With EYRC Architects
Occupying the site of the historical Imperial Sugar Refinery in Houston, Texas, the Sugar District project is laden with history, first as a sugar cane plantation and sugar refinery and then the mighty ‘Imperial Sugar Company’. With this backdrop, this project seeks to blend old and new, celebrating the existing remaining building and juxtaposing these with new Texas modern aesthetics.
The projects combines a mixture of adaptive reuse and new ground up construction. Seen from the adjacent highway, the existing Silos and Char House stand as monumental beacons to the past and are adapted to provide a mixture of retail, event spaces and hotel rooms. Two further existing brick warehouse buildings provide further retail and exhibit spaces, with dramatic open plan interiors owing to the original warehouse uses.
Contrasting the four existing buildings are several new buildings providing additional office and retail. As an ode to to the Refinery days the massing of these buildings take on a simple massing with pitched roof, large spans and industrial aesthetics. Finally, several smaller structures are dotted through the in-between spaces, creating a retail community and pedestrian level experience to the development. These structures, referencing the company homes than once existed to house the Sugar Company workers introduce wooden tones within a residential scale and intend to forge a community against the backdrop of the mighty historic buildings.