East Austin’s Historic Texaco Depot Could Get a ‘Cosmic’ Rebirth

Looking at the Texaco depot and its adjacent pedestrian path from East Fourth Street. Image: Clayton & Little

As the 10-acre site of Austin’s first rail yard settles into its new identity as the Saltillo mixed-use development, other than the tracks themselves there are few reminders left of this area’s century-long history as an industrial and shipping hub enabling much of the city’s economic growth in the 20th century.

The Texaco Depot buildings found at 1300 and 1302 East Fourth Street are the last remaining evidence of this era in the district, and considering their current exterior appearances these twin storage structures built for the Texas petroleum giant around 1912 have obviously seen better days. In the years since the buildings were used as storage for oil products and Texaco delivery trucks, they’ve served as tire warehouses, art studios, and music venues — but these days, they’ve been empty for a while.

Another view of both depot buildings from East Fourth Street. Image: Clayton & Little

But a plan to rehabilitate these historic properties as a restaurant and bar space, an unknown new concept by local outfit Cosmic Coffee & Beer Garden, secured the approval of the city’s Historic Landmark Commission earlier this month — and the preservation-minded architects at celebrated Austin firm Clayton & Little are also on board, instantly putting our interest level through the roof. Let’s take a look:

A view of the renovated buildings from the same angle as the image above. Image: Clayton & Little / Ten Eyck Landscape

Documents for the project’s appearance at the Commission presented on behalf of Clayton & Little, Cosmic Coffee co-founder Patrick Dean, and local landscape architects Ten Eyck use the name “Cosmic” and “Cosmic Coffee,” and you can actually see a little bit of their logo on the fence in the rendering above. Still, it seems there’s something interesting planned here beyond simply a second location for the coffee shop, since the plans included in the presentation to the Commission frequently use the word “taqueria” to label the two renovated buildings. 

A straight-on view of the renovated structures, with some of their restaurant features like a rooftop patio visible. Image: Clayton & Little / Ten Eyck Landscape

According to these documents, the plan will clean, preserve, and repair the existing exterior materials of the structures, taking special care to maintain the site’s historic Texaco signage. Other than necessary repairs and some new doors and windows, the exterior will be left mostly intact — the project’s biggest changes are the addition of a new roof deck, a glass-roofed outdoor pavilion and other patio space, fences, and what’s described as a “water tower.”

You can spot that last bit in several of the images seen below, located at the back of the structures — it also contains stairs and an elevator to the rooftop deck.

Looking at the renovated buildings from East Fourth Street, you can see its connection to the pedestrian rail crossing running between East Fourth and East Fifth Streets — plus the curious water tower/elevator structure in the backyard. Image: Clayton & Little / Ten Eyck Landscape

(Besides the necessary elevator function, we don’t know exactly what the water tower part is about, but Cosmic Coffee does a lot of this “permaculture” stuff at its first location, including rainwater catchment for irrigation and koi-studded biofiltration ponds — you gotta figure this is somehow more of the same.)

Looking south across the rail line at the site’s current conditions. Running between the rails and the rear of this project is the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. Image: Clayton & Little 

Looking south at the finished project from the same perspective as above. Image: Clayton & Little / Ten Eyck Landscape

The surrounding Saltillo development has already provided a pedestrian rail crossing just to the west of the Texaco site, and the project here will embrace that along with its easy access to the adjacent Lance Armstrong Bikeway — you can see how close together everything is in the before/after images above and below.

Another view of the site’s north-facing backyard and bikeway/rail area. Image: Clayton & Little

A view of the finished project’s backyard space. Image: Clayton & Little / Ten Eyck Landscape

Cosmic founder Paul Oveisi provided us with some extra info on what’s in store:

Yes, Cosmic is opening a new concept at 1300 and 1302 E. 4th Street. We’ve been fortunate to work with Endeavor Properties who has been most gracious in allowing us to restore this historic site. We are in the planning and design process right now working with a stellar team including Clayton & Little Architects, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Franklin Alan and Space Squared. We hope to make an announcement on the concept later this year.

With its certificate of appropriateness application secured, the only thing standing in the way of this project is, well, the extremely uncertain state of the post-pandemic local economy, which is taking down restaurants left and right. No matter how long it takes, what we can see from these plans looks like an inspiring work of industrial adaptive reuse worth celebrating in the context of Austin’s forever-changing East Side.

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