Lake Flato Renovates Amenity Spaces at 600 Congress Avenue, Austin

The 31,000-square-foot renovation of the 1984 office building at 600 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin was undertaken by Lake Flato. The project reinterprets and reveals the building’s original architectural ideas while delivering a modern, biophilic workplace.

By restoring a central circular floor opening as the Lowyard lounge and introducing a dramatic five-story atrium topped with a 35-foot-tall living wall, the design reconnects occupants with daylight and texture. The new layout also creates a clear spatial sequence that had been obscured by decades of renovations.

Project Overview and Design Intent

Lake Flato’s intervention focuses on uncovering the building’s core ideas—integrity of form, human-scale interactions, and an indoor-outdoor logic—within a contemporary program. The renovations emphasize spatial clarity and tactile materials.

Light-filled moments encourage social interaction. A design approach rooted in biophilic precedents shapes both the interior and the exterior, aligning this urban retrofit with sustainability and well-being goals.

The team collaborated with a cross-disciplinary group and imposed a deliberate constraint: keep new finishes below a 21-foot datum to preserve sightlines and spatial rhythm. Lighting is used to highlight eye-level experiences.

The result is an architecture that feels both timeless and refreshed. The design traces back to the lobby’s original language.

Revealing the Original Architecture

Central to the project was reinstating and reorganizing the lobby’s circular floor opening, a feature drawn from Morris Aubrey Architect’s original concept. This element becomes the backbone of the Lowyard lounge, a vibrant, five-storey atrium anchored by a sculptural staircase.

Concentric interior storefront rings reinforce a sense of circulation and enclosure. A new 35-foot-tall green wall conceals elevator cores and marks the Congress Avenue entry.

The approach intentionally uncovers architectural priorities that had been masked by later renovations. This allows the building to read as a sequence of spaces rather than a collection of disconnected interventions.

Biophilic design principles guide the composition. Daylight and greenery recalibrate how occupants experience the atrium and adjacent spaces.

Biophilic Strategy and Interior Finishes

To translate biophilia into daily life, Lake Flato partnered with a local agriculturalist to install the living wall and maximize natural light. Inside, the palette shifts away from dark, artificial materials toward warmer, tactile finishes.

White oak paneling, textured earthy plaster, light terrazzo floors, and blackened steel accents create a calmer, more human-scale environment. This supports prolonged occupancy and spontaneous interaction.

With budget as a constraint, the team concentrated new finishes below the 21-foot datum. Custom suspended lighting at eye level creates a focused visual moment and a sense of intimate scale within the taller atrium space.

The Highyard Roof Terrace

On the 26th floor, Lake Flato created the Highyard, a roof terrace with a steel canopy and a vine trellis that shade teak decking. Native-plant steel planters, integrated seating, and a carefully choreographed flow convert previously unoccupiable roof space into a welcoming outdoor environment for office users and tenants.

The terrace acts as a social and occupational nexus. It encourages informal meetings, breaks, and outdoor work in a climate-appropriate setting.

Project Team and Execution

The renovation team united Lake Flato with BOKA Powell as architect of record and Beacon Capital as developer. A group of consultants supported structural, landscape, and MEP design.

Key collaborators include Blacksmith Collaborative (landscape), Architectural Engineers Collaborative (structural engineering), and Wiley Engineering (MEP). Photography by Chase Daniel documents the project’s transformative moments and the evolving material vocabulary.

• Lake Flato – design lead and integrator of architecture and biophilic strategy
• BOKA Powell – architect of record
• Beacon Capital – developer
• Blacksmith Collaborative – landscape
• Architectural Engineers Collaborative – structural engineering
• Wiley Engineering – MEP engineering
• Chase Daniel – project photography

Broader Context and Ongoing Urban Work

The 600 Congress Avenue project is part of Lake Flato’s wider urban portfolio. This portfolio includes the San Antonio airport expansion and a 3D-printed house in Austin.

These projects show a commitment to adaptive reuse and context-responsive design. They also focus on creating spaces where people can linger, collaborate, and enjoy better urban life.

The Congress Avenue renovation shows how remodeling can restore a building’s original spirit. It also brings modern performance and social energy to the space.

This project demonstrates that preserving form, revealing heritage, and adding natural elements can create a refreshed yet timeless workplace. Such workplaces support tenant engagement and improve urban livability.

 
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