Lost Pines Chapel Wins Top Design Award

Lost Pines Chapel in Bastrop, designed by Murray Legge, AIA, of LZT Architects in Austin, received a 2008 TSA Design Award and was featured in that year's Sept/Oct issue of Texas Architect. In October 2010, the rough-hewn, open-air chapel was one of three Texas projects recognized with an American Architecture Award, an annual program sponsored by the Chicago Athenaeum to promote cutting-edge design. The Austin American-Statesman recently featured it on Austin360.com.

W Austin Hotel and Residences

Photo credits: 2010 Andrew Pogue

W Austin Hotel and Residences

From Stone Creek Camp to Block 21, Andersson-Wise Architects Create a Sense of Place for Their Projects

By Noelle Heinze

Standing at the intersection of Willie Nelson Boulevard and Lavaca Street in Austin’s 2nd Street District on a September afternoon, Arthur Andersson of Andersson-Wise Architects points to the towering structure ahead. It’s the nearly complete W Austin Hotel and Residences (W Austin), scheduled to open Dec. 9 and part of the Block 21 development that when finished will include ACL Live and a myriad of retail, restaurant, and office spaces.

As we tour the building, Andersson describes things in sound bites: windows in the hotel rooms become “linear postcards,” a bathroom nestled behind a wall is “a little discovery,” a lobby bar with an illuminated glass backdrop is “like walking into the Milky Way.” He uses adjectives such as “intimate,” “bohemian,” and “spooky,” as we traverse through a series of street-level lounges and bars inside the hotel and adjacent to its lobby. Andersson is engaging and so is his narrative, which is helpful since at the time of the tour very little of the building’s interior is finished out. Andersson-Wise Architects worked in collaboration with Heather Plimmer of Stratus Properties for the interior concept, which the architect describes as “bohemian and loose, differently modern than other W designs.”

The hardhat tour begins outdoors with an anecdote about the building’s design. “When our firm was selected for this project there was a city council member who had just been elected. She brought in a feng shui expert to make sure we were dealing with the chi of Austin’s City Hall, which is next to the new development,” says Andersson. “According to feng shui principles, a palatial structure will be successful if it is situated facing water and is protected by a mountain. So this palace, City Hall, faces water—Lady Bird Lake, and on the other side is the W Austin—the mountain. So the W Austin was designed to be a suitable backdrop to City Hall and was composed with that in mind. When our firm designs a project, such as Stone Creek Camp in Montana, context is the thing that drives our decision-making, and in just about every case nature drives the design.” (Note: Stone Creek Camp received a 2010 Texas Society of Architects Design Award. The project is a residential compound built on a ridge overlooking Flathead Lake in rural northwestern Montana. It's featured in the Sept/Oct issue of Texas Architect magazine and on the Texas Society of Architects blog.)

As we approach the W Austin, Andersson notes that site is unencumbered by other tall structures, and that the project was conceived to have all the public spaces at the lower levels, such as office space and meeting rooms. "The tower is designed as a cliff dwelling…like Mesa Verde in Colorado," he says. "The hotel rooms are recessed into the body of the building, and the residences have a broader floor plan, which creates an overhang for the hotel and deep shadows that protect the windows in June, July, and August. This is meant to be a building that responds to the sun. On the north side are very few balconies, and the condominiums have views of sky and city.”

We cross the street as he discusses how they tried to connect the building to the Austin experience. He uses the example of walking or jogging along Lady Bird Lake with dappled light streaming through cyprus tree branches and how that effect will be created as guests and residents enter the building. “As you approach the building, you will move out of the light, into the shade, and into the hotel, where there will be a giant folded screen with lights behind it. So you move into a soft shape, into dappled light that immerses you, and then into the lobby of the building.”

Because large buildings can be daunting, the architects tackled the scale of their project with solid walls that are held down from its structure, “So they almost read as ruins,” says Andersson. “I grew up in California, and I would visit the early Spanish-American missions, and I loved the sense and the feel of these buildings that were sort of half there, because your imagination fills in the other half. This gives you a really intimate sense of scale.”

