Sixth River Architects stresses close collaboration with clients in the unique environment of Austin, Texas.

Austin Music Hall in Austin, Texas, has become a mecca of sorts for all kinds of music lovers. Since it was converted from a warehouse in 1994, the venue has hosted acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Beck. Barry Kohlus, COO of owner Direct Events, says the building is uniquely “Austin” and represents the spirit of the community.

It makes sense, then, that Direct Events would turn to Austin-based Sixth River Architects to handle the renovation and expansion of the building. Sixth River President Rollie Roessner says the firm’s strong collaborative culture made it a perfect fit for the Austin Music Hall project. “The biggest thing is, we feel pretty strongly that we don’t want to promote a celebrity designer per se,” he says. “We want to promote collaboration.”

From the internal structure of the design teams to the way it interacts with clients, Roessner says Sixth River makes collaboration and cooperation an integral part of the work it does. “It’s important to us that we don’t just have a couple of guys designing [interiors] in an ivory tower and sending them down for other people to figure out how to build them,” shareholder Jeff Needles says.

A Bigger Venue
The firm’s penchant for collaboration came into play almost immediately for the Austin Music Hall project, Needles says. “When we were brought onto the project, the entire team developed the scope during pre-design or ‘vision-building’ sessions prior to initiating the schematic design phase,” he says. Kohlus says Direct Events and Sixth River worked very closely to tackle many of the challenges posed by the site, as well as develop the look and features of the new building. “It has been a very symbiotic relationship,” he says.

There were some parameters, however. The building’s footprint completely covered the property, making it impossible to expand the structure outward. The property also ends about 100 yards from the Colorado River, as well as backing up to a major tributary. Additionally, a significant issue was noise pollution in the city’s developing arts district.

“One of the hurdles this facility has faced is the fact that the preexisting facility sat on the property line, so you can’t expand in the traditional way,” Kohlus says. “What we were forced to do is go vertical.”

The roof of the original building was 23 feet high, but was raised to 52 feet, solving the footprint situation. Needles says portions of the building have been cantilevered out over Shoal Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River, which runs behind the building, for additional space.

Originally, the Austin Music Hall’s occupancy was about 1,000 people, but the expanded venue is expected to have occupancy of around 4,000 people. Support columns inside the original building blocked the view of the stage in many places, so the balcony was suspended from the ceiling so that those columns could be removed.

Roessner says Sixth River and Direct Events brought in consultants and operators from other venues as well as major entertainment representatives for a variety of performers to review the plans and make suggestions. “It’s been a total collaboration; the contractor, Harvey-Cleary Builders, has been involved since day one,” he says.

Feeling Like Austin
When it reopens, Austin Music Hall will match not only the character of the self-proclaimed “live music capital of the world,” but also its principles. The city has fully embraced green building, and requires a certain degree of green processes on every construction project within the central business district.

In addition to using green materials, the Austin Music Hall tapped the City of Austin’s downtown chilled water loop to more efficiently cool the building, Kohlus says. He adds that Sixth River, being a local firm, understood all the conditions and worked within them to the best of its abilities. “Sixth River really gets what Austin is about, and that’s good,” Kohlus says. “[The building] is going to feel like Austin, it’s going to feel very green and organic.”

Maintaining that Austin feel also means matching the city’s architecture, with lots of stone and natural materials inside and out, Kohlus says. “We don’t want to make it too shiny,” he adds. “So much of the new construction these days is a lot of glass, a lot of steel, almost too ‘new.’”
   
Standing Out
“Keep Austin Weird” is an unofficial slogan for the city, and although Sixth River Architects doesn’t do anything specifically “weird,” the firm does stand out in a number of ways. First and foremost, Roessner says, is its focus on cooperation. “We divided the group into studios and everyone has a facet of the work,” he says.

Working in small, collaborative groups also makes it easier for the firm to tailor its designs to each client’s specific needs. Without a single vision dominating the creative process, the client has more influence over the project.

“The biggest thing is being able to listen to our clients and start over with a clean slate [each time],” Needles says. “Our clients don’t hire us because we do a specific style of architecture; they hire us because we’re good listeners and good designers.”

Everyone Gets a Piece
Making collaboration a core value helps employees feel they have a stake in the company, and Sixth River extends that opportunity to actual ownership. Roessner says giving employees the option to buy stock in the firm is its way of showing employees how much it values them.

“When we first started Sixth River Architects I realized from my tenure with other firms the importance of everyone’s contribution at any firm,” Roessner says. “We would like for everyone to own a piece of the company,” he continues, saying that it motivates employees as well as reassures clients that talent will stay at the company for a long time. “If you own a part of the company, you take it a little more seriously,” he says.

Designs on the Future
Austin Music Hall will reopen later this year, but Sixth River won’t be resting on its laurels. Roessner says the firm has begun several significant projects that are unique to the firm as well as being located in 13 states and as far away as Hawaii.

Roessner says that even though much of the industry is focused on specific niche markets. Sixth River Architects believes in focusing on a variety of markets that are stable and ahead of a popular trend that will become over saturated. And even though the company continues to land significant projects, Roessner says it has no plans to expand in the future. “We just feel that being a 20-person firm is sort of where we want to be,” he says. “Our shareholders left larger firms to actively practice and design their client’s projects. I want to have the luxury to choose what to say no to vs. having to say yes to everything and not satisfying our client’s needs.”