“Carefully designed buildings and a sensitive site plan set up a structural timber building supporting a low embodied energy approach to hospitality and wellness. This project contributes in its scale and impact to a long view of the role buildings and places play.”
— Claire Weisz, FAIA
Location Austin
Client Hotel Magdalena Joint Venture
Architect Lake|Flato Architects
Design Team David Lake, FAIA, Sophia Razzaque, AIA, Michael Britt, AIA, Melina Phillips, AIA, Sam Vonderau, Jef Snyder, AIA, Todd Wascher, AIA, Grace Boudewyns, AIA, Sara Todavchick
Contractor MYCON General Contractors
Operator/Interiors Bunkhouse Group
Structural Engineers Architectural Engineers Collaborative, StructureCraft
Timber Superstructure StructureCraft
MEP Engineer Integral Group
Landscape Architect Ten Eyck Landscape Architects
Hotel Magdalena in Austin’s South Congress neighborhood is the first mass timber boutique hotel in North America. Visitors are greeted by a two-way, gridded porte-cochère and enjoy common exterior spaces, outdoor walkways, deeply shaded porches, and lush landscaping. The mass timber panels and heavy timber structural components were prefabricated off site, with a multistory walkway structure with gapped dowel laminated timber panels designed to accommodate existing heritage oak trees. Showcasing the wood provides a warm, textured material in the guestrooms and common porches while allowing sustainable structures and construction practices to be viewed and shared by visitors from around the world.