Archinect - News

Herzog & de Meuron updates Sixth&Blanco mass timber project in Austin

2023-11-16T19:00:00-05:00

Herzog & de Meuron has updated its plans for the forthcoming Sixth&Blanco mixed-use development in Austin, Texas.

The mass timber design will be realized as the firm’s first-ever completed work in Texas. The plan calls for a full city block construction with a hotel, office spaces, a residential component, and retail.

Image: © Herzog & de Meuron

Updated renderings provided by the firm a year removed from the project’s initial announcement show a more concise linear volume with added greenery and recesses minus many original facade elements in whose place a new open-air terrace has been created on the structure’s third level.

Image: © Herzog & de Meuron

New colorful reflective awnings were added at the drop-off point for shoppers and hotel guests. A total of 50,000 square feet of retail space is planned, along with ten apartment units totaling 4,600 square feet and located on the two uppermost floors. The design is organized around a central courtyard and sa...

Austin becomes largest city in the U.S. to dump parking requirements

2023-11-05T09:00:00-05:00

Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis. The Austin City Council voted 8-2 Thursday to wipe out minimum parking requirements for virtually every kind of property citywide. That includes single-family homes, apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls.

As noted by The Texas Tribune, housing advocates, developers, and climate activists have increasingly advocated for the erasure of parking requirements, which have been found to drive up housing costs and fuels a dependency on cars. Cities across the country in recent years, including Portland, Minneapolis, and San Jose, have taken similar actions to scale back requirements. In 2019, the L.A. City Planning Department released its Downtown Community Plan, called DTLA 2040, which included plans to eliminate parking requirements for all of downtown Los Angeles.

Previously on Archinect: Are vacant parking lots affecting the cost of housing? A new study in Boston sheds light on the issue

According to Austin City Council Member and the proposal’s author, Zohaib Qadri, keeping parking requirements contradicted the billions of dollars the city has set out to invest in its public transit system.

Opponents of the move worry that getting rid of parking requirements will redirect parking to near...

Get Lectured: The University of Texas at Austin, Fall '23

2023-09-01T11:59:00-04:00

School is back in session, and that means it's time for another installment of our Get Lectured series. Today, we’ll have a look at what’s in store for the Fall semester at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture in the first year of Dean Heather Woofter’s tenure.

The series begins on Monday, September 11, with a lecture from SoA alumni and Snøhetta founders Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar. Their lecture on ecology and site considerations follows the debut of the firm’s New Grounds design for the Blanton Museum of Art this spring and precedes an appearance from Barkow Leibinger founder Frank Barkow on September 18.

New faculty member Dora Epstein Jones will speak on Wednesday, September 20, followed by Hector Esrawe’s lecture "No Boundaries: Transiting the Intersections Across Creative Disciplines" on October 2. The Pratt Institute’s Rosetta Elkin follows his appearance on October 16. The Founding Principal of Local Office Landscape and Urban Design, Walter Meyer, s...

Dora Epstein Jones, former A+D Museum Director, joins UT Austin School of Architecture faculty

2023-08-14T11:37:00-04:00

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture has announced Dora Epstein Jones will be joining its faculty in the fall as one of five new appointments.

Previously, Jones served as former faculty at Texas Tech University at Huckabee College of Architecture in Lubbock and will be coming to campus as the school’s newest Professor of Practice. She had previously been employed as the executive director of Los Angeles’ A+D Architecture and Design Museum prior to her tenure at Texas Tech, where she was instrumental in steering the development of a new research praxis for faculty that “forge[d] stronger interdisciplinary collaboration between architecture, philosophy, and history.”

Beyond her academic career, which began in 2002 at SCI-Arc, Epstein has also previously served as a principal of the Los Angeles-based studio Jones, Partners: Architecture, and holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History, Theory, and Criticism from UCLA in addition to her M.A. in Urban Planning, which she a...

