but perhaps most interesting might be some of the buildings that have recently won major awards: the Pecan Grove Residence won project of the year in the 2025 RD Architecture Award; the Westview Residence won a 2025 Texas Society of Architecture Award, 2024 Austin AIA Award and is currently featured on the cover of the British magazine, enki; the City Park Residence won a 2024 RADA Award & 2024 RADA Award; and the Highland Park Residence won a 2022 National AIA Housing Award & was the subject of the 2024 book “Highland Park: Alterstudio” published by Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers.
If you’re interested in projects in design and/or construction, we are working on several really beautiful projects, but the most exotic is a house in Niseko, Japan, with a stunning view of a snow-covered mountain (and where the 3 meters of snow that remain all winter long and significant seismic conditions have played a major role in our design thinking). Alternatively, we’re working on a really interesting house in Chapel Hill, NC, adjacent to and in concert with a stunning modern house from the mid-century. It’s going to be an amazing home, related to the original but also clearly with its own identity and character.
Which place(s) in Austin hold the most meaning for you?
There are many meaningful places for me in Austin, but my immediate thoughts go to Barton Springs and the Broken Spoke, for different and curiously overlapping reasons. Both are wonderful social conditions created by their respective physical environments. Barton Springs is a natural wonder made better through humankind’s intervention, while the Broken Spoke captures a special cultural condition through its environment – and both are achieved through an unselfconscious sense of design.
What have you been reading lately?
I’ve finally decided to tackle the great Robert Caro’s (soon to be completed) five volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, and it is extraordinary. I’m through the first two 1,500-page volumes and hope to get through the last ones by the end of the summer.
What music is on in your studio?
We are all listening to different things, I suspect, but Dylan is always a touchstone for me, personally.
Photography courtesy of Casey Dunn.
