Distinctive new Eastside building features cutting-edge construction

When we last visited 901 East Sixth, now under construction and nearing completion at its namesake address, it was to note that Car2Go will move its headquarters to the space—and to point out the ways in which the structure is a unique addition to Austin’s central clutch of new office buildings.

Designed by local partnership architecture office THOUGHTBARN/Delineate Studio, the five-story, 125,000-square-foot office building is, most notably, is the first in Austin to be constructed largely of cross-laminated timber (CLT). The layered-wood material is considered green and sustainable, provides design and construction flexibility, and offers a high level of thermal insulation.

Clad in Cor-Ten, it has 14-foot-ceilings and windows that are nine feet tall at minimum (so: nice views all around) as well as terraces and balconies, social work spaces, bike storage, showers, and two-story, retracting doors and window-walls on the ground floor that connect it with the street and sidewalks.

Thoughtbarn/Delineate Studio courtesy of Car2Go (all renderings)

It’s also located a block from Plaza Saltillo and fronts to the first block of what’s now called the “Eastside Entertainment District,” at least on a brochure advertising the building.

If all that sounds like it might appeal to workers in a particular demographic—i.e., millennials—it’s because it most likely will. Developer/broker Endeavor is certainly banking on that appeal. While the Car2Go headquarters already committed to the property, it’s not leasing the whole thing. Endeavor just put the other office spaces on the market with a campaign that leads with a Thrillist quote about East Austin keeping things weird and a pitch that notes that how well the place jibes with the workplace preferences of that vast generation—places that “promote collaboration and are high-tech, stylish, comfortable, cool, and fun.”

Putting aside the question of what generations wouldn’t like workplaces with those features, it’s clear that 901 East Sixth’s impact on its small patch of the neighborhood is by (literal) design—a good way to stand out amid the frenzy of new development as well as, hopefully, to have a long-term impact on the direction it takes and the people who live and work there.