Snøhetta's Blanton New Grounds redesign opens at the University of Texas at Austin

2023-05-25T12:20:00-04:00

A recently completed project from three alumni Snøhetta staffers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art has delivered an artistic intervention they say stands as a new gateway between the 51,000-student campus and its host city.

Principal and co-founder Craig Dykers, Managing Director Elaine Molinar, and Director John Newman, each School of Architecture graduates from the late-1980s, collaborated to enact a new canopy-like intervention that’s meant as a centerpiece to the museum’s $35 million Blanton New Grounds initiative.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

Their solution involved a series of 40-by-30-foot metallic shade structures formed in the shape of flower petals to create a canopy of the new landscaped garden entrance to the museum while also framing Ellsworth Kelly’s 2018 monumental stone Austin chapel on the Blanton’s Moody Patio.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

The petals double as a rainwat...

HKS bid for Texas’ tallest skyscraper gets cut down

2023-04-28T12:12:00-04:00

Amid challenging conditions in the real estate and lending markets, a proposed 80-story residential tower that had been planned to be the tallest high-rise in Texas has now been scaled back to 45 stories. [...] Taylor Wilson, president of Wilson Capital, said the revised design comes in response both to feedback from Austin's Design Commission and to significant changes in the real estate and financial markets, which are grappling with rising interest rates and tightened lending standards.

The revised Wilson Tower proposal would have surpassed I.M. Pei’s JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston as the state’s record-holder. KPF’s Waterline development is still on track to break it by 20 feet. The episode highlights the economic stasis affecting developers in the city’s insanely high-stakes CRE market as the impacts of the tech recession compound.

"We are making some changes to the ground floor in response to both the Design Commission’s feedback and changes to the vertical nature of the building in response to current market conditions," Wilson said via email to the Austin American-Statesman. "Construction costs and interest rates are both higher now than they were when we originally designed the project. We believe this new design is more appropriate to provide an activated ground floor while remaining feasible in today’s environment."

...

Michael Hsu Office of Architecture offers $20,000 pro-bono Design for All Partnership to south Texas nonprofits

2023-04-20T16:50:00-04:00

A unique new philanthropic initiative from Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (MHOA) is offering nonprofits in the Austin, Texas area the chance to win a $20,000 pro-bono consultation in the interests of providing much-needed space to organizations affected by the city’s rapid transformation into a new capital for America’s high-tech industries.

The firm recently announced it will be accepting design proposals for what is now its second iteration of the Design for All Partnership "seed program" that last year afforded the organization Austin Angels the chance to construct a new foster care facility at a vacant former church lot in the Buda neighborhood.

"A lot of these nonprofits are having a hard time finding affordable space," MHOA founder Hsu told the Austin Chronicle of his firm’s endeavor. "And there's all sorts of challenges in trying to build something even if they do find a space because it's so time-intensive. There's a lot of hidden costs, and part of this [partnership] i...

Previewing the 2023 SXSW Art Program

2023-03-10T16:55:00-05:00

The annual SXSW festival opens today in Austin, Texas. A total of four installations will be featured prominently along with a series of art-based conferences in the event’s 36th edition, which this year runs until Sunday, March 19th.

“The 2023 SXSW Art Program highlights three artists using mixed reality to explore Afro-Futurisms, holographics that morph between human and animal anatomy, and viewer interactivity beckoned by the use of Quantum Physics,” Aimée Everett, SXSW’s Art Program Curator, said in a statement. "These artists are beginning to interrogate these varied topics that impact society and are confronted on the SXSW stages.”

SXSW adds that each installation “showcases experiential and conceptual visual artworks that apply emerging technologies and immersive environments to spark discovery, inspiration, and connection.”

Scroll down to learn more about the 2023 Art Program.

Ancestral Archives by Josie Williams in association with EY metaverse lab and NEW INC.

"Ancestral...

