Our Process
Owned by Starr Colorado Partners, LP and designed by Tom Kundig, the Comedor Restaurant opened its doors to the people of Austin in 2019. The Comedor is a modern Mexican restaurant, located in the heart of Austin. This highly-rated restaurant is run by head chef Phillip Speer.
Brought in to build the project was the Burt Group, Inc., which was founded in 2002. They specialize in ground up construction and adaptive reuse and remodel construction in healthcare, restaurants, hospitality, corporate interiors and more.
Chosen to design the property was McKinney York Architects. The award-winning architectural firm is located right in Austin. The firm has won awards of the highest honor, such as the Texas Society of Architects Firm of the Year. The goal at McKinney York is to create places that draw people together. Included in the design was an outdoor courtyard accessed from inside the restaurant where guests can enjoy the warmth of Texas. They also had the desire to create a unique glass façade that mirrored the dark brick dimensionally on both outside walls.
Through conversation with GBA Architectural Products + Services, the product selected was glass brick units sized and laid to seamlessly blend with the standard brick units. GBA used the same bond, mortar and tooling as traditional bricklayers - the only difference being, we use glass brick. Since the bricks were glass, they presented challenges unlike standard masonry units. Uniquely tied to the masonry wall, the brick units allowed for undetected control joints and tiebacks where required to meet strict glass brick specifications. Collaboratively, with McKinney York and The Burt Group, GBA sourced the material, determined the dimensioning detailing, and executed the installation with their skilled tradesmen.
The goal to bring spectacular light from outside flooding into the inner spaces through the glass brick wall was achieved. The transparent nature of the glass bricks also allowed the desired, puzzling detection of light and activity from the inside to the street-goers at night. With the use of light penetrating glass bricks the unique, alluring design intent was realized.
