This project is a historic rehabilitation of a century-old retail building in the heart of downtown New Braunfels. Rather than following a fixed design from the outset, the project evolved in direct response to the building and its existing historic bones, letting the discoveries made along the way guide the design as much as the original plan.

The project began as a restoration and became something closer to a collaboration with the building itself. Stripping away decades of stucco revealed an intricate original brick facade along with historic decorated cast iron columns, long hidden beneath later renovations. As more of the structure’s history came into view, the design responded, evolving alongside each discovery.

That same dialogue between old and new plays out on the street. A new steel awning and a reinterpreted storefront window system establish a contemporary presence along San Antonio St, while the restored brick and cast iron columns anchor the building firmly in its history. The result is a building that reads as both recovered and renewed, its historic character intact, its relevance to downtown New Braunfels secured for years to come.