“The design team’s dialogue with the community was key to defining priorities and opening the discussion of how the architecture could reflect identity and culture.”
The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) has a privileged site overlooking Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. In 1998, Mexican architect Teodoro González de León (1926-2016) envisioned the facility as a two-story semicircular building surrounding a central public plaza, or zócalo, shaded by geometric screens. In 2020, the City of Austin selected the joint venture of Miró Rivera Architects and Tatiana Bilbao Estudio to realize Phase 2.
As a cultural center serving the entire city, the mission of the ESB-MACC is “the preservation, creation, presentation, and promotion of the cultural arts of Mexican Americans and Latino cultures.” The design team’s dialogue with the community was key to defining priorities and opening the discussion of how the architecture could reflect identity and culture. The final design completes González de León’s semicircular structure with two extensions clad in white brick with a unique pattern that, like the hand-chiseled precast concrete panels of the original structure, reflect a handmade quality. A large, central plaza takes pride of place, extending toward the lake in a gesture that prioritizes the public space and reaffirms the presence of the ESB-MACC on the lakefront and in urban Austin. Inside, a combination of highly customized facilities as well as modular, flexible spaces respond to the needs of both the present and the future.
In alignment with the City of Austin’s green building policy for municipal buildings, the Phase 2 expansion anticipates both LEED Silver certification and a 3-star rating from the Austin Energy Green Building Program. Based on a whole-building energy analysis model, the ESB-MACC will use 38.4% less energy compared to baseline. The landscape of native and adapted plants (many of which are found throughout both Mexico and Texas) will reduce outdoor potable water consumption by 94.7 percent.
PROJECT
Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
Phase 2 Expansion
LOCATION
Austin, Texas
CLIENT
City of Austin
SCOPE
New Construction & Renovation