AUSTIN, TX — Charlieuniformtango has moved its Austin studio location from downtown to a new space at 4004 Marathon Boulevard in Austin. The company, which is headquartered in Dallas and run by principal/CEO Lola Lott, opened its Austin location in 2000.
Tango’s new building spans approximately 3,500-square-feet in the historic Rosedale neighborhood. Architect Pat Murphy of SeifertMurphy guided the complete renovation of the building, working alongside Todd Lott, David Hannah and the Tango team. In addition to SeifertMurphy, the renovation included work by FW Construction (Aaron Somers/Matt Dunnam), GroundZero (Roy Howell) and Mark Genfan.
Murphy says the process involved a “total conversion of a homely medical/law office building into a vibrant new studio space that reflects the culture of Charlietango and the energy of Austin. Using inspiration from Tango’s existing offices in Dallas and Austin, we blended multiple elements to create a new kind of office environment.”
The project was guided by three key objectives: make it welcoming; keep it real; and make it work.
“We focused a lot of attention on the design of the entrance and front-of-house spaces, which include an inviting entry, front porch, lobby, and lounge area,” Murphy explains. “Continuity from the parking lot to the office spaces was achieved by connecting the outdoors with the interior via a retractable floor-to-ceiling glass wall. Visitors are welcomed at the entry by a spacious front porch and custom canopy structure. Once inside, the inviting lobby space is flooded with natural light.”
Throughout the studio, the team used locally sourced pecan plank feature walls and an oversized wood plank entry door. “Todd selected a sky blue paint color for the common area ceiling, which is reminiscent of the blue once utilized on Texas country porches to help keep bugs away.”
Eco/green features were also an integral parts of the plan, with electric car charging, integrated recycling, and reusing as much of the existing building elements as possible, including plumbing fixtures, doors, concrete floors and wood trim.
The studio’s space is composed of an open lobby/break/reception space, five custom-designed creative suites, a conference room, an audio suite, restrooms, and two cubby spaces that provide private workstations for visitors. Every office space, other than the online room, features natural light.
Tango Austin is home to two Autodesk Flame systems, three Avid MediaComposer/Adobe Premiere suites, an Avid ProTools mixing suite and recording booth (designed by Mark Genfan), 50TBs of shared storage and virtual telecine services via MPC. They also offer live-action production services.
Since opening in 2000, charlieuniformtango Austin has worked on projects for Southwest Airlines, Texas Lottery, Ford, BMW, Food Lion, Goodyear, AARP, Kohler, and the US Air Force, among many others. The Austin team is currently involved in the post production of two indie films that will premiere in 2019.