Office parks are not typically known for their character and charm. Engineered for efficiency, the results are often soulless and brutal—exactly the opposite of a space where you’d want to spend the majority of your waking hours. Overland and their clients wanted to rethink this, believing that a little warmth, daylight, and human contact can go a long way.
Overland’s approach to the Champion Office Park site embodied principles usually applied to homes and educational spaces. The site needed to be rethought, but it had the capacity for internal consistency, flow, and cohesion. The hope was that this new workability would be desirable to tenants, keeping the space occupied and profitable for the client.
With vision and sensitivity, Champion Office Park had the potential to become prime office space with commanding views of the Austin landscape and a prominent position atop a limestone bluff.
As they reworked the site, the team tweaked existing buildings and parking garages to encourage circulation throughout the property, allowing efficient flow throughout. They kept as many trees as possible and incorporated vine coverage into the design of parking garages.
The building is tied to the landscape with limestone and cedar, and window space is maximized not only to increase daylight and energy efficiency but to allow the people inside to look out onto the sweeping views.
The end result feels more like a single campus than an office park. The unified site made it appealing to a tenant large enough to lease the entire development, saving the client money. The offices were LEED certified upon completion, and serve as an excellent example for how a project can be sensitive to the human needs and the environment and while still remaining profitable.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH STUDIO8 ARCHITECTS