Location: Austin, Texas

Design Team: Gary Furman, Philip Keil, Jason Kerensky, Troy Miller, Drew Wilson

Contractor: IE2

Structural Engineer: Architectural Engineers Collaborative

MEP Engineer: AYS Engineering

Building Enclosure: Acton Partners

Landscape Design: Word + Carr Design Group

Lighting Design: Studio Lumina

Security/Low Voltage: HAAS Home Technologies

Photographer: Casey Dunn

East 11th Street is the “Main Street” of a very diverse neighborhood in East Austin, offering a vibrant mix of small, locally owned businesses, shops, and restaurants. Located at the corner of 11th and Navasota, the site for 1211 East Eleventh anchors the eastern end of the pedestrian-oriented commercial strip and overlooks the park-like Texas State Cemetery where the urban street character and scale shifts to a residential neighborhood.

1211’s form is drawn from this transitional corner condition. The ground floor is clad in brick and scaled to match the low-slung historic building next door which houses a restaurant. Two street-level retail shops in the new building take advantage of the wide pedestrian sidewalk. The upper floor, featuring tenant office space, is clad in box-rib metal siding and is oriented to take in views of the park-like landscape of the cemetery to the east. Parking is tucked underneath the rear, elevated portion of the building.

A trellised terrace on the northwest corner softens the scale of the building, with plants drawing attention to the activity upstairs. The terrace helps connect the building to the street life below and the city skyline beyond. Available for use by all of the building’s tenants, the terrace provides a nice spot for lunch or host an outdoor meeting.

The character of the exterior and interior of the building is purposefully austere, with the steel structure and humble materials of the building left exposed, in keeping with the rough-and-tumble vibe of East Austin.

Recognition:

HomeWorldDesign.com, 1211 East Eleventh / Furman & Keil Architects, April 2025

Metal Construction News, “Industrial Architecture Inspires Mixed-Use Building”, April 2022

“Planting Roots: How Austin’s Architect-Developers are Reshaping the City - and Themselves”, 2020

Archdaily.com, 1211 East Eleventh Studio, 2020

Texas Society of Architects Annual Conference: case study presentation “Architect as Developer”, 2020

Texas Association of Landscape Architects: Merit Award, 2020

AIA Austin “Architect as Developer” resource group: building tour, 2019

AIA Austin Annual Summer Conference: case study presentation “Architect as Developer”, 2017