Computer Sciences Corporation
Austin, Tex.
Lawrence W. Speck Studio of PageSoutherlandPage

A pair of low-rise buildings returns old urban values to downtown Austin

© Paul Bardagjy

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By David Dillon

The new Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) buildings in Austin, Texas, reflect an old-fashioned urbanism of street, block, and square that the city once embraced and then almost lost. CSC, the world’s third-largest software maker, was an unlikely urban pioneer. Like many such companies, it preferred semipastoral suburban locations with lots of trees and a gloss of anonymity.

CSC earned additional good-corporate-citizen points by agreeing to Speck’s proposal for three six-story buildings instead of one 20-story tower and siting them to frame a new city hall being designed by Antoine Predock. They would fill out their blocks, as good urban buildings should, and include shops, restaurants, and cafés at the corners. A chunk of one building would be carved away to accommodate the restored J.P. Schneider dry goods store, a beloved 19th-century limestone structure with a plausible future as a restaurant. All cars would be tucked away in attached garages finished like the rest of the complex.

CSC is a conservative company that had no interest in aggressive, cutting-edge architecture. Consequently, its buildings are quiet, crisp, and tailored, with piers of local Lueders limestone enclosing planes of gray, green, and white glass, some fritted, some not, with a copper sunscreen for a cornice. The color of the limestone ranges from cream to caramel, creating an attractive quilted facade that recalls the older warehouses and commercial structures in the area. The sunscreen is a neighborly gesture to Predock’s city hall, projected to be a copper-and-stone sculpture with a plaza, terraces, and fountains. A tunnel connecting the two CSC buildings runs beneath the plaza, thereby resolving several knotty security and access issues. Each building contains a small courtyard facing Town Lake that seems to pull the riparian landscape inside, as though one were an extension of the other. At night, the buildings become twin lanterns marking the southern entrance to the city.

The interiors are a mixed bag. The first-floor lobbies, with their backlit glass walls, exotic woods, and bold red, yellow, and blue columns, display a certain Mediterranean brio that is entirely appropriate for Austin, with its slanting light recalling Tuscany. It is easy to imagine managers moving staff meetings into these spaces just for the sensory stimulation. The floors above, on the other hand, are conventional arrangements of modular offices and conference rooms, some with nice views of Town Lake and the downtown skyline, but none that require a long second look.

See the June 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Computer Sciences Corporation
(CSC) Financial Headquarters

Location:
Austin, Tex.

Gross square footage:
350,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$65.2 million

Owner:
Computer Sciences Corporation
2100 E. Grand Avenue
El Segundo, California 90245
www.csc.com

Architect:
Lawrence W. Speck Studio of PageSoutherlandPage
606 West Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
(512) 472-6721 Phone
(512) 477-3211 Fax
aus@psp.com Email
www.psp.com