This is an adaptive reuse project involving multiple food distribution warehouses constructed over a 60 year period. The site is located in East Austin, an area that is eager to preserve it’s built environment. The design maintains most of the characteristics of the outmoded infrastructure while allowing for multiple new public uses, thus helping to continue a sense of community, familiarity and ownership. The tenant makeup is diverse and includes two local breweries, bouldering gym, large event venue, art gallery, community theater, as well as multiple office tenants, restaurants and food trucks.
In order to accommodate different sizes and types of tenants, large circulation spaces were added through and around the building. Open air corridors were designed to bring breezes, sunlight, and plant life into the heart of the large warehouse, while providing a shaded route to site parking. Additional circulation at the building perimeter was built almost entirely out of repurposed warehouse steel shelving found on site. The shelving served as a graphic inspiration for solar shading and support for plant life, which subsequently evolved into a larger identity for the whole site.