Austin Central Library

Austin's Central Library demonstrates care of the resources it houses, as well as those it uses.

The six-story, LEED Platinum Austin Central Library serves as a model for sustainability and library efficiency while promoting connections to collections, history, culture, and place. Overlooking Shoal Creek and Lady Bird Lake, the building includes outdoor reading porches, maker spaces, a technology center, cafe, bookstore, event venue, rooftop garden, demonstration kitchen, and outdoor dining.

As a key member of the Lake Flato/Shepley Bulfinch design team’s “Green Team,” Biohabitats led design and engineering of the library’s water infrastructure. The Green Team’s overarching vision was to create high performance, integrated systems that also tell a story of how resource and energy conservation create a beautiful library.

Biohabitats developed concepts for variety of water infrastructure systems, including potable and non-potable supplies, rain harvesting, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and water reuse systems. Biohabitats worked with the design team to analyze expected use, develop water budgets, conceptualize potential water strategies, evaluate existing onsite infrastructure, and examine site constraints.