Fifth + Tillery

Overview

Opportunity

Solution

Impact

Team

Fifth + Tillery transforms a forgotten East Austin warehouse into a regenerative workplace where sustainability, nature, and community shape the everyday experience.

Location

Austin, Texas

Client

3423 Holdings

Expertise

Office Developers [FPO] Climate Action [FPO] Sustainability Wellness Climate Action & Sustainability Building Transformation & Adaptive Reuse [FPO] Mixed Use

Opportunity

At the edge of neighborhood and industry, Fifth + Tillery offered a chance to make adaptive reuse feel generous, green, and distinctly East Austin.

Fifth + Tillery began as a forgotten post-industrial warehouse in East Austin, positioned between residential fabric, maker culture, and an industrial past. The team needed to create a shell office building for creative users while staying within the original footprint and preserving the site’s existing infrastructure. Rather than treating those constraints as limits, the design reframed them to build a more porous workplace, one that could invite the community in while improving daylight, comfort, and environmental performance.

Why This Matters

01
Adaptive Reuse
Reworking the existing warehouse footprint showed how underused industrial sites can become generous, high-performance workplaces without erasing local character.
02
A Neighborhood Threshold
The project sits between residential East Austin and its industrial edge, requiring a design language that could respect both conditions.
03
Sustainability as Experience
Environmental strategies needed to go beyond performance metrics, shaping shade, breeze, water, daylight, and daily connection to nature.

The building is beautifully designed, and we often get many compliments from staff and visitors. It promotes more human interaction and human contact.

Solution

The design for Fifth and Tillery turns the office inside out, replacing enclosed core spaces with a living courtyard, outdoor circulation, and layered sustainability strategies.

Gensler carved a central courtyard through the warehouse footprint, creating a multitenant corridor that brings daylight, air, movement, and landscape into the heart of the building. The entry plaza becomes an outdoor lobby, the social stair acts as both circulation and event infrastructure, and open-air walkways encourage connection across levels. A photovoltaic canopy provides shade and clean energy, while the rain garden and water runnel collect and recirculate stormwater, turning building performance into a sensory workplace experience.

From brief to build: how an abandoned warehouse became an inside-out workplace powered by shade, water, daylight, and adaptive reuse.

The design process began with constraints: a fixed warehouse footprint, existing foundations, limited site-change allowances, and a building orientation that could not be reset. The team used those boundaries to drive a co-benefit strategy. Daylighting studies informed the courtyard and lease depths. The photovoltaic canopy generates power while also creating shade. Existing cisterns support roof runoff and condensate reuse. Even glulam offcuts were repurposed as benches, making sustainability tangible throughout the campus.

Massing Evolution

Axon studies show the warehouse footprint opening into a courtyard-centered workplace without expanding the building envelope.

Impact

Fifth + Tillery proves adaptive reuse can be greener, more social, and more generous than a conventional office model.

The repositioned campus now supports CapMetro, public events, sustainable operations, and a workplace experience shaped by nature and community.

What Changed Because of This

01
Workplace Experience
Outdoor circulation, planted courtyards, daylight, and water create a workplace that encourages movement, connection, respite, and collaboration.
02
Environmental Performance
Solar power, rainwater reuse, reduced conditioning, hybrid timber, and daylighting transform sustainability into visible, daily experience.
03
Community Access
Public-facing plaza, social stair, events, and future community space extend the project’s value beyond tenant operations.

Part of our approach was to create a more social and communal space by turning a traditional office building inside out.

Recognition

01

Archdaily

Published a detailed project profile, identifying Gensler, the 188,919-square-foot area, year completed, and design team.

02

GB&D Magazine

Featured Michael Waddell’s story on turning the office inside out.

03

Detailed

Podcast interview with lead designers Travis Albrecht and Michael Waddell.

Team

Project Leadership

Travis Albrecht

Travis Albrecht is a Design Director in Gensler’s Austin office and Design Resilience Leader for the firm’s South Central region.

[FPO] MichaeL Waddell

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David Lynch

David is an award-winning architect and Principal with more than 30 years of experience.

FAQ

01

Where is Fifth + Tillery located?

Fifth + Tillery is located in East Austin, at the threshold between a residential neighborhood and industrial context.

02

What was the original building?

The project reimagines a post-industrial warehouse footprint as an indoor-outdoor creative office building.

03

How does the project support community?

Entry plaza, social stair, outdoor spaces, events, and planned community-accessible rooms extend the campus beyond tenant use.

04

What is the central design idea?

The project turns the traditional office inside out, replacing enclosed core space with a courtyard, outdoor circulation, and landscape.

05

What sustainable strategies are included?

The project incorporates photovoltaic shade, rainwater and condensate reuse, a rain garden, daylighting, hybrid timber, and fresh-air strategies.

Related Work

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The state’s largest mass timber office building enhances the workplace experience while reducing environmental impact and strengthening connections to nature.

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The Acre

Gensler transformed a former inward-looking bank into a sustainable workplace that preserves its character while reconnecting the building with the surrounding neighbourhood.

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Whole Foods Market Headquarters

Whole Foods Market’s Austin headquarters grows into an amenity-rich urban campus rooted in nature and brand purpose.

Related Expertise

Office Developers Climate Action Sustainability Wellness Climate Action & Sustainability Building Transformation & Adaptive Reuse Mixed Use

Fifth + Tillery transforms a forgotten East Austin warehouse into a regenerative workplace where sustainability, nature, and community shape the everyday experience.

At the edge of neighborhood and industry, Fifth + Tillery offered a chance to make adaptive reuse feel generous, green, and distinctly East Austin.

Why This Matters

The design for Fifth and Tillery turns the office inside out, replacing enclosed core spaces with a living courtyard, outdoor circulation, and layered sustainability strategies.

From brief to build: how an abandoned warehouse became an inside-out workplace powered by shade, water, daylight, and adaptive reuse.

Fifth + Tillery proves adaptive reuse can be greener, more social, and more generous than a conventional office model.

What Changed Because of This