WBA was commissioned to develop a Conceptual Master Plan exploring multiple ideal sites for a new residence on a 2700-acre working-ranch. After surveying almost every ridgetop / valley within this rambling Hill Country ranch over several days, we elected to explore two distinctly different sites. The Ridgetop sites were most difficult to evaluate as almost all ridges were too rounded to afford valley views and almost none had a long-distance-view outwards-to-South Texas Plains except one site. And it was both proximate to Ranch HQ yet well-hidden and accessible by an existing road. When getting an owner ‘highlights tour’, we learned how the extensive network of roads was repaired / reconstructed with native limestone gravel harvested from the ranch as well as how the ranch was resurrecting overburdened creeks wherein ranch hands did everything including pouring their own warm-colored concrete. Why not build with material and expertise from the ranch. Why not lift-the-road-up into ‘walls of conglomerate concrete’ or ‘Texas Masonry’. Lastly, we envisioned an expansive, yet fiercely private Ridgetop House, disguised at a distance as a limestone-rock-outcrop within the-thick-Hill-Country-cedar and inhabited as an aquifer-eroded-ridgetop-cave replete with celadon Hill Country springs. A L-wrap-below-the-ridgetop-plan with both a north/east and south valley aspect formed a private ‘ranch vehicular court’ at the ridgetop utilizing the existing improved road for construction. Bathing, swimming, and native animal spring water access was celebrated, as well as a DJ ridgetop platform and an up-down zipline-cum-shortcut to the valley floor.