New Austin Sports Bar Offers a Design-Forward Destination for Game Days and Date Nights
A PETERMAX Co. rendering of Austin Sports Club in downtown Austin. The 4,700-square-foot interior uses custom woodwork, layered seating and integrated displays to balance the intimacy of a restaurant with clear views of 18 televisions concealed throughout the space. Rendering by PETERMAX Co.
Tribeza examines the design of Austin Sports Club, a downtown destination created through a collaboration between Lobos Hospitality, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and Boardroom Hospitality’s Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman. Peter Maxwell Bowden, founder and creative director of PETERMAX Co., was tasked with creating an elevated game-day environment despite having spent much of his career trying to keep televisions out of restaurants.
Bowden drew inspiration from the old locker rooms of the Colorado ski town where he grew up, as well as natural history museums and their carefully arranged collections. PETERMAX Co. translated those references through a restrained five-material palette, a continuous datum line of wood and plaster, custom millwork, museum-style display cases and an extensively sourced collection of vintage trophies.
Rather than allowing the venue’s 18 televisions to dominate the room, Bowden integrated most of them behind mirrors or within custom millwork. A required concrete column became the center of an eight-foot-square jumbotron structure with banquette seating and a concealed screen on each side. Across from the bar, booths rise in a stadium-like arrangement that preserves screen views while maintaining a sense of privacy.
The interior also features vintage sporting objects, photography and large-scale artwork, including a commissioned installation by Tyrrell Winston made from deflated basketballs. Together, these elements allow Austin Sports Club to function primarily as an immersive food-and-beverage destination while transforming into a sports-viewing venue when the occasion calls for it.
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