How Moontower Design & Build is crafting dream homes and embracing sustainable practices
Moontower Design & Build (Moontower) is a custom home builder offering new construction, remodels, interior design, and general contracting services throughout Austin, Texas. With a dedicated team of licensed architects, builders, landscape specialists, and designers, Moontower brings clients’ visions to life with careful consideration from start to finish.
“Moontower was established around 15 years ago by me and two other co-founders, Jeff Munoz and Greg Esparza, as a design-build company,” opens CEO and Co-founder, Frank Farkash. “We always hoped to take on some development work at some point, but with significant homeowner demand, custom work and remodels have always been our core business. We started off with small remodeling projects, which gradually evolved into remodels of entire homes and later to new construction. 
“Our key differentiator is that we’re a turnkey design and build resource with an abundance of in-house expertise. We’re a single source for the homeowner throughout the course of their project; in the early days we would often allocate one ‘renaissance’ project manager/designer to each project, meaning clients can manage the design, interiors, pricing, and construction itself with just one person.
“This concept has changed as we’ve grown, as we’ve started to create individual specialists within the team,” he explains. “However, our roots remain, and we’re still a single source, turnkey provider with award-winning architecture, construction, and interior design services all under one roof. Building a home is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and we strive to build trust with our clients throughout the process, taking time to understand their family dynamic and lifestyle.”
As the business has grown, Austin’s real estate market has also evolved. “Austin is a city that’s experienced a lot of change, and it has been interesting to watch the area grow as we’ve upgraded or totally refreshed houses in existing neighborhoods,” Frank shares. “Several big tech companies have a presence here, which has driven growth in terms of both the economy and the population. There’s continuous pressure on existing houses in central Austin to change and evolve with the times, but the average home size in the 1950s was so much smaller than the needs of an American family living in the 2020s.”
“However, the lot sizes are relatively small, and we’re often tasked with remodeling an 800-square-foot, two-bedroom house into a three, four, or five bedroom property, which is a major task. Our city’s buildings leave a record, we call them ‘growth rings’ to reflect the changing nature of styles and building methods. The phrase reflects the rings of a tree, as we believe Austin has similar patterns. In the center of town, there are the oldest buildings made from stone, then there’s the next layer of growth, which was wooden structures and cedar posts for foundations. We also have homes from the post-war growth, so lots of concrete foundations with wooden frames and aluminum windows.”
Key projects
Frank then turns his attention to some of the company’s favorite projects. “Highland Ranch Mid-Century is a great example of a project in one of Austin’s growth rings,” he elaborates. “The home was originally built in the 1950s on a concrete foundation with large windows and a low sloped roof, but we were invited to help the owners reimagine how to expand the property.
“The owners, who are avid gardeners, originally wanted to add a two-story extension to preserve as much landscape as possible. We went through the pros and cons of this approach, including the aesthetics of a low slope, mid-century home, and we then proposed another idea. We suggested adding a narrow single-story extension to bisect the garden, offering both visual and physical access to the outdoors from any point in the house.
“By adding this, we created a primary suite surrounded by their landscape, and it also contained a utility room with dedicated laundry space and enough room for a second air conditioning unit to enable the entire addition to be heated and cooled independently from the main house. With the previous living room acting as both an entryway and the only social space, we also redesigned the layout to create a separate living space to offer more privacy and functional comfort.
“The result was spectacular, taking a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property with extra living space,” Frank adds. “Although this option used more of the outdoor space, the owners ended up with three separate gardens, one of which is adjacent to the kitchen and serves as an outdoor entertainment space with a grill and dining table. The entire house is designed around the landscape and the views, and there’s always something outside to catch your eye.”
Another key project was led by one of its co-founders, Greg, and a sister company, Cross Cabin Build & Supply, which specializes in sustainable, low-carbon, plant-based materials. “Cross Cabin was a groundbreaking project for us, because as it’s a negative carbon impact house, it’s the first of its kind in Texas,” Frank states. “The main infrastructure is cross-laminated timber, and we focused on including as much wood as possible in the interior and exterior; most notably it’s iconic cork siding which is also the insulation.”
As our conversation ends, talk turns to the future of Moontower. “We’ll continue to lean into this sister company as we experiment with low-carbon building methods and materials,” Frank concludes. “We’re also looking to simplify our internal practices and refine our services to ensure we’re in the best possible position to be good stewards of Austin homes and their homeowners’ resources as we continue to grow and progress.”