Memory of the Future: Adaptive Reuse of the Seaholm Power Plant, Austin, Texas

Abstract

This thesis will investigate ways in which elements and cues can be introduced to an existing building to serve the memory of the future. The project will serve as a continuation of time and space, linking what the building has been to present and future evolutions. This thesis will investigate several types of built interventions to the historic and currently unused Seaholm Power Plant site in downtown Austin, Texas, creating something greater than but inherently associated with the physical structure itself. Utilizing a concept of structures existing in different states of permanence, with different influences on memory, this project will test the ability to design into a collective memory. The attempt will be made to embellish the life and story of the Seaholm building, linking the ways it has been know before, is remembered and used now, and how it will project our heritage to those that await us.