Best Facades, Face Lifts, and True-to-Forms

Antenora Architects

Space is the place. Austin's public spaces are precious. When we think of public space, natural and architectural wonders like Zilker Park, the UT Tower, the Barton Springs bathhouse, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the LBJ Library all come to mind as places to gather and celebrate our home. Through Austin's Nineties tech boom, new architectural landscapes began adding to that map: White granite edifices typified by the Whole Food/BookPeople complex became as much a part of our design sensibilities as the state Capitol building or a grove of live oak. A more contemporary style has emerged, melding form, function, and Austin's sense of space. Adaptive reuse projects like the Penn Field complex – home of Ruta Maya, the Design Center, and Clear Channel radio – or the transformation of the old Mrs. Baird's bread factory into ALLGO's Tillery Street Theater, have given Austin a well-deserved face lift. The firm responsible for, or somehow involved in, these and other of Austin's finest facades: the lofty Zen location on the Drag, University Federal Credit Union's jarringly elegant Brodie branch, and the nostalgic Davenport Market is Antenora Architects, championing a new era for Austin, forging an aesthetic that is quickly becoming Austin's new signature, carving a space for our sense of place.

Antenora Architects
200 E. Live Oak, 512/462-1848
www.antenoraarchitects.com