THE MARK AUSTIN
Austin
Merit Award
Sent by: Reference properties
OWNER Reference properties
LEADING DESIGN COMPANY Humphreys & Partners Urban Architecture LP
GENERAL CONTRACTOR Reference construction
CIVIL ENGINEERING Jones Carter Civil Engineering (Quiddity Engineering LLC)
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING PK Associates LLC
MEP ENGINEERING Jordan Scale Engineers
INTERIOR DESIGN Design environments
Located on a 1.2-acre site in Bloomington’s West Campus area, this student housing community features 265 units in a mix of studios and six-bedroom apartments over 17 floors and two lower levels. Five of the floors also host a number of amenities.
Before construction, the team had to demolish an existing 12-story building. This January 2020 demolition was the largest implosion in Austin history, requiring precise and creative engineering. The concrete radial walls are attached to the existing columns on the first two levels of the podium, then, once the explosives were detonated, the building was safely entered into the property.
To comply with zoning codes, the building had to follow a sloped and graded plan on the north side, requiring transfer beams for the structure, and a rooftop pool supported a heavy load. The team worked to keep transfer beams to a minimum while maximizing rentable area within the 175-foot height limit, carefully placing each column and designing floor plans around it. Prefabrication sped up the schedule. The outer frame and skin were prefabricated off-site. The panels were loaded onto a floor after the shoring was removed and then placed within a week. This efficiency allowed the team to begin framing the priority walls, run the sprinkler network, proceed with the plumbing elevations, and dry each level ahead of schedule. These efforts helped the project team deliver the structure under budget and ahead of schedule in July 2023.
