Estudio Ricardo Torres
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PracticeSoMa
Housing & Community Development
Up & Down
Maplewood Group
La Pulga
FM900
Unity Manufacturing
High-Rise Apartment Combination
Taco Heads
Rosy’s
Selected Prior Works

















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© Estudio Ricardo Torres, 2025
00. E—    RT is a Dallas / New York practice working at the intersection of architecture and interiors.  We shape clear, considered work from layered contexts and complex constraints.  Projects span adaptive reuse and the public realm to ground-up residential, hospitality, and cultural work across rural landscapes and dense urban neighborhoods.  What may appear simple is the product of sweat, stacks of sketchbooks, and more than a few sleepless nights, resolving into analysis, precise planning, deliberate detail, and, yes, a happy client.  

We work directly with engineers, fabricators, and makers to draw on the expertise that drives every decision, technically, spatially, and materially.  When the scope demands it, our work stretches from siting to architecture and interiors to custom furniture, ensuring that each project is fully grounded in context and suspended over time. Regenerative strategies and high-performance criteria aren’t side notes but woven into the design arc from the jump.  Each commission is tuned to its setting and to the lives that will unfold there, seeking clarity in daily use and a character that grows richer with time.

And while much of the design world chases whatever trend is loudest that year, we prefer another route. Rather than amplify the noise of beige design trends, we pursue a quieter rigor, spaces that carry their weight over time; in use, in memory, and in place.  Design that reflects you.  Not Instagram.  (But please follow, like and subscribe!)

New Project Inquiries
info@estudioricardotorres.com
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01.SoMa 

Adaptive Reuse
Feasibility Study
For Worth, Texas
Multi-Family

Near Southside 
Approx. 64, 800 SF
Ongoing

Just south of Downtown Fort Worth, Near Southside is a neighborhood where industry, hospitals, and small businesses have long shaped the fabric of daily life.  In recent years it has become a creative district, where old warehouses and service buildings are reimagined as restaurants, offices, and cultural spaces.  This project embraces that spirit of reuse.  A family-run conveyor-belt company continues its work on site while we explore a vertical addition that brings multifamily housing together with office, retail, and hospitality.  Rather than clearing the slate, the design takes cues from what’s already there.  The warehouse bays, frame, and service ramps set the rhythm for structure, light, and circulation, tying production, living, and street life together.

The approach is simple: build on the strengths of the existing while opening new opportunities.  By layering new uses over old frameworks, the project reflects a larger commitment to resiliency, craft, and connection to place.   Reuse offers continuity not by simply enduring, but by engaging directly with time, carrying forward the marks and memories of a place while opening it to new ways of living, working, and gathering.

1/9      Context Site Plan Axonometric
2/9      Design Logic Axonometric Diagram
3/9      Form Option 1 Axonometric
4/9      Form Option 2 Axonometric
5/9      Timber - Steel Hybrid Structure  Façade Study
6/9      Option 1:  Scalloped Balcony Façade, Five-Story Massing - Powerline Setback
7/9      Option 2:  Curvilinear Timber Frame Façade, Four-Story Massing - Monumental Stair
8/9      Option 3:   Rectilinear Timber Frame Façade, Four-Story Massing 
9/9      Option 4:   Rectilinear Timber Frame Façade, Four-Story Massing - Powerline Setback
02.Housing & Community Development

Affordable Housing Institute
Architecture / Interiors
Dallas, Texas
Single-Family Residential 

South Dallas
800-1,200 SF 
Ongoing

This study looks at affordable housing in South Dallas beginning with what the city often leaves behind, discarded and donated building materials.  The goal is ambitious but straightforward. Stretch every dollar while creating homes that carry dignity, resilience, and long-term value.  Since 2023, the studio has studied and identified potential supply chains through material recovery programs, demolition crews, and local suppliers to see how overlooked resources can be reimagined as permanent housing.  

Dallas continues to face serious housing pressures. Evictions remain among the highest in the country, the unhoused population is rising, and durable affordable options are scarce.  The study responds with a replicable prototype that turns salvage and surplus into the foundation for permanent communities. The aim is to be resourceful, resilient, and dignified in both design and delivery.

