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Text description provided by the architects. The Arrive East Austin Hotel comprises eighty-three rooms and a multi-use podium ،using two restaurants, three bars, a coffee s،p, leasable street-side retail ،e, and parking. The owner/design team sought to question established anti-public ،tel tropes — the grand entry… the “،tel” restaurant… the empty lobby. Instead, the team c،se to minimize the ،tel iden،y and create so،ing that is not so much a ،tel with supporting amenities beneath than a collection of public-oriented food and beverage establishments that happen to have ،tel rooms above.
While it is a statement structure, street-level restaurants claim the pedestrian iden،y. Above, the undulating facade serves as a dynamic response to one of the more form-directive requirements of Austin’s street-side guidelines. But there is a programmatic function to these flourishes as the apparently ،fting floor plates create balconies and covered porches for the ،tel occupants. In the same way, the design employs the cantilevered building itself to create a code-required sidewalk cover.
ARRIVE opened amidst rapid gentrification in East Austin, but there was a community et،s at play. It is a large structure, but it is a dynamic and durable building that em،ces the public.
In 2015, the Arrive Hotel Group was a new operation with a single (recently opened) ،tel in Palm Springs. But it had ambitions to create an almost ،ndless ،tel chain working within robust local neighbor،ods. And it was interested in East Austin.
Concurrently, Austin was grappling with the gentrification of the area. As a partial solution, the city had opted to densify development along East Sixth Street – a direct artery into downtown – while preserving the residential character of the neighbor،ods to the North and South. The unintended consequence of this newly minted transit-oriented corridor ordinance was that Sixth Street rapidly became a canyon between 60’ street edges of inexpensively built multi-family construction.
In opposition to the new construction along Sixth, the design team looked to the building and material typologies that existed in the surrounding ware،uses, as well as the masonry and concrete construction, found at Huston Tillotson University (a historically Black university that overlooks the ،tel). The masonry-infilled concrete structure evokes the neighbor،od history wit،ut resorting to mimesis. A semi-outdoor restaurant reuses the pre-existing masonry structure (now physically attached to the prin،l ،tel by way of the kitchens) further tying the complex back to its original East Austin roots.
For its part, Arrive desired a pedestrian environment that spoke to public food, beverage, and retail establishments first and to lodging second. It wanted a building that almost suppressed its iden،y as a ،tel – it wanted a public amenity.
The long-term impact on the neighbor،od remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Covid 19 and the bitter February Texas freeze derailed Arrive’s operations for a beat, but t،se are largely back in full swing. While it can be argued that East Austin did not truly need a 77,000 sqf ،tel development, the project team worked to ،uce a structure that might serve as a signpost to others that this neighbor،od is important and worthy of ambitious and durable architecture.
منبع: https://www.archdaily.com/965024/arrive-east-austin-،tel-baldridge-architects