San Antonio, Texas, USA
Designed by Lake|Flato Architects, in partnership with Hixon Properties and BOKA Powell and Hocker Design Group have designed The Soto—Texas’ first mass-timber office building—an elegant structure that anchors the Cavender Neighborhood, an exciting new mixed-use project in the up-and-coming Broadway corridor of San Antonio.
The project is the first phase of an 8.5-acre mixed-use area that includes ground floor commercial retail, office space and below grade, parking organized around an open courtyard.
A two-storey porch wraps one corner and offers views along with one of the City’s main thoroughfares.
The primary design direction was to provide a unique and beautiful workplace that appeals to tenants, is highly flexible, and incorporates technologies that make the building operationally efficient and sustainable.
The entire development focuses on efficiency, sustainability, flexibility, and innovation.
Soto is the Spanish (Castillian) word for a “grove of trees” or “small forest,” especially one near a river, or a place of dappled sunlight and lush greenery.
Soto is a name, a place, and an acknowledgment of this building’s origin.
Not only is timber construction beautiful, but it is also exceptionally sustainable.
Concrete and steel buildings have large carbon footprints, whereas The Soto’s timber structure is carbon negative.
As young-growth trees are harvested for the building’s construction, the carbon dioxide absorbed into the wood is captured.
New trees are then planted, and the cycle of carbon-banking is repeated. This LEED-certified structure is comprised of five stories of DLT (dowel-laminated timber) timber over one story of concrete.
Exposed floor and roof decks create a richness found only from natural products and welcoming timber columns, beams, and ceilings bring a calming charm and warmth to the workspace.
One of the distinguishing features of The Soto is its full-depth brick facade, making it one of the first North American projects to combine mass timber with masonry.
The result is an environment and aesthetic that is distinctly differentiated from any other office space in the market.
Project: The Soto Office Building
Architect: Lake|Flato Architects
Architects of Record: BOKA Powell
Project Team: Chris Barnes, Eric Van Hyfte, Sania Shifferd, Mike Smith, Miren Urena, Leonardo Caballero, and Danielle Smyth
Landscape Architects: Hocker Design Group
General Contractor: Byrne Construction Services
Client: Hixon Properties
Photographers: Erika Brown Edwards andTravis W. Baker