1/11      Prototype Axonometric: Linear Gable Model
2/11      Linear Gable Model: Streetscape, Perspective
3/11      Linear Gable Model:  Backyard Hearth, Perspective
4/11      Linear Gable Model:  Interior Kitchen, Perspective
5/11      Linear Gable Model:  Great Room, Section Perspective
6/11      Linear Gable Model:  Primary Bathroom, Axonometric
Interior Elevation - Powder
Axonometric “L” Model  
Exterior Street Perspective
Interior Section Perspective - Kitchen
Kids Bedroom Perspective
03.Up & Down

Hospitality 
Architecture
Austin, Texas
Sports & Social Club

East AustinGolf / Pickle Ball / Bar / Restaurant
Ongoing

Stayble, an Austin-based developer, is reimagining the sports complex as a social and sustainable hub.  The project introduces a new golf concept with eight short holes woven between bars, and shaded gathering areas, creating a continuous dialogue between play and leisure.  Alongside, four dedicated courts for pickleball, putting greens, and ping pong tables expand the athletic offering into a diverse recreation landscape.  

Regenerative design underpins the design, the greens are nourished through an innovative water hydration system that reuses and cycles resources efficiently, aligning with contemporary strategies for golf courses that reduce chemical inputs, restore native planting, and manage stormwater as an ecological asset.  A park for food trucks and shaded pavilions anchors the social side, fostering a lively mix of sport, dining, and community.

1/4      Axonometric Site Plan
2/4      Breezeway Entry: Equipment, Bar, Covered Courts Access - Perspective
3/4      Outdoor Pickleball Courts: Perspective
4/4      Putting Greens and Pavilion: Perspective
04.Maplewood Group

Corporate Offices
Architecture 
Dallas, Texas
Tenant Finish-Out

Design District
5,240 SF
Built

This tenant finish-out for Maplewood Group, a local hospitality and retail General Contractor, reimagines the workplace with the sophistication of high-end hospitality.  A U-shaped bank of offices frames an open conference area and an open collaboration counter, balancing privacy with collective energy.  The volume is clad in plank panel system inspired by the meticulous detailing of refined minimalist millwork, while the private suites are conceived as a cabinet of offices; each one crafted with the precision and presence of fine cabinetry, elevating workspace into architecture.

1/9      Axonometric Space Plan
2/9      Interior Entry Lobby: Perspective
3/9      Interior Materials Library: Perspective
4/9      Executive Bathroom / Shower:  Interior Elevation
5/9      Interior Entry Lobby (Option 2): Perspective
6/9      Interior Entry Lobby (Option 2): Perspective
7/9      Kitchen / Open Collaboration Counter, Option Two:  Axonometric
05.La Pulga

Tasting Room / Dance HallArchitectureFort, Worth Texas
Master-Plan

Northside
14 Acres
Ongoing

In collaboration with Landscape Architect, Studio Outside, the La Pulga Master Plan reimagines 22 acres along the Fort Worth Riverfront as a contemporary district deeply rooted in the life of the existing Pequeño Mexico Market and Event Center.  Rather than erase what is there, the design extends the character of the traditional open-air mercado into a broader cultural destination.  At its heart, a Tequila, Sotol, and Mezcal Tasting Room for Fort Worth’s La Pulga Spirits, anchors a series of event spaces unfolding from a hacienda-style courtyard.  The sequence extends southward through sotol fields and culminates in the adaptive reuse of an open-air pavilion, reborn as an event hall that recalls the atmosphere of Texas’s historic dance halls.  The structure is retrofitted from an existing steel frame and expressed through a new hybrid mass timber system, merging durability with warmth while amplifying the social character of the space.

Around this civic and cultural spine, new layers of program emerge: multi-family housing, creative storefronts, and a boutique hotel, each oriented to capture views of the revitalized riverfront, Panther Island, and the skyline beyond. The result is not a wholesale reinvention, but an expansion of the market’s legacy, an architecture that respects the community that gathers there while opening new possibilities for commerce, culture, and celebration along Fort Worth’s riverfront.

