P A P E R W O R K
Block 21 Mixed-Use Development Planned as the third-tallest building in downtown Austin, the 30-story building will include a hotel and condominium tower, as well as street-level restaurants, a 30,000-sq. ft. children’s museum, and a 1,000-seat studio for live recordings of public television’s Austin City Limits. Large retail spaces will occupy the east and west corners, with parking available below grade. Austin-based Andersson•Wise Architects is the design architect with BOKA Powell in Dallas as associate architect for the project by Austin developer Stratus Properties. With construction set to begin in June 2007, the project is scheduled for completion in 2009. The project will fill the one-block site immediately north of the recently completed Austin City Hall (its “stinger” is shown at far right), and will feature open-air public spaces both at street level and on a raised piano nobile terrace. Limestone and concrete will connect the structure with the Central Texas landscape while transparent and translucent glass will flood interior spaces with abundant natural light. The design includes a landscaped plaza on the mezzanine and deeply recessed balconies and broad extrusions shading the tower’s south and west-facing elevations.
Angelo State University Campus Master Plan Angelo State University, originally San Angelo College and now part of the Texas State University System, adopted its Centennial Master Plan 2028 last year to serve as a blueprint for developing its campus over the years leading up to its 100th anniversary. Facility Programming and Consulting and Ford Powell & Carson Architects & Planners, both of San Antonio, envisioned how the school will accommodate a 60-percent increase in enrollments to a total of 10,000 students. (A detail of the future campus is shown; courtesy FP&C.) A main focus of the master plan is a large pedestrian-friendly plaza bounded by academic facilities. Suggested in the master plan is a clock tower and carillon for the plaza to provide visual and sonic interest, as well as acting as a point of orientation. The master plan also refines walkways to create relationships among new and existing buildings and calls for incorporating public art and architectural craft throughout the campus.
Shotgun Chameleon Designed by University of Houston architecture student Zui Ng (working with professors Rafael Longoria and Fernando Brave, AIA), Shotgun Chameleon was one of two entries by Texas designers to receive an Honor Award in the New Orleans Prototype Housing Competition co-sponsored by Architectural Record and Tulane University’s School of Architecture. Inspired by the city’s raised shotgun houses and Creole cottages, Ng’s design responds to the competition’s call for prefabrication and adaptability. In fact, he conceived variations for six different sites (three in New Orleans and three in Houston). “The chameleon-like front screen element provides a myriad of facade possibilities to adapt this prototype to different urban contexts and to a variety of solar/wind orientations,” Ng explains. “Possibilities include wood siding painted to blend with the streetscape, billboards where commercial uses are feasible on the ground floor, louvered wood to allow for breezes while blocking direct sun and providing privacy, or vine-covered screens reminiscent of French Quarter balconies.”
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