Lake | Flato has expanded over the years, now with 150 staff mem­bers and a second office in Austin. At that size, how have you maintained the firm’s culture?

TF: We have design reviews where different studios review other studios’ work. That promotes engagement around design and discussion about philosophy. Those are things that end up creating group ownership, but it goes back to starting a firm rooted in collaboration.

You have consistently created sustainable, environmentally sensitive buildings. How have you managed to maintain such high levels of performance?

Austin Central Library. Photo © Nic Lehoux

DL: You have to be aspirational at the start. In the case of the Austin Central Library, the client came to us in late 2008 and said, “We want a LEED Silver building,” which was a city requirement. Then we sat down and started talking about what it was that they wanted and how it could be better. We said, “You’re in Austin, the library should be the city’s living room. It should be Platinum. It should be as close to net-zero water as possible.” The process teaches people that you can aspire to these things and achieve them. That’s really the fun of what we do: bringing everybody along.

Is there a common thread that ties your buildings together?

DL: From the very beginning, Ted and I felt that architecture should bring down the walls between us and nature. And that philosophy yields buildings that are connected to each place. It takes the idea of critical regionalism and pushes it forward with technology, innovation, and construction. We love building things. We love detailing things. You take the culture and the climate and the context of each place, and you overlay that with craft and local resources. Then you balance that with habitat conservation and the sciences of engineering.

Your projects not only seek to connect people to the landscape, but often to heal it, and, in addition, be socially restorative. Can you explain how?

TF: In Dallas, we are working with Michael Van Valkenburgh’s office along the Trinity River, which slices through the city and separates east and west. The idea is to create a park as a bridge. Our site is a brownfield containing an old steel industrial structure that will form part of the armature of a garden. The new buildings that we’re designing will pick up on that industrial character. It should be transformative for the city and for an underserved part of Dallas. The challenge is strengthening the neighborhood instead of completely changing it. The project, Harold Simmons Park, should start construction next year.

Harold Simmons Park. Image courtesy of Lake | Flato

Lake | Flato has repurposed more than 3 million square feet of buildings. What makes this work so attractive to you?

DL: The beauty of repurposing is, it’s the most sustainable move we can make—clearly. But also, it brings out our inner ingenuity, because we’ve got to find a new use for an old building. But more importantly, it’s also keeping the historic fabric of the city in place and strengthens the city and urban districts by inserting new uses. So that’s always been a great love. We had that at the Pearl Brewery, master-planning that whole 26-acre district in San Antonio, and thinking about how to reuse half a million square feet of old buildings. It required us to think about experience and district-making, what draws people to a place, and what will keep them there.

The Pearl Brewery redevelopment (2013) in San Antonio. Photo © Lara Swimmer

What do you hope that other architects take from your work?

TF: We’ve got an enormous challenge ahead of us—we architects and we the planet. One architect, or one firm of 150 people, can’t solve it. So it’s really about creating a design approach that others can embrace. If others see us as an inspiration for their own work, and do it better, that’s great.