Elon Musk is planning a utopian Hoovertown outside of Austin

2023-03-10T11:36:00-05:00

In meetings with landowners and real-estate agents, Musk has reportedly described his idea for the estate — which he envisions building on thousands of acres of property he purchased on the Colorado River — as a utopia, so that his employees can live, work, and play without ever leaving.

The community, named “Snailbrook” after the Boring Company mascot, would be the first new town in Texas since Ellinger was incorporated in 2020. Pre-fab homes are the most likely housing option, with rents as low as $800 and a Montessori school campus to serve employees' children, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Musk, who owns some 3,500 acres in Bastrop County, reportedly gave disgraced antisemite Kanye West and his new architect beau a tour of the site last year as part of a ramp-up that included internal employee discussions as to who among them should be elected mayor. The entrepreneur had previously mentioned his desire to build a “starbase city” in the area.

If it ever gets up and running, it would join the new BIG-planned Telosa in an alarming trend of new billionaire-funded Utopian cities in the American west.

This is just the beginning. America's new oligarchs are focussing on "cities." And are actively seeking to create alternatives to cities which they provide ser...

BIG and ICON reveal new 3D printed collaboration with hotelier Liz Lambert in Texas

2023-03-08T15:05:00-05:00

BIG and prominent lawyer-turned-hotelier Liz Lambert have announced they will be teaming up with ICON on a new high-end hospitality project in Marfa, Texas.

The project will reshape Lambert’s 21-acre El Cosmico resort from a collection of disparate yurts, tents, and other small structures into a new, 65-acre development featuring dome-like parabolic dwellings made using ICON’s patented 3D printing technology.

El Cosmico. Image courtesy ICON

Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts will also benefit from the collaboration in the form of a new 3D printed performance pavilion that “reflects architectural design themes — cosmic organizations, perfect geometries, and organic forms” of El Cosmico. The new resort itself will be a mix of two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes between 1,200 and 2,200 square feet each, defined by organic curves and large arches. BIG says this is a ”primordial architectural language that can only be achieved by 3D printing.”

El Cosmico. Image courtesy ICON

El ...

Austin Transit Partnership names UNStudio, HKS, and Gehl to lead city's public transit expansion

2023-03-06T19:47:00-05:00

UNStudio, HKS, and Gehl have been selected by the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) to lead the architecture and urban design of Project Connect, a major expansion of the city’s public transit system. The voter-approved investment includes new light rail, expanded bus routes, a subway, and more services across Austin.

Austin voters approved Project Connect in November 2020, followed by the formation of ATP, an independent organization created in partnership with the City of Austin and CapMetro. It will serve to oversee the finance and development of the project, which aims to improve access to essential jobs, health care, education, and entertainment in the city.

Video courtesy UNStudio via Vimeo.

“The design team brings both broad international expertise delivering transit and public realm projects at the highest level of design and an acute sensitivity to Austin’s specific culture and heritage,” said Peter Mullan, ATP Executive Vice President for Architecture and Urban Design. “P...

Will Austin’s tall-buildings boom survive the skyscraper effect and looming tech recession?

2023-01-19T17:52:00-05:00

But joining the fraternity of cities with supertalls can also be a dubious distinction: Real estate is a lagging indicator, and skyscrapers often arrive after the boom is over, looming half-empty as monuments to a bust. Others, however, are convinced that Austin’s high-rise stampede is just getting started. Given the city’s emerging significance as a next-gen manufacturing hub this building boom could defy the skyscraper effect.

With a slate of high-rises and supertalls, including KPF’s Waterline design and the record-setting Wilson Tower from HKS in the works, Bloomberg asks if the pace of development can be sustained amidst tech’s downturn and the annals of urban economic history. The salvation apparently lies in the influx of manufacturing dollars into the city, along with a downtown area that offers what some consider to be the nation’s highest overall quality of living.

A planned cap-and-stitch project could add even more commercial parcels along a stretch of I-35 downtown beginning in 2025. The risks of repeating the same tax incentive-driven boom-bust cycle that led to so many of Dubai’s architectural headaches a decade ago are not lost on developers. For now, Austin’s only real crisis is the affordability of homes and a dearth of convenient worker housing.

