Austin’s Starr Building to be reborn.
Historic downtown building set to be new home to ad agency after renovations.
By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, June 03, 2009
(Click here to read the full article.)
Vacant and overlooked for four years, a 55-year-old downtown Austin building once heralded as an icon of midcentury modern design is about to be restored largely to its original state. More than a half century ago, Fortune magazine included the mural on a short list of “the most distinguished national examples of architectural paintings.” The building opened in 1954 as American National Bank. It had Austin’s first escalators and the city’s first drive-up bank. The interior was designed by Florence Knoll, an acclaimed designer. Much of the building’s original marble, Travertine, stainless steel and wood laminate touches are intact. The McGarrah Jessee advertising agency will move in as the new lead tenant. Kemp will seek restaurants, shops and nightlife venues for the retail space, creating what Ball hopes will become a distinctive entertainment and dining hub. Ball said the building could be ready for the first retail tenants by early 2010. With McGarrah Jessee, he said, “the building is going to have a certain cachet,” he said.
Ball said Kemp will be selective in its choice of tenants and hopes to attract design-oriented businesses. “We can’t have just any tenant go into this building,” Ball said. “We want it to be a very energetic, creative center. The people, the chemistry and the vibe are going to be the paramount consideration for this project.”
Kemp has a track record of renovating historic buildings downtown, with projects including the Littlefield and Scarbrough buildings, as well as Norwood Tower and the Brown Building. “Older buildings are tricky, and there are a lot of things you can only learn from experience,” Ball said. “There’s no textbook.”
Eric Webber, a managing partner with McGarrah Jessee, notes that the refurbished building “won’t be totally retro.” “There will be contemporary touches, like using very innovative techniques for sustainable and green design,” Webber said. The building was considered cutting-edge when it was built, Webber said, “and the rehabilitation of the building will be considered the same.” “Restoring old buildings and retaining their flavor, while making them modern and energy-efficient, is a good thing to do,” Patterson said, “particularly in a place like Austin, where not too long ago we were tearing everything down and building multistory high-rises or downtown office buildings without regard to historical preservation.”
The project’s design architect is San Antonio-based Overland Partners, known for developing sustainable and ecologically minded projects, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the LBJ School renovation. The mechanical engineering firm is Arup Engineering, known for the “Bird’s Nest” and “Watercube” buildings from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The interior design firm for McGarrah Jessee’s new space is locally based McKinney York Architects.