The lobby of the hotel is designed in forced perspective with the concierge area and the check-in desk toward the back. Wood walls connect ground-floor rooms and guide visitors from the lobby through the “Records Room,” which features walls lined with vinyl records, to the “Secret Bar” with red upholstered walls. "The floor plan is based on a loop; by the time you reach the Secret Bar, there’s no natural light,” says Andersson. 

We pass through a room called “The Screen Porch,” which faces the plaza and features a glass wall that slides open, immersing the area in natural light again. The hotel’s signature restaurant is adjacent and is designed as indoor/outdoor space with a series of pivoting steel doors that fold back. It reads as bright and cheery. A whimsical touch is found in concrete form ties plugged with chunks of glass. 

After the street-level tour, we head upstairs to view a hotel room, which is organized around an intimate, square floor plan, achieved by the placement of a vertical tower just inside the doorway. An aperture in the tower gives a miniature view into the room. Its design is inspired by the vertical line paintings of artist Barnett Newman. Window height is intentionally low (6’5”) to frame views outside, “linear postcards,” and minimize glass, which plays into the building’s LEED Silver certification. A concrete column plows through the room revealing the building’s structure and adding to the design. The notion of layering different patterns—the pattern of the rug, the floor, and mosaic tile in the bathroom—reinforces the bohemian design.

In contrast to the hotel rooms, the residences feature a wide expanse of floor to ceiling glass, and the ceilings are held back a bit from the walls to give the perception of greater height. In the condominium that we tour, a massive window opens all the way up with only a glass handrail for safety. It’s an unexpected feature that underscores an element of surprise and whimsy that plays throughout the entire project.

At the time of the tour, no photos or video of the W Austin Hotel & Residences were allowed. Check back in January for images and an update on the completed project.

Join Advocates for Architecture at the Texas Capitol

Texas Society of Architects

Advocates for Architecture Day

Tues. January 25, 2011

Texas State Capitol

WHY SHOULD I ATTEND Advocates for Architecture Day?

Texas is facing a HISTORIC budget deficit of $25 BILLION, which is a 1/4 of the overall budget. This means budget cuts will be drastic and revenue sources will be desperately sought!

• What if architects were procured by price instead of qualifications?
• What if K-12 schools are forced to choose from state standardized architectural plans?
• What if sales taxes (8.25%) were imposed on your professional services?
• What if occupation fees were raised?

REGISTER NOW and be prepared to tell your story. Registrations must be received by December 17th!

GET ON THE BUS!

AIA Dallas is sponsoring a bus trip to the Texas State Capitol on January 25th, departing at 5:00 am from the Dallas Design District.

AIA Houston, AIA Fort Worth, and AIA San Antonio will also have bus transportation. Contact your chapter to RSVP for a seat.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Training will begin on Tuesday, January 25th at 9:00 am at the AT&T Conference Center/hotel (room TBD) within blocks of the Capitol. The morning will be spent learning what our issues are, how to communicate them to policymakers, and some political insight to the Legislative Session. You supply the passion for your profession and we'll supply all the basic skills, tools and information you'll need to be able to confidently approach Texas legislators and articulate the issues that affect architects statewide. Box lunch will be provided immediately following training.

After lunch, we will all meet at the Capitol (location TBD) for a group photo then we'll head down to our reserved briefing room at the Capitol (TSA's unofficial office) to pick up your materials, leave-behinds and talking points. Visits will be scheduled from 1:00 -- 4:00 pm in the afternoon. Once you're done, head back to our Capitol office to let us know how your meetings went and to fill out personal thank you notes to be sent to your legislators. We expect everyone to be done between 4-5:00 pm, at which point you can spend some time touring the Capitol or head back home, with the thanks of TSA and all Texas architects.

