Bratton Business Park
Bratton Business Park features a 95,000 s.f. speculative tilt-wall building located on the edge of an older industrial development in Northwest Austin. The surrounding area ranges from 1980s exposed-aggregate structures to textured, painted tilt-wall buildings from the early 2000s. Tasked with creating something distinct from the warm, beige tones and anodized aluminum windows typical of the area, Studio8 delivered a design that stands apart.
The building embraces a cooler palette of grays and blues, complemented by black mullioned windows. Initially planned to have painted board-formed concrete panels, the team decided to leave them unpainted after discovering the exceptional quality of the casting, which introduces a subtle warmth to the façade. Vertical, internally lit blue entry markers add a striking signature element to the design, establishing a contemporary identity for the business park.
Challenge
The grading of Bratton was deceptively difficult. The site had a significant slope along the front, and the team wanted to avoid a slab break in the multi-tenant building due to potential leasing issues. Using fill and storm drainage solutions would have been costly.
Solution
The design team dug the South end of the building into the grade as much as possible. As the building elevation rises at the main parking entry drive, it creates a subgrade interior condition for a few structural bays before dropping below subgrade again. At the North end, the building emerges significantly from the grade. This approach allowed most of the elevation to be sheet drained and provided on-grade entries at the South and middle of the building. An ADA ramp was used to handle the out-of-grade entry on the North.
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