HKS debuts revised plans for Texas’ tallest high-rise

2022-11-15T13:13:00-05:00

[...] Wilson Capital announced this morning that its redevelopment of the Avenue Lofts site will be significantly larger than previously reported. The multifamily residential building planned for the 0.8-acre property at 410 East Fifth Street, now known as Wilson Tower, is set to rise 80 floors to a total height of 1,035 feet — and yes, that would make the project the new tallest tower in Texas upon completion, exceeding the height of the Waterline supertall project [...]

HKS is behind the Wilson Tower project, which will complement the 43-story 700 River development that broke ground recently on a tract fast becoming Austin’s “second” downtown. The would-be new record-setter had been previously planned for only 54 stories and is now advertising lets for its 450 available luxury units. Amenities like a movie theater and indoor dog run are included in a four-story block. The rest of the program appears standard fare for a city that now boasts nine of the wealthiest 1,000 neighborhoods in the country.

Image courtesy HKS/Wilson Capital

"I don't think the need for housing is going anywhere," an unnamed developer told Austin Business Journal, referencing the state capital’s dual status as the fastest-growing city in America. "Looking into the future, when this building is planned to come online, we still see Austin with the incredibly strong fundamentals needed to support a project like this."

Image courtesy HKS/Wilson Capital

...

BIG and ICON’s community of 100 3D printed homes begins construction in Texas

2022-11-10T14:28:00-05:00

Construction has commenced on the largest community of 3D printed residences in the United States. The hundred-home 'Wolf Ranch' development was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printing technology group ICON and is being constructed in the city of Georgetown, Texas, just north of Austin.

Concept image courtesy of ICON / BIG

The scheme is comprised of eight floorplans ranging from 1,574 to 2,112 square feet, split between three and four-bedroom units. The interior material palette includes printed wall textures and polished concrete floors, while the homes' exteriors will be chosen from 24 elevation styles. The roof of each home will also include solar panels.

Concept image courtesy of ICON / BIG

The interior and exterior walls will be delivered using a fleet of 3D printing robots, which the team believes will yield less waste and more design freedom. The development partners also see the accelerated construction process behind the community as a precedent for addressing the ...

Meet the ‘audacious, joyful’ RIOS collective: Your Next Employer?

2022-11-04T13:06:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Atlanta-based Houser Walker, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Los Angeles this week to meet the international design collective RIOS.

Founded by Mark Rios in 1985, the collective has evolved from its architectural and landscape architecture routes to occupy offices across LA, Austin, Boulder, and Portland, as well as international offices in London and Singapore. Among the studio’s ongoing work is a $600 million Hollywood media studio project which we reported on last month.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the collective is currently hiring for several positions in their Los Angeles office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about life at an architecture studio, we spoke with the RIOS team for a behind-the-scenes look at the firm.

Harlow at Sunset Las Palmas Studios by RIOS. Image credit: Hunter Kerhart

How did RIOS get started?

RIOS was founded in Los Angeles in 1985 by Mark Rios. For...

Related Companies expands into Austin with a pair of new office projects from Gensler and KPF

2022-09-19T12:39:00-04:00

The ever-changing skyline of Texas’ eccentric state capital is getting another pair of new additions after Hudson Yards developer Related Companies announced plans this month for two new separate Austin office buildings designed by Gensler and KPF.

Related says both projects will be located in South Austin and are slated to be completed in 2024 and 2025 respectively. The larger 15-story One Ladybird Lake tower is designed by KPF for a 3.3-acre plot located along the waterfront at the city’s Lady Bird Lake reservoir. Its total 475,000-square-foot construction will include a mixed program of ground-level retail spaces topped by office amenities with four wraparound terraces, a bar, green spaces, and an activated rooftop area created by the local landscaping concern TBG.

One Ladybird Lake by KPF. Image courtesy Related Companies

This is to be joined by a shorter 5-story development located half a mile to the south on 901 South Co...

