Client and program
Moontower has been a South Austin neighborhood bar for years, and the owners wanted to expand without losing what had made the place work. The program was straightforward: more seating, more shade, a bar that could serve indoor and outdoor patrons from the same line, and a kitchen upgrade — but the brief, underneath, was about preserving the casual, tree-shaded character that brought people there in the first place.
Site and constraint
The site is a corner parcel with a generous yard and a canopy of mature live oaks the bar has always been known for. The single dominant constraint was the trees — every site move was tested against whether it kept the canopy intact and whether the building stepped back from the trees rather than asserting itself in front of them.
Design move
We added a single covered patio along the back of the existing building, sized and shaped to slip beneath the largest trees. The bar, which had previously faced only the indoor room, was re-pivoted so it serves the patio as well — one bartender, one line, two rooms. The yard beyond the patio holds picnic seating, a fire pit, and the trees themselves; the building defers to all of it.
Construction approach
Standard wood-framed construction for the patio canopy, with the existing building’s interior reworked to accommodate the bar pivot and a small kitchen expansion. The construction sequencing is staged so the saloon can stay open through most of the build — the indoor renovation lands during a planned closure, but the patio addition can be built without interrupting service.
Outcome
Moontower Saloon is currently in design. The expansion is the kind of work the studio finds easy to commit to — taking a place people already love and adding capacity without changing what made them love it. The patio strategy, in particular, is one we expect to carry into other tree-shaded hospitality projects.
