Westside Stories: Jim Susman

Jim Susman

By Forrest Preece

Back in 1980, Jim Susman sold his VW, went to New York City with $1200 in his pocket, and landed a job with Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, the top architecture firm in the country in that era. Not a bad start for a career.

Recently, I sat down with him in the offices of his company STG Design, which has created the iconic Sail Building on Cesar Chavez in partnership with Pelli Clarke Partners; many structures for Dell; the LCRA Headquarters on Lake Austin Boulevard; the Seaholm complex (where Jim and his wife live); and smaller projects of which he is equally proud, like a chapel for St. Andrew’s School, and the new Thinkery Building in the Mueller complex. His achievements in Austin have been substantial, and he is still in full gear forward.

It was fun to hear about that initial step in his professional journey. The first project he worked on at Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer was the renovation of the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. Long a gathering place for politicians in the center of the national capital, it needed some modernization. Jim’s team did some careful updating to the building, and they added an extension that was a stairstep down from the original. That was exciting, and it gave him impetus for his projects to come. In his mind, the rest of a professional’s career is influenced by the first firm they work with. “You have a template for what’s good and what’s not.”

The human element

Jim says that these days, as his career has advanced, he is less focused on details and more on the way people move and respond to buildings—and the outdoor areas around and between them. Giving me a knowing look, he remarked, “I’ll bet that when you were walking over here today, you were looking for the shady side of the street.”

That statement says a lot about his philosophy of architecture. His designs are magnificent, but he’s always looking for the human element and incorporating ways to make his buildings and the downtown environment people-friendly. To that shady side of the street point, Jim is working with the Downtown Austin Alliance to provide more tree canopies in the downtown area. (And yes, as for my choice of sidewalks, he hit the nail on the head.)

Talking about how buildings fit into urban areas led our discussion to affordable housing, a major concern for everyone in urban planning these days. Jim says that he understands the viewpoint of developers and the demands on them to incorporate affordable units into their planning. “It’s three times as expensive to build housing units in a high-rise as it is to do ‘stick-framed’ housing within a one, two, or three-mile radius from the primary site,” Jim says. If they live in urban core affordable units, people will not have to absorb the transportation costs of being in an outlying suburb like Pflugerville or Hutto.

Jim says one idea on this subject is to identify organizations that have available land, such as churches, and make deals for a developer to build housing there. Then the developer could exit with a profit, allowing the church to take the property for student or service industry lodging. He adds that the school district is looking at the same sort of thing, possibly using abandoned land and buildings for new housing.

Focusing on Downtown

Jim has been on the board of the Downtown Austin Alliance for four years and chairs the Built Environment Committee. He says their focus has shifted more toward safety and mobility, especially along the East Sixth corridor. They are now working on revitalizing what they call the North Congress area. “South Congress has so much community activity that it’s harder and harder to get down there,” Jim explains. Creating that same level of energy north of the lake on Congress would give a boost to local businesses. And with more people on the street, safety improves. Regarding the North Congress upgrades, he highlighted the impressive remodeling projects planned for the Paramount and State Theatres, which will turn these event spaces into first-class venues and draw more visitors into the area.

An elephant in the room for downtown is the effect of the demolition of the existing Convention Center and its rebuilding, plus all that is involved with Project Connect and the reworking of I-35. Jim had just returned from a meeting on those topics before our conversation. The disruption is going to be significant, and there needs to be careful planning on how to cope with it and mitigate the impact. One thing that is needed is a timetable grid with firm deadlines for what will be finished and when. As he says, when the work is completed, the result will be transformative. “All those efforts will translate into wonderful spaces around the downtown area.”

Jim’s latest interest is introducing green space into downtown through the remarkable Waterloo Conservancy effort. He serves on its board and is lending his design expertise to this important project, which is already generating positive energy for locals and visitors alike. Like the Children’s Museum, it draws people from all parts of town and binds them together with enriching experiences.

Up and down the corridor defined by Waller Creek is the Innovation District that needs to find complementary types of development to bridge the gaps between downtown Austin, the Convention Center, and UT. The goal is to bring people from all economic levels and parts of town together. Some win-win positive benefits are already happening. With two hospitals on the way – the Dell Seton Medical Center expansion and the new MD Anderson branch -- combined with the Moody Center, there is a huge amount of growth and activity coming into the area.

Jim mentioned that Colette Pierce Burnette, the new CEO of the Conservancy, is a valuable resource and a reliable leader for this complex project, bringing engineering, financial, and executive expertise to the effort.

He’s doing a lot to improve our central city, and never one to stay on the sidelines, Jim takes advantage of the trails in downtown Austin, especially around Lady Bird Lake. Jim says, “I’ve run over 20,000 miles along its shores. What a terrific set of natural assets we have in our town.”

Here’s an example of how Jim has never forgotten to have fun with his designs. When I asked him about some of his first projects in Austin, he turned to his laptop and flashed up a photo of a tree on Meredith Street in Tarrytown. While he was living there in 1987, a tree in the front yard suffered the loss of a major limb during a violent storm. As a memorial to the event, he constructed and installed a bright red lightning bolt with a 2 x 12 plank. Sadly, the tree is gone, but it generated a lot of smiles while it was there.