In the News Now

The following is provided from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) daily media scan, which was developed out of a growing interest among AIA leadership to connect with media coverage of topics of interest and current trends in the media landscape that relate to the architecture profession. This media scan is not a comprehensive round-up of daily articles related specifically to architecture, but more of a synopsis of current issues or specific events/topics that are relevant to the design industry.

Sustainability coverage:

Building Online
International Code Council Releases New IGCC Public Version 2.0
http://www.buildingonline.com/news/viewnews.pl?id=9928&subcategory=179

Wall Street Journal
One Green Design Fits All
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578490092457602.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Component coverage:

The Salt Lake Tribune
Recognizing beautiful buildings
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50730341-76/lake-salt-fork-architecture.html.csp

TSA Member Profile: Ken Shanks

2010 TASA/TASB Convention

El Paso Community College Culinary Arts Facility (Parkhill Smith & Cooper)

The jury for the 2010 Exhibit of School Architecture sponsored by the Texas Association of School Administrators and the Texas Association of School Boards (TASA/TASB) recently recognized  five projects for overall design excellence out of  99 projects submitted for the competition. The jury evaluated all the entries in six categories (value, process of planning, design, educational appropriateness, innovation, and sustainability), with each of the top five winners receiving the highest marks in all six areas. The five winners are Turlington Elementary School for Waller ISD (SHW Group), Dubinski Career High School in Grand Prairie (Corgan Associates), Giddings High School/Middle School (SHW Group), Ennis Junior High School (SHW Group), and El Paso Community College Culinary Arts Facility (Parkhill Smith & Cooper). Read about these projects in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Texas Architect magazine.

Below, Erin Smutz and Andrea Harrington from VLK Architects discuss their experience at the 2010 TASA/TASB Convention from a marketing perspective.

2010 TASA/TASB Convention

Every year, like clockwork, we run around in circles to hunt down the perfect photo, fix floor plans, design PowerPoint presentations, write mounds of project text, and rush to make everything perfect just in time to submit projects by VLK Architects for the TASA/TASB Convention. 

For many, TASA/TASB might be second nature to them. However, if you don’t participate each year, here’s some insight and tidbits to explain the event we know as TASA/TASB.

What is TASA/TASB?
TASA/TASB is an acronym for the Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of School Boards. In 1960, the two partnered to create a convention that brings both administrators and board members together.

Who attends?
Attendees range from school board members and superintendents to business managers and administrative staff. The TASA/TASB Convention allows them to earn Continuing Education credit and explore the tradeshow with a variety of exhibitors. One event included in the tradeshow is the Exhibit of School Architecture.

Exhibit of School Architecture
The exhibit provides an opportunity to showcase new educational construction and renovation projects in Texas that were completed within the past five years. The projects are judged by a six-member jury, which includes two school board members, two school administrators, and two representatives from the Texas Society of Architects.

As part of the tradeshow, exhibitors design boards to display the schools entered in the competition, as well as list the awards they’ve won. Booths of different shapes and sizes stand tall, one right next to the other, covered with company logos, photos, phrases, etc. All with the same mission: To get the attention of school board members and administrators.

TASA/TASB Convention 2010
At this year’s convention, held in Houston in August, administrators and school board members from across the state came together to network, learn, and reconnect. The convention center was packed with vendors exhibiting their services and products, while school personnel had opportunities to learn about topics ranging from employee surveys to social media and just about everything in between.

General Sessions featured Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind; former NFL star Emmitt Smith; and gubernatorial candidate Bill White. Attendees also had distinguished lecturers, economist and author Todd Buchholz; educational correspondent John Merrow; and Commissioner of Education Robert Scott, to fill their days’ agendas.

Inside the exhibit hall, the Exhibit of School Architecture showcased projects from across the state. Each year, architects have the opportunities to submit school designs, which are judged on design, educational appropriateness, innovation, process of planning, value, and sustainability. This year, 99 projects were submitted. 

For a complete list of entries and awards, click here.

For more information about the TASA/TASB convention, click here.

TSA Member Profile: Dorothy Fojtik