If you have ever looked for parking behind the Continental Club on South Congress, you may have been surprised to see the Kimber Modern hotel quietly tucked along the back street.
The Kimber, with it’s clean, manicured building lines, has become a favorite destination for people visiting Austin, or even Austinites taking a staycation.
Though the notion of a Kimber Modern in the Rainey District has been percolating for a while now, the principals have been very tight lipped.
For the first time, we have an original rendering of the project that we can share, and can confirm that it will be called, simply, “Kimber Modern Rainey.”
Here’s what we know…
– 30 hotel rooms (approx.)
– Four above grade floors
– One floor of underground parking
– Street level lobby, bar, pool, and restaurant open to the public
– Three floors of rooms
– Designed by Burton Baldridge
– Will be operated by Kimber Modern Team
– Co-Developed and built by Acero Construction
In almost poetic contrast to some of the recent cookie-cutter development in and around downtown, the Kimber Modern Rainey will be one of a kind.
It’s always refreshing to see a development putting forth a bold design vision. Despite how much downtown Austin has evolved, many of us feel a bit let down by safe “beige box” aesthetic of several new buildings. Hat tip to Burton Baldridge on the design.
The site for the chic bed & breakfast’s 2nd location will be on East Ave (near the corner of River St), sharing an alley with the core of Rainey Street. Made up of two adjacent lots: 62 & 64 East Ave, it will welcome people into the neighborhood.
I’m excited that owner Kimber Cavendish and Vicki Faust are bringing this kind of quality, home-grown hospitality into the Rainey Street area, four years after they launched their South Congress base.
Notably, the South Congress location picked as on of 13 winners (out of 227 entries) in 2012 to receive the Texas Society of Architects Design Awards from a total of 227 entries.
The Kimber joins Hotel Van Zandt in the neighborhood, which finally erupted into construction earlier this year after years of smoke. Just outside the ‘hood the mega-luxury, mega-size Fairmont is also looking to get underway soon.
I’m interested to know who is the developer for this property??? Does anyone know?
Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! It’s important to remember that 110 The Circle (the site of the original KM) was no prize either. Daily deliveries to the beer garden and to the Continental Club (as well as evening music) made that one an especially dubious site for a hotel.
We are designing with I-35’s proximity in mind. It will be incredible.
love Kimber Modern! I got engaged at the South Congress KM 🙂
I agree. As much as I am in love w/ this Hotel in particular and a big fan of its being located in the Rainey St District, I hope the ground level has some sort of high wall on the east side to shield the less than glamorous highway view. This would also give it a sort of secret society feel much like the location at the Circle. For example, I love the entrance wall of the funky Le Parker Méridien in Palm Springs which also runs along a highway
http://www.helloamanda.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Fullscreen-capture-3162010-41047-PM.jpg
I do think building off the I35 service road will be the beginning of beautifying the outskirts of central DT. Now if they could eventually re-rout all the semis 🙂
Love the design and the smaller scale quality of this project. It’s just a shame that the site is on what is essentially the frontage road of busy/noisy IH-35, even though the freeway is raised up a bit in this stretch. This project sounds like it seeks to be a refuge from the hustle-bustle of life and thus would benefit from being tucked deeper into the Rainey community someplace, similar to its 04 counterpart.
Prime position for post-I35 burial 🙂
I-35 doesn’t bother me a bit, and this is the first of much future development along this stretch of East Ave. I think it will surprise lots of skeptics when complete. It will definitely be a highly visible showpiece for the Rainey neighborhood.