Lake|Flato Architects

LAKE | FLATO ARCHI TECTS that same design sensibility into the commercial sector as well.” Lake|Flato’s commercial projects have historically stood out because of the ways in which they engage their environments and honor the rituals that take place there. But two of their more recent designs – the six-story Soto Building in San Antonio and the eclectic Hotel Magdalena in Austin – are garnering recognition for making mass timber the rising star. “The Soto clients approached us to do up a master plan for them,” shares Wascher. “They owned eight city blocks just north of downtown San Antonio, and their first phase was to create an office building. We actually priced the building as either concrete or wood in concept design. For our purposes, we really wanted to push the use of mass timber for it. The owners had their own reasons for agreeing to let us build it that way. A bunch of standard-looking Soto (Cavender) Building Courtesy of Travis W Baker Soto (Cavender) Building Courtesy of Cheyne Smith