The Pitch

Award Criteria

Architectural Excellence

Twenty-three modified 40-foot shipping containers sit adjacent to the practice facility for Austin’s new Major League Soccer team – the city’s first and only major league sports team, Austin Football Club. When you arrive at The Pitch, a retail, food, and beverage venue in Austin, Texas, you’ll see several groupings of containers artfully stacked and combined into two-story structures. Three shipping containers stand upright adding a unique vertical element to the eye-catching design, while simultaneously acting as disguised equipment enclosures. The units house concessions, retail, and community spaces that overlook the well-landscaped courtyard, food trucks, and the nearby pond through the wall-sized windows. For a city newly captivated by Austin FC, The Pitch draws food and fun-loving Austinites together to celebrate their city, team, community, and the sport of soccer itself.

Technical Innovation & Sustainability

The shores of Parmer Pond received the necessary site preparations while the offsite manufacturing team at Falcon Structures modified the shipping containers. Thanks to offsite manufacturing, the pond wasn’t disturbed by significant construction, but instead, workers poured foundations, and landscapers prepared for the container arrival. Once the containers entered the scene, development teams finished out the space. Each cluster of stacked and combined shipping containers creates an interactive design that energizes visitors, encouraging them to explore each corner of the venue. The use of containers created a unique solution that works with the surrounding land versus intruding