Herzog & de Meuron designs a mass timber mixed-use development in Austin

2022-08-19T15:14:00-04:00

Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled designs for a mixed-use, mass timber development in Austin, Texas. When complete, it will be the firm’s first built project in Texas.

The Sixth&Blanco scheme, located in a district adjacent to downtown and the Colorado River, will span a full city block and include a hotel, offices, residences, shops, and dining opportunities. According to the architects, the design seeks to compliment the "existing vernacular store fronts, notable restaurants, stores, galleries, generous tree-lined streets, and the walkable character of the surrounding Clarksville neighborhood."

The developers hope to integrate within the program "generous greenery, passively-cooled indoor/outdoor spaces, an active neighborhood storefront and the use of a materials palette aligned with the historic fabric."

Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron

Within a continuous horizontal wooden structure, a collection of shops and restaurants occupy the ground floor, offices on the second floor, a...

UT Austin's Materials Lab awarded $60,000 grant to reframe collection with focus on sustainable materials

2022-08-12T17:30:00-04:00

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture's Materials Lab and Interior Design Program have been awarded a $60,000 grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation. The money will be used to reimagine how students learn about materials by reframing the Materials Lab’s existing collection to better highlight sustainable products.

Beginning this fall, two graduate students and one undergraduate interior design student will work closely with Jen Wong, Lecturer and Director of the Materials Lab, to restructure the initiative’s circulating library and digital databases. They will be tasked with employing industry-standard sustainability criteria and certifications from resources, including the Mindful Materials database, the International Living Future Institute, and Building Green, to develop a new classification system for the collection. It will highlight materials relating to circularity, embodied carbon, health and toxicity, and social equity.

“For the Interior Design Progra...

Trahan Architects to design a new performing arts center for the Asian American Resource Center in Austin

2022-03-18T19:56:00-04:00

The Asian American Resource Center (AARC) of Austin, Texas is getting an artistic new addition thanks to a design from Trahan Architects.

The New York and New Orleans-based firm was selected to envision a new performing arts space for the center, which will come in the form of two dueling 200- and 400-seat theaters housed within a singular structure on the AARC’s campus in northeast Austin.

Trahan’s design places the arts space next to the existing AARC facility on a 15-acre site at the nexus of Cameron Road and Clear Creek Drive.

Site plan of the planned Performing Arts Center at the Asian American Resource Center. Image courtesy the City of Austin

“[We] feel privileged to be working on such an important cultural project which will enrich the lives of the Asian American community members in Austin and its surrounding areas,” Managing Principal Kevin Thomas said in a statement. “The firm is well-positioned to do this meaningful work by approaching the design to ensure diverse commun...

Inside ICON’s curving 3D printed home by Lake|Flato in Austin

2022-03-02T11:59:00-05:00

ICON has unveiled a completed 3D printed home in Austin, Texas designed by Lake|Flato. Named “House Zero,” the home adopts a “mid-century modernist ranch house aesthetic” while also exploring how 3D printing can enhance resilience and sustainability.

The project comprises of a main three-bedroom home spanning over 2000 square feet, and a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit spanning 350 square feet. The walls of the home were constructed using “Lavacrete,” a 3D printed cement-based material, with combines with insulation and steel reinforcement to form the external envelope. The team believes that the thermal mass properties of Lavacrete will enhance energy efficiency by slowing heat transfer, increasing insulation, and providing a more airtight envelope.

Photo credit: Casey Dunn

The curved 3D printed walls also serve as a strong design feature throughout the home, with rounded corners creating soft, natural circulation routes through the home. “While the organic nature of the 3D-pri...

$1 million donated to UT Austin School of Architecture honoring John S. Chase, their first Black graduate

2022-02-28T12:12:00-05:00

The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture has received a $1 million donation honoring John S. Chase, the first Black graduate of the school and the first Black licensed architect in the state of Texas. The donation has been provided by Tony Chase and his wife Dr. Dina Alsowayel. An entrepreneur, law professor, and civic leader based in Houston, Tony Chase is also the son of John S. Chase.

