Fareground at One Eleven
Fareground at One Eleven is located in Austin, Texas and was designed by the architects Michael Hsu Office of Architecture completed in 2018 on a ¾ acre site. With a location in downtown Austin, Fareground strives to liberate the once lost landscape of Austin into sunken urban plaza. This project’s main goal was encompassed in creating an environment that strives for community engagement that allows gathering places, socializing settings and entertaining.
With a prime location at the ground floor level of an old office tower in downtown Austin, the urban landscape struggled to create an engaging identity due to the lack of tenants on the ground floor level of the tower. With that developers knew the importance of incorporating the ground floor interior with the exterior landscape in the redevelopment plans. This led the ground floor to have a complete renovation of the lobby which included a food hall as well as the urban plaza.
Community engagement was an important factor in designing the plaza, which led to the incorporation of grand staircases and a ramp that provides universal access to the sunken plaza. With two large oak trees, a turf lawn mitigates between street and plaza which creates spaces with shade while gathering, playing and observing the landscape. Fairground creates a sense of community that was once lost in this urban environment. I appreciate this project incorporating the ground interior level into the renovation. Many times designers like to think that project professions do not overlap or one is more significant than the other. However, Fareground shows the importance of collaboration in developing a sense of community in the environment.
Being from Austin, TX I know this place, and can speak about my experience and the success that this design has fostered.
ReplyDeleteThey host a farmers market in this area during the summer and it is so impressive to see how this space functions compared to the images above. I think you can really tell the success of the space when it is utilized in a function other than what it was initially designed for. This truly is a beautiful space to be in, being surrounded by these large buildings and all this hardscape and finding this little oasis of green that really allows one to feel a part of the city, while also separated. I do not know how else this space is utilized but it being in a central location of the city really allows for it to be a gathering space with in the city.