Whole Foods Market
Using locally quarried Texas limestone as a special feature, Whole Foods Market has expanded its Austin-based location to include both a retail location as well as the company’s headquarters.
Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest natural and organic foods supermarket, has opened an 80,000-square-foot landmark store and a 200,000-square-foot office tower in downtown Austin, TX. Locally quarried Antique Lueders limestone from Mezger Enterprises Ltd. of Lampasas, TX, was selected for various exterior elements, and HKS Inc., of Dallas, TX, was hired to carry out the design.
Mezger Enterprises supplied the Lueders limestone in both a natural face finish and a split-face finish. According to Wayne Harbin of Mezger Enterprises, the traffic in downtown Austin posed the only challenge onsite. “We had to go in really early in the morning, before the traffic started, to get work done,” he said, adding that at least two streets were closed off during construction.
The facility also features a 25,000-square-foot roof garden and plaza with 200 shaded seats, a space for entertainers, a playscape, flowing stream, native landscaping and prime city views. Furthermore, the site contains an outdoor cafe, which features natural stone paving. This cafe is surrounded by a series of curved and geometrically shaped planters, which are also comprised of stone.
Although much larger than the previous Whole Foods Market that stood just blocks away, the new store retains the charm and accessibly of its first location, with an intimate, village-style layout.
Construction on the new facility began in late 2002 and the doors officially opened on March 3, 2005.