The $1 million donation will create two new permanent endowments. The first, named the John S. Chase Family Endowed Graduate Fellowship, will be used primarily to increase diversity and representation in the profession by recruiting graduates of historically Black colleges and universities. Meanwhile, the John S. Chase Family Endowed Professorship in Architecture will help recruit and retain outstanding faculty and support their research of the built environment.

Archinect Feature: Architecture Gets Psychosocial, Socioracial & Sociospatial: A Conversation with Todd Brown, UT Au...

A split structure made of poured concrete, steel beams, and wood

2022-02-14T11:23:00-05:00

He was drawn to the pit house design because it would make the home feel like a bunker. Like the pipeline, which was removed, the house would be embedded into the land, but instead of posing an environmental threat, it would provide a healthy habitat for plant and animal species to flourish. He also wanted the house to be no larger than the 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment he’d been living in with his son. The Edgeland House’s green roofs are perhaps its most magnificent feature.

Julie Pool visits Edgeland House in East Austin, by Bercy Chen Studio, to chat with the author Christopher Brown.

Edgeland House, view more on Bercy Chen's Archinect profile

11 featured architecture jobs in Austin, Texas

2022-02-10T16:01:00-05:00

If y'all are on the lookout for attractive architectural career opportunities in Austin, make sure to consider this week's curated job picks from the Archinect job board. Our selection includes recently posted openings at architecture and design firms in the city as well as academic vacancies at the University of Texas at Austin. For even more positions, visit Archinect Jobs.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

Runa Workshop seeks a Senior Project Manager/Project Architect
"We are seeking to find an experienced Senior Project Manager and Senior Project Architect with a minimum of 10 years of experience working on commercial projects that align with our body of work. Someone that can be both a leader and a mentor. We are looking for a creative, enthusiasti...

New approaches to housing offer new career moves for designers

2022-01-31T10:15:00-05:00

Last month, we reported on two stories that demonstrate the range of architectural start-ups emerging to address a lack of housing in the USA and further afield.

One example came from established leaders in the industry, with Bjarke Ingels unveiling details of Nabr, his “people-first housing company” which promises to “put more people on a path to owning a high-quality, environmentally friendly home in the city.” Boasting partnerships with Google, NASA, Apple, Lego, and Tesla, Nabr is an example top-down innovation, with global corporations injecting capital into novel approaches for the future of living; funding which has already allowed Nabr to amass $1 trillion in projects under planning.

December also saw an example of bottom-up support for innovation in housing, with the announcement that UK-based start-up HOKO Design had raised $590,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. Founded in 2...

Master-planned community set to rise near Austin Tesla factory

2022-01-03T13:53:00-05:00

Austin can’t get enough of Tesla, it seems. Developers of a master-planned community near the electric vehicle factory under construction submitted plans for 300 new apartments and 200 single-family homes to the city this month, according to the Austin Business Journal.

Canadian company Brookfield Residential Properties wants to build the homes on vacant land in a 3,200-acre planned community in Southeast Austin called Easton Park. Brookfield is partnering with Houston-based Hines investment group on the project, and civil engineering firm Consort submitted the plans for the new apartments.

Previously on Archinect: Plans for Tesla's $1.1 billion Cybertruck plant advance

As reported by The Real Deal, real estate data firm Zonda ranks Easton Park the fourth most active area for construction in Austin. It is set to have 12,000 new homes in the next eight to ten years.

BIG and ICON team up once again on a 3D printed hundred-home design for Texas’ rapidly changing state capital

2021-10-27T12:10:00-04:00

As part of the firm’s evolving partnership with ICON, BIG has once again teamed up with the Texas-based manufacturer to design a 100-home neighborhood in the tech company’s adopted hometown of Austin.

