In 2020, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a 115,000-acre protected area on San Antonio Bay in Texas, set out to reimagine its visitor and employee experience with a collection of six new precast concrete buildings. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding habitats, Tindall closely collaborated with the project’s owner and architect to deliver a distinct architectural precast solution that seamlessly blended with the natural environment. The result? A new hunt check station, volunteer building, bunkhouse, boat barn, and fire cache — all aesthetically anchored by the refuge’s captivating, design-forward precast concrete visitor center
Owner
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Architect
Method Architecture
Contractor
Butler-Cohen
Location
Austwell, TX
As the main hub and focal point of the guest experience, the aesthetics of the new precast concrete visitor center were critically important. The structure’s exterior features precast concrete wall panels with two unique full-face architectural form liners. The panel’s top portions feature a reclaimed wood detail in charcoal gray, while the bottom portions use a large stone form liner detail in desert buff.
The modern color palette blends perfectly with the natural detailing to create an unforgettable exterior that feels right at home on the refuge. The other five buildings for this project drew design inspiration from the visitor center, mimicking the structure’s colors and textures to create a cohesive design system across the refuge.
While precast concrete’s aesthetic versatility was certainly on full display for this project, the resulting structures also offer substantial resiliency, perfect for the project’s coastal location. Precast also provided key scheduling and erection advantages, enabling multiple buildings on multiple sites to be constructed simultaneously. This resulted in all six structures being fully erected in less than a month. The Visitors Center attained LEED Silver certification following the completion of construction.
