Urban

Viewed from the street, the triplex’s brick wall and raised porch echo its neighbors’ visual cues. Its dark grey, Extira-clad upper level and bay window, however, hint at the expansive spaces that lie within. Full-height windows allow light to stream in on all three levels.

Karen White, David MacNaughtan, and their sons, Griffin and Finlay, hang out on the front deck, which lines up next to the neighbors' porch.

Tasked with transforming a 93-square-foot brick boiler room into a guesthouse, architect and metalworker Christi Azevedo flexed her creative muscle. The architect spent a year and a half designing and fabricating nearly everything in the structure save for the original brick walls. "I treated the interior like a custom piece of furniture," she says.

A blue book case adds a bit of color to the bright interior. Buyers of the Tilley row houses were able to customize the interior finishes including native Texas pecan flooring.

These non-obvious gifts are perfect for even the hardest-to-shop-for guys.

Fekete and de Loera at work in their new space.

The facade was outfitted with a commercial-grade storefront window.

T, The New York Times Style Magazine. Photo by Bruce Damonte.

The building’s exterior includes a 3-D mural of Cesar Chavez conceptualized by Perez’s son, Adrian.

Much of the charm of this small, affordable space is its sense of careful clutter. The stereo, LPs, and CDs only add to the sense that this flat was designed for living, not as some airless showpiece.

The vestibule is painted in Benjamin Moore’s coral-hued Hot Spice and covered in a Cuban-inspired floral wallpaper by fashion designer Matthew Williamson for Osborne & Little.

Brandon and Amy set up different workstations in the living area.

A band of precast concrete, which holds a custom bench, wraps around the downstairs living area. The striped cushion fabric was purchased in Antwerp. A wood-framed AP71 lounge chair by Hans Wegner and a seat by Wim Rietveld, the son of famed Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld, outfit the space. Underfloor heating installed throughout the house allows for a flexible layout: “There aren’t any radiators cluttering up the rooms,” Jeffries explains.

The structure boasts a roof garden replete with turbines and solar panels, as well as fifteen geothermal wells sunk underground.