Clayton Korte is an interdisciplinary architecture and interior design firm working across hospitality, wineries, ranches, houses and the adaptive reuse of buildings worth keeping.
As featured in
One team across three disciplines, working on new buildings, adaptive reuse and the interiors that give them life.
New buildings shaped by their site, climate and story.
Interiors developed alongside the architecture, not after it.
The narrative, graphics and moments that make a place memorable.
Giving buildings worth keeping a second, longer life.
Hotels, bars and dining rooms built to be returned to.
Production buildings, tasting rooms and barns that earn their keep.
What began as a small architecture practice in 1983 is now an interdisciplinary firm of more than forty architects, interior designers and creatives working from studios in Austin and San Antonio. Our Texas roots run deep, but hospitality, winery, ranch and residential work regularly takes us far beyond the Lone Star State.
We draw no bright line between where architecture stops and interior design starts. Our architects and designers work with the same tools — sketches, drawings, models — so the intent behind a building and the life inside it cohere. There is no signature Clayton Korte style; every project is a one-off, shaped by its context and its client.
Principals
Wine caves and winery barns, historic stables and culinary markets, hotels, houses and public parks — a portfolio with no house style, only a shared spirit.
A stealth wine cellar and lounge inserted into an excavated limestone hillside, all but invisible in the landscape.
A boutique hotel woven through four historic Fredericksburg buildings at the centre of the town's Golden Blocks.
The Pearl Brewery's 1894 horse stable, restored into one of San Antonio's finest small music venues.
Two abandoned Texaco warehouses in East Austin, reborn as a morning-to-night coffee bar, taqueria and garden.
Remnants of buildings, landscape and other natural features are a record of time. We approach every project knowing our work will contribute indelibly to that record.
Projects share a spirit — detailed, authentic, inspirational — but each one is a one-off, never to be duplicated.
From the plaster on the walls to the proportion of the furniture, every detail contributes to a single experience.
Honest, regional materials — limestone, weathering steel, white oak — chosen to patina rather than date.
The best work partners with its setting: quiet, stewarding the place it is in, carrying its own beauty.
0+
Awards for design excellence
0+
Architects, designers & creatives
0
Studios: Austin & San Antonio
0
Practicing since
Arriving at original, tailored solutions takes time. Realizing them takes close collaboration with visionary clients, engineers, craftspeople and builders.
We start with the site and the story already there — topography, structure, remnants, climate, and what the client actually needs.
Ideas are tested by hand and in model. We push design conversations forward until the concept holds up from every angle.
Materials, joints, light and proportion are resolved together with our engineers and interior designers, drawing by drawing.
We stay close through construction, working alongside builders and artisans so what gets made is what was drawn.
The Pearl Brewery's 1894 horse stable became a corral, a nightclub, then a storeroom. Drag the slider to see the restoration that turned it into San Antonio's newest music venue.
After Before 
After Before 
“Thoughtful project that incorporates solar, rainwater capture, and material re-use.”
AIA California
2023 Design Awards Jury — Saxum Vineyard Equipment Barn, Merit Award
“Clayton Korte creates “familiar yet exclusive” winery buildings in California.”
Dezeen
June 2024 — Fulldraw Winery
“Buildings can partner with a beautiful setting, remaining subservient and quiet, while carrying their own beauty as stewards of the place they are in.”
Brian Korte, FAIA
Principal — on the Hill Country Wine Cave
“A San Antonio market pairs sustainable agriculture with biophilic design.”
Metropolis Magazine
May 2025 — Pullman Market
“Designed not to call attention to itself and eventually to be cloaked entirely in ivy, the restaurant is meant to be a backdrop to the garden and the events held within.”
Paul Clayton, AIA
Principal — on Lutie's at the Commodore Perry Estate
“5 stylish hotels for city lovers.”
The New York Times
January 2026 — The Inn at Green Pastures
House of the Year, Silver — Vineyard Residence, California
WAN Awards
People + Places Award, Architectural Interiors — Yuki Aspen
AIA San Antonio
Best Projects, Office/Retail/Mixed Use — Pullman Market
ENR Texas & Louisiana
Winner, Small Projects — Hill Country Wine Cave
Architecture MasterPrize
Small Project Award — Kingsbury Commons at Pease Park
AIA National
Small Project Award — Hill Country Wine Cave
AIA National
The American Architecture Award — Kingsbury Commons
The Chicago Athenaeum
Small Project Award — Saxum Vineyard Equipment Barn
AIA National
Paul Clayton
AIA, LEED AP — Principal
Brian Korte
FAIA — Principal
Kristen Brown
AIA, RID — Partner
Wendy Smith
Interiors Practice Lead
Nathan Quiring
AIA — Director
George Wilcox
AIA — Director
We are an interdisciplinary firm offering architecture, interior design and experience design. Our work spans hospitality and restaurants, wineries, ranches, houses, mixed-use developments and public space — much of it involving the adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
We work from two Texas studios: Austin, in the renovated 1964 Balcones Building at 2201 N. Lamar Boulevard overlooking Pease Park; and San Antonio, in the Green Gate Building at 429 N. St. Mary's Street on the Riverwalk. We describe it as one office with two doors.
Yes. Though our Texas roots run deep, hospitality, winery, ranch and residential projects regularly take us elsewhere — including California's Central Coast, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland and Hawaii.
We do. Some firms draw a bright line where architecture stops and interior design begins; we take a more fluid approach. Our interior designers can provide full service, or work alongside an interior designer the client brings to the project.
No. Our projects share a design spirit — detailed, inspirational, authentic — but each is unique, a one-off never again to be duplicated. Our clients and their preferences stay at the centre of the process.
Reach out to Nathan Quiring, AIA, Director of Business Development, at nathan@claytonkorte.com, or call the Austin studio at (512) 477-1727. For interiors-focused inquiries, contact Wendy Smith, our Interiors Practice Lead, at wendy@claytonkorte.com.
We are always looking for talented, motivated people. Send a resume, cover letter and work sample (maximum 10 MB) to careers@claytonkorte.com — please, no calls. Summer internships at both studios are filled in March, with submissions due by the end of February.
Yuki Aspen, Pullman Market and the Alma Rosa Vineyard Barn were all recognised in the 2026 AIA San Antonio awards.
The Inn at Green Pastures joins a New York Times shortlist of city hotels worth planning a trip around.
Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers releases a single-building edition tracing the evolution of the wine cave.
Whether you would like to work with us as a client or a designer, or simply want to say hello, we would love to hear from you.
