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." 

Within a continuous horizontal wooden structure, a collection of shops and restaurants occupy the ground floor, offices on the second floor, a hotel on the third floor, and residential units on the fourth and fifth floors. The building is viewed as a series of two-story structures organized around planted courtyards. The structure steps back from the street and decreases in density as it grows taller, making room for a network of exterior circulation spaces with gardens, courtyards, and porches on all levels. 

As stated by the firm, “The project brings a human scale and a sense of domestic comfort to all — instead of a singular uniform gesture, the project is a complex sum of its many individual parts.”

As Herzog & de Meuron is not licensed to practice architecture in Texas, the firm worked with the Austin office of Page Southerland Page, who is listed as the Architect of Record of the project.