Cosmic Saltillo
Austin, Texas
Located in a highly developed part of East Austin, two warehouse buildings long abandoned are now a thriving morning-to-night restaurant and bar. The buildings were constructed in the early 1900s and used by Texas Company, or Texaco, to hold petroleum products delivered by railcars and dispensed in trucks throughout Austin. Today, they are the second location of a city favorite: Cosmic Coffee & Beer.
As a rare remnant of the industrial past of the area, it is a spot full of history and graffiti added over the course of the last century. It is a landscape-focused hospitality space where city-dwellers and visitors alike can connect in a laid-back atmosphere surrounded by nature and art. Following its ethos of sustainability, the project breathes new life into the two front-gabled warehouses and activates the spaces between as seating areas and gardens. Upon entry, signatures of the Cosmic brand come into focus: water features, fig ivy climbing steel trellises, and custom signage.
The shells of two long abandoned Texaco warehouse buildings were painstakingly preserved and converted into new uses, right down to the graffiti, along with three towering elm trees and a collection of crumbling brick walls used to create intimate, vine-shrouded seating areas separate from the main courtyard. The salvaged buildings required stabilization prior to the renovation and have been entirely transformed, retaining their corrugated steel siding, wood-framed windows, and metal roofing. Anything that could be was salvaged, including the buildings’ concrete slabs, which were jackhammered out and repurposed as massive, asymmetrical pavers for the entry. Additional materials throughout the site are durable and honest, meant to weather and patina with time.
The west building houses a coffee and spirit bar with a lounge area, while the east building introduces a new taqueria. Nestled between buildings is the garden; it is the heart of the property with a covered deck and open patio, as well as a koi pond immersed in vegetation.
At night, the curved form of the deck and string lighting evoke starry elements of Cosmic’s brand. A stairway at the entry leads to a second-level bar for private events and more intimate setting. The historic warehouse buildings retain their corrugated steel siding, wood-framed windows, and metal roofing. A new 30-foot tower provides access to the second-level balcony, showcasing a custom mural.
Cosmic provides a sustainable backyard retreat including gardens that feature native and adaptive species, multiple biological ponds and water features. The landscape team has restored an acre of broken asphalt into a verdant green space featuring a certified wildlife habitat, a rainwater catchment and irrigation system, an ecological pond (a custom fountain was built from a salvaged pipe and a gravel crusher), an on-site dedicated and intensive composting program, and a large herb and vegetable garden that will drive seasonal cocktail offerings.
