Tech 3443

In the 1980s and 1990s Motorola was Austin’s largest employer. Their first Austin campus was east of town on a section of Highway 183 normally called Ed Bluestein Drive. By the late 1990s this huge campus on rolling wooded terrain was home to Motorola’s most advanced Semiconductor Fab, highly specialized buildings for research and testing and a high-volume assembly facility. As corporate needs changed, private interests purchased the oldest buildings and the dominant land area in the central portion of the original campus. GSC Architects was commissioned by several development interests including the current developer to transform the purpose-built buildings on campus to serve a variety of industrial, technology, office and supporting amenities. The 80 plus acres, now entitled for almost 6 million SF. is in a prime position to fill Austin’s growing industrial, bioscience, and office needs.
The first of several buildings to be repurposed is the solid Test Buildings- F, H & J. These three buildings are seamlessly connected horizontally, and the original two floors are now expanded four to yield a total area of 375,000 SF. These buildings are configured to support large tenant office plans with views to downtown and with large contiguous areas that can support industrial/ technology operations. The available utilities, loading docks and expansion opportunities position this building for a large-scale office/lab tenants or owners.
The repurposed FH&J building is designed with a high efficiency chilled water plant with a large ice plant to allow for off-peak energy storage. It has been designed with air filtration and air change management systems to support a variety of tenant uses including bio sciences. The glass and metal panel building shell is configured with multiple main lobbies on both front and back to offer exclusive building entrances for large footprint corporate tenants. This large structure connects to the campus spine leading to the center of campus amenities, enclosed creek bridge and connection to future technology office renovations.