Austin, Texas | City Hall and Public Plaza | Antoine Predock

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Antoine Predock Architect PC completes Austin City Hall and Public Plaza

The new Austin City Hall and Public Plaza is located at the edge of the dynamic Warehouse district on the shores of Downtown Austin’s Town Lake. The project is dominated by landscape and incorporates limestone, copper, glass, water and shade to create the city’s living room. The 118,000 square foot building contains several city departments along with the Mayor, City Manager, City Council offices, Council Chambers, and a café and city store along urban Second Street. Austin’s Warehouse District is rapidly being transformed into a tight grid of restaurants, nightspots, housing, and mid-rise office spaces. A massive, arcing Lueders Limestone wall, emerging from bedrock at the lowest level of the parking garage below, anchors the project to the site. Morphing out of this wall is a limestone base that encloses the first two stories. A copper skin, resting on the limestone base and capped with a folded copper roof, shelters the upper levels. As the arcing wall cuts through the building, it creates an open four-storey lobby transected by catwalk-like bridges at each level. A reflective copper ceiling over the lobby bounces light into the gathering space below. The plaza winds its way around the limestone peninsulas of the terraced building. Water runs through a group of monumental limestone boulders in the plaza to symbolically return to Town Lake through a vortex. Amphitheater seating spilling down from the terraces can be used informally or to view performances on a Limestone stage. The amphitheater is protected from the sun by a photovoltaic glass trellis, supplying ten percent of the building’s power. The environmentally intelligent approaches in this project earned it a LEED Gold Certification.

in http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=1081

Antoine Predock

Austin City Hall & Public Plaza Austin, Texas

The environmentally intelligent approaches in this project earned it a LEED Gold Certification.

The new Austin City Hall and Public Plaza is located at the edge of the dynamic Warehouse district on the shores of Downtown Austin’s Town Lake.

The project is dominated by landscape and incorporates limestone, copper, glass, water and shade to create the city’s living room. The building contains several city departments along with the Mayor, City Manager, City Council offices, Council Chambers, and a café and city store along urban second street.

Austin’s Warehouse District is rapidly being transformed into a tight grid of restaurants, nightspots, housing, and mid-rise office spaces. City hall mediates the city grid and the natural realm terracing down from Second Street to Town Lake.

Terraces slide out of the building into the plaza analogous to the limestone overhangs known as balcones in the hill country surrounding Austin. The terraces are shaded with trees and have become prime locations for viewing the activities on the plaza and Town Lake beyond.

The plaza winds its way around the limestone peninsulas of the terraced building. Water runs through a group of monumental limestone boulders in the plaza to symbolically return to Town Lake through a vortex. Amphitheater seating spilling down from the terraces can be used informally or to view performances on a Limestone stage.

The amphitheater is protected from the sun by a photovoltaic glass trellis, supplying ten percent of the building’s power.

A massive arcing Lueders Limestone wall, emerging from bedrock at the lowest level of the parking garage below, anchors the project to the site.

Morphing out of this wall is a limestone base that encloses the first two stories. A scrim like copper skin, resting on the limestone base and capped with a folded copper roof, shelters the upper levels. As the arcing wall cuts through the building it creates an open four-story lobby transected by catwalk-like bridges at each level. A reflective copper ceiling over the lobby bounces light into the gathering space below.

City Hall defeats the formality of the surrounding blocks by angling away from the adjacent streets and echoes the warm informality that characterizes Austinites.

Total area: 118,000 square feet
Completed: Fall 2004

Client: City of Austin
Architect: Antoine Predock Architect PC
Executive Architect: Cotera, Kolar, Negrete, and Reed

Antoine Predock Architect PC features

in http://www.arcspace.com/architects/Predock/austin/austin.html

Austin City Hall and Public Plaza
Austin, Texas
1999/2004

The new Austin City Hall and public plaza graces the shores of Lady Bird Lake at the edge of the dynamic Warehouse district, an area that is rapidly being transformed into a tight grid of restaurants, nightspots, housing, and mid-rise office spaces. The new city hall, completed in the fall of 2004, terraces down to the lake from Second Street, mediating between this busy city grid and the natural realm.

Antoine Predock, in association with Cotera, Kolar, Negrete, and Reed, designed the building not as a "suit-and-tie" city hall, but rather as a reflection of the warm informality that characterizes Austin. This is embodied in part by the way the structure angles away from adjacent streets, standing in contrast to the formality of the surrounding grid. These inflections from the urban perimeter also create several mini-plazas around the building, further encouraging informal gatherings, and they also allow oblique views toward Lady Bird Lake from inside the building.

Landscape dominates the project. A massive arc of Lueders limestone, emerging from bedrock at the lowest level of the parking garage, anchors the project to the site. Metamorphosing out of this wall is a limestone base that encloses the first two stories. A scrim-like copper skin, resting on the limestone base and capped with a folded copper roof, encloses the upper levels. As the arcing wall cuts through the building it creates an open four-story lobby transected by catwalk-like bridges at each level. A reflective copper ceiling over the lobby reflects light from a skylight into the space below.

On the exterior, limestone, copper, glass, water and shade come together to create the city's "living room." Terraces spill out of the building into the plaza in the same way the geologic forces in Austin's hill country produce the limestone overhangs known as balcones. These terraces, shaded with trees are prime locations for viewing the activities on the plaza below and Lady Bird Lake beyond.

The plaza winds its way around the limestone peninsulas of the terraced building. Water originating from the canyon-like space inside the building runs through a group of monumental limestone boulders in the plaza to symbolically return to Lady Bird Lake. The plaza contains a limestone stage for performances, with amphitheater seating that descends from the main public terrace. The amphitheater is protected from the sun by a trellised structure made up of photovoltaic cells.

In association with Cotera, Kolar, Negrete, and Reed

IN http://www.predock.com/Austin/Austin.html