Proffered as a potential solution to the dearth of housing units in the U.S. market, the homes will be produced via ICON’s Vulcan 3D printer technology and touted as providing more longevity than traditional concrete masonry housing.

The plan in many ways resembles the classic American subdivisons that cropped up after World War II. America is facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis that has disproportionately affected one’s ability to buy a home across multiple demographic levels. BIG announced a new affordable housing initiative called NABR over the summer that promises to address some of the same issues. 2020 saw the first year in which the primary means of homeownership in the U.S. went from income to inheritance.

Image courtesy ICON

“The things we use everyday, essenti...

ICON's new 3D printed homes in Austin are “safer, more resilient homes”

2021-08-31T10:47:00-04:00

ICON has released photographs of their completed multi-family homes in Austin, Texas which make use of 3D printed construction methods. The four homes, situated in East Austin, were built for Kansas City developer 3Strands, and designed by Logan Architecture.

Image via ICON

The ground floors of the houses were built using ICON’s 3D-printed Vulcan construction system, while the upper floors were constructed using a traditional timber frame system. Other features of note include energy-efficient tankless water heaters, standing seam metal sliding and roof panels, and internal quartz and Carrera marble countertops.

Image via ICON

Speaking during the announcement of the project’s completion, ICON pointed to the potential for 3D printed technology to offer “safer, more resilient homes that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built homes.”

Kitchen area. Image via ICON

The homes’ internal finishes and fixtures were curated by Aus...

Pelli Clarke Pelli's Google Tower is ahead of schedule

2021-08-24T17:25:00-04:00

Block 185 or “Google Tower,” the future site of Google’s regional headquarters in Austin, Texas, is ahead of schedule according to Construction Dive.

Construction of the 35-story office building, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and STG Design for developers Trammell Crow Company, began in March 2019 and was originally scheduled for completion in August 2022. However, this has been pushed forward to May, and in July, it was reported that the tower has topped out at 590 feet.

Previously on Archinect: Pelli Clarke Pelli's Austin tower for Google is making progress

As detailed by Construction Dive, a series of techniques were employed to keep the project ahead of schedule. Executives at DPR Construction, the project’s general contractor, highlighted these beneficial factors, which include: quick adjustments to working amidst the pandemic, early access to materials, access to a large amount of storage space, a strong workforce, great relationships with strategic partners and s...

Pelli Clarke Pelli's Austin tower for Google is making progress

2021-04-13T15:24:00-04:00

Block 185, the downtown Austin office tower project best known as the future home of Google, has made significant progress since its groundbreaking back in the downright prehistoric era of 2019 — and though it hasn’t reached its full height of 594 feet just yet, the 35-floor building’s ever-growing prominence on the downtown skyline is becoming increasingly difficult to overlook.

The 35-story Block 185 office tower, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in collaboration with the local office of STG Design for developers Trammell Crow Company, will be Google's regional HQ in Austin. Completion is scheduled in 2022.

Previously on Archinect: Pelli Clarke Pelli, Gensler projects reshape Austin's skyline

ICON enters 3D-printed multi-home housing market in Texas

2021-03-09T14:32:00-05:00

After completing two dozen 3D-printed structures across central Texas, printing a small community for impoverished residents in Mexico, and teaming up up with BIG and SEArch+ to create an off-world building system for the Moon, construction technology company ICON is now breaking into the mainstream housing development market: in collaboration with Kansas City developer 3Strands and Austin-based Logan Architecture, a multi-home ensemble of four buildings (according to the company, the first of its kind in the U.S.) has been steadily growing in an East Austin neighborhood.

Dubbed East 17th Street Residences, the two to four bedroom, 1,000 to 2,000 sq ft homes all have a 3D-printed first floor using ICON's proprietary technology and material, a cementitious material called Lavacrete. The printing portion took about 5 to 7 days per home.

Site plan with all 4 residences

Floor plans of the 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 1,928-sf Treehouse Residence.

With printing completed and finish-out underwa...