1/7      Master Plan / Watercolor:  Option One 
2/7      Dance Hall Approach / Sequence:  Exterior Perspective
3/7      Dance Hall / Outdoor Theater:  Exterior Perspective
4/7      Dance Hall / Performance Hall:  Exterior Perspective
5/7      La Pulga Distillery / Agave Fields:  Concept Sketch
6/7      La Pulga Tasting Room / Tequila Aging Barrels:  Concept Sketch
7/7      La Pulga / Tierra Boutique Casitas:  Concept Sketch
06.FM900

Art Space / Organic Farm
Architecture Mt Vernon, Texas
Single-Family Residential 

Rural 
2,200 SF (60 Acres)
Under Construction

On a farm road in East Texas, an existing barn and the lineage of nearby agricultural structures provide the starting point for a dwelling both rooted in place, yet open to reinvention.  Designed for an artist and curator turned farmers, FM900 is more than a homestead set on a 60-Acre property: it is a rural laboratory where art, agriculture, and community converge.  A main residence and two outbuildings (a garage and a produce barn), gather around a central courtyard oriented northwest to a dense mot of trees.  The siting of the courtyard shields from north winter winds and opens southward to summer breezes, balancing shelter and openess with intetion and precision.  

The long, linear house recalls the proportions of the agrarian barn, anchored by a deep porch that shades the east façade in summer while inviting the low winter sun into its living spaces.  Corrugated metal panel, concrete block, and cast-in-place concrete form a humble palette of restraint, softened by wood siding at the entry and inside, that recalls the warmth of old western homesteads.  This sober Architecture does not call attention to itself, but frames the rhythms of the farm, the landscape, and the cultural life of its owners.  Here, the cultivation of soil and the cultivation of community and art become one and the same.

1/18      Concept Collage / Dogtrot Linear Barn Organization:  Exterior Perspective Elevation
2/18      Concept Collage / Courtyard Organization:  Exterior Perspective Elevation
3/18      Master Plan / Fields, Forestation and Site Hydrology: Axonometric
4/18       Master Plan / Siting Option one: Axonometric
5/18      Site Plan / Siting Option one: Axonometric
6/18      Pencil Sketch / Massing Courtyard: Perspective
7/18      Site Plan / Siting Courtyard: Homestead, Gardens, Farm, and Circulation
8/18      Site Plan / Entry Sequence: Axonometric
9/18      Courtyard Entry: Exterior Perspective
10/18      Circulation Breezeway:  Exterior Perspective
11/18      Processing Shed / Outdoor Dining Entry:  Exterior Perspective
12/18     Kitchen Herb Garden / Caged Water Tank Storage:  Exterior Perspective
13/18      Living Room to Loft and Kitchen Beyond:  Interior Perspective
14/18      Processing Shed / Outdoor Dining Entry:  Exterior Perspective
15/18      Primary Bathroom:  Section Axonometric
16/18      Laundry / Pantry Millwork:  Interior Elevation
17/18      Primary Bathroom / Closet:  Interior Elevation Option Two
18/18       Agrarian Remnants / Material Reuse Strategy:  Collage
07.
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Unity Manufacturing

Commercial Offices / Showroom 
Architecture / Interiors
Garland, Texas
Remodel 

Industrial District
6,400 SF
Under Construction

Founded in 1975, Unity Manufacturing has grown from a family-run metalworks into a leading national producer of electrical enclosures for commercial and industrial applications.  As the company continues to evolve, so has the need for a workspace that reflects its craft, culture, and forward momentum.  The renovation serves as both renewal and recalibration, honoring Unity’s legacy while creating a more open, collaborative environment for its next chapter.  The design transforms an existing office within the company’s industrial park into a dynamic workplace and showroom that express Unity’s material intelligence.  Expansive work areas and a first-of-its-kind showroom celebrate product and process, allowing staff and clients to experience the company’s heritage through the lens of innovation.

All millwork and casework were developed in collaboration with Unity’s in-house fabrication team, reimagining standard electrical enclosures as refined, furniture-grade assemblies, part cabinet, part storage console, crafted with industrial precision.  Furniture and lighting selections extend this dialogue between craft and manufacture, recalling the ingenuity of Jean Prouvé and Frank Gehry’s studies of materials and mass production.  Finish choices emphasize daylight, non-toxic finishes, and durability, reinforcing a culture of care and continual growth, an architecture grounded in craft, rooted in history, and built for longevity and future evolution.


1/6      Space Plan:  Axonometric
2/6      Entry Foyer / Archive:  Interior Perspective
3/6      Break Room Kitchen / Material Story:  Interior Elevation
4/6      Break Room Kitchen:  Interior Perspective
5/6      Owner Office / Tea Room:  Interior Perspective
08.
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High-Rise Apartment Combination

2 Br / 2 B + 1 Br / 1 B 
Architecture / Interiors
New York, New York
Remodel 

Midtown East
3,200 SF Total
In Permitting

On the eighteenth floor of a Midtown East tower, two apartments, a two-bedroom and an adjoining one-bedroom, are combined to create a home that balances multigenerational living with the needs of a growing family.  The new plan provides an ensuite retreat for an aging mother-in-law while preserving openness and light for the young couple, both executives in fashion and advertising.  

Storage is conceived not as utility but as architecture itself, wardrobes unfolding as alcoves, millwork dissolving into wall planes, cabinetry doubling as display, expressing the ingenuity demanded by city living. Finishes pair natural stones with warm timber, accented by woven textures and brushed metals.  A curated mix of furniture and a growing art collection span history and ethos, lending warmth to a minimalist framework.   A study in austere minimalism and comfort, the project is contemporary yet restrained, with a character that feels unmistakably New York.

1/9      Space Plan:  Existing Axonometric
2/9      Floor Plan:  Existing 
3/9      Space Plan:  Proposed Axonometric
4/9      Floor Plan:  Proposed
5/9      Storage Solutions / Millwork:  Diagram
6/9      Entry Gallery / Cloak Hall:  Interior Perspective
7/9      Great Room / Expanded Kitchen:  Interior Perspective
8/9      Primary Bedroom / Integral Headboard:  Interior Perspective
9/9      Primary Bathroom / Closet:  Interior Perspective
09.
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Taco Heads

Restaurant / Bar / Outdoor Patio
Architecture / Interiors
Fort Worth, Texas
Remodel 

Cultural District
5,400 SF
Ongoing

Across from Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena, the remodel of Taco Heads introduces a new kind of neighborhood anchor, one that bridges casual dining with the cultural energy of live music.  At its core is “Head Space” a new listening Taco Bar, a space that echoes the rhythms of the arena on event nights yet transforms into a quiet speakeasy after hours, offering intimate drinks and late-night bites.  

The reconfiguration activates the restaurant’s most visible corner, shifting the main entry from the back parking lot to the street-facing edge, where guests move fluidly between venue and patio.  This outdoor space, reimagined with openness and warmth, establishes the restaurant as part of the larger urban choreography of the district.  Architecturally, the project builds upon the existing structure while drawing from traditional Mexican materials and craft, warm natural finishes, textured surfaces, and bold color used through a modern, restrained lens.  The result is a refreshed landmark, tactile, contemporary, and deeply connected to both its cultural context and its community.

1/8      New Entry / Taco Listening Bar:  Exterior Elevation
2/8      Option One:  Exterior Perspective
3/8      Taco Listening Bar:  Interior Elevation
4/8      Taco Listening Bar / Banquette Seating:  Interior Elevation
5/8      Option One:  Interior Perspective
6/8      Option Two:  Exterior Perspective
7/8      Option Three:  Exterior Perspective
8/8      New Entry Sequence / Seating Layouts:  Site / Floor Plan
10.
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Rosy’s

Retail
Architecture
Austin, Texas
Remodel / Kitchen Addition

Rollingwood
2, 400 SF
In Permitting

The remodel of Rosy’s Grocer introduces a new neighborhood food hub that highlights specialty items and local products.  A strategic kitchen expansion supports their growing food program, centered on fresh sandwiches available for dine-in or takeout.  The design maintains clarity in circulation while reimagining the use of space to maximize flexibility for the store’s evolving trajectory.  The result is a modern neighborhood grocer that balances efficiency with warmth, providing a communal space that celebrates Austin’s local gritty contemporary character.

1/4      Pass-Through Pick Up Window / Café Entry:  Interior Perspective