East 6th Street Offices

The East 6th Street Office project was a rehabilitation of a historic 1873 building in the bar district of downtown Austin, Texas. The owners purchased the existing shot bar and converted it to a corporate office space. Their programmatic goals were twofold. First, they needed to consolidate several of their office locations so that all corporate employees would be under one roof. Secondly, the community goal was to take a building with a very negative impact on 6th street and convert it to a model project for future development on the historic street.

This project includes both office and restaurant uses. The office portion is 6,707 square feet and houses over 70 employees. Since the project is long and narrow, a new central cupola floods the space with natural light for all employees and reduces power requirements to keep the office lit during the day. For the restaurant portion, the owners understood that a single use building was not consistent with the 24-hour nature of 6th Street. Therefore, 650 square feet of retail space was carved out of the front of the building to provide an active use for pedestrians and tourists. The space was leased to an authentic ramen noodle house.

The design for the space includes natural materials and warm tones. To highlight the industrial aesthetic, reclaimed and refurbished mid-century tanker desks were used in lieu of modular furniture. The steel of the original structure was also exposed to highlight the evolving history of this formerly tarnished gem on 6th Street.