Book People | 6th & Lamar Retail Complex

Austin, Texas

This building complex, completed in 1995, consisted of a Whole Foods Market natural foods supermarket, corporate offices for Whole Foods, a restaurant, a locally owned bookstore, and the facilities to support them.  The three unifying forces that guided the project were sound urban design principles, sustainable design and construction, and a desire to produce a strong sense of regionalism.  The project contains 78,000 square feet of retail space and 30,000 square feet of office space, along with surface parking and a five-story parking garage.  The buildings, located prominently at one of Austin’s busiest near-downtown intersections, contributed significantly to the redevelopment and reinvigoration of the area.  The complex of buildings were the first “green” commercial structures in the city, employing numerous sustainable technologies within a controlled budget.  The complex is now the home of Anthropologie, REI, and original tenant, BookPeople.