San Antonio, Texas, USA
Following an extensive transformation of the downtown office in downtown San Antonio, Lake|Flato Architects has created a reinvigorated space designed to promote creativity, collaboration, and culture.
Over the last few years, the firm’s design team has worked tirelessly to create a healthy, inclusive work environment that applies design principles that have defined their work for decades.
The result is a flexible office designed for the modern workplace that connects people to the outdoors and to each other.
With the building’s original bones on display, and through a design exercise of subtracting rather than adding the new 311 Third office proudly references the firm’s history in the Alamo City while supporting our continued growth.
Lake|Flato has been housed in the same building in downtown San Antonio – a “warehouse-like” three-story structure that was once a car dealership.
The building’s original function is to thank for much of the original design: massive, heavy concrete beams spanning 50 feet and 13-foot ceilings were necessary for the cars stored in the upper levels.
Initially, Lake|Flato rented only one-half of the building’s second floor and was surrounded by other tenants, including lawyers, a radio station, and fellow architects.
A deal was struck between the building’s then-owner and the eager architects on the second floor, David Lake and Ted Flato: ownership in the building in exchange for their design services to fix it up.
Up until then, the firm had mostly worked on ranch houses and residences that were embedded in the landscape.
Lake|Flato’s first office became our first commercial project.
“Adaptive reuse was always something we wanted to be doing and so this was an early option to do that… We really desperately wanted to be downtown and be a part of the whole revival of downtown, so everything about this opportunity was perfect,” says Ted Flato.
The firm had taken over every square foot of the building with more than 100 employees based in San Antonio.
While the office had been renovated in pieces over the years, it had been years since the building’s most significant design overhaul.
Designers from across the firm named the office’s future transformation “Living the Dream,” a commitment to renovate and expand the office into a healthy, high-performing, and flexible workplace.
“Our design process, much like we conduct with our clients, was very inclusive. We spent a lot of time talking to staff members at all levels about what they would like to see in our renovated office. We did that through individual meetings and surveys to hear all the voices. From there we spent time, of course, creating a beautiful design that Jamie [Sartory] led,” says Brandi Rickels, a partner at Lake|Flato.
Equipped with new ideas and tools supporting hybrid work, Lake|Flato decided to reconfigure its indoor office environment and replace onsite parking with an outdoor courtyard.
The design team saw this project as an exercise in removing and renovating, rather than adding – encouraging health and wellness through outdoor amenities, connections to nature, and alternative modes of transportation.
The historic façade of the former parking garage was preserved and reinforced to maintain the urban scale and streetscape.
In place of the former garage doors, a new pedestrian gate serves as the office’s “front door” and transports employees and visitors into the shaded urban respite as they enter the office.
The four-season outdoor courtyard is now an extension of the office and serves as a natural backdrop for a variety of work, community, and social collaborations throughout the year.
Immersed in a garden setting, this outdoor space has become the firm’s most cherished collaboration space.
Expansive doors connect the courtyard to the ground level of the office, where the floor plan has been opened to create generous gathering spaces for employees and clients.
In the reception, Lake|Flato’s interior design team mixed vintage and custom furniture with significant pieces by regional artists.
Project: 311 3RD Transformation
Architects: Lake|Flato Architects
Lead Architects: David Lake and Ted Flato
Project Manager: Jamie Sartory
Photographs: Courtesy of Lake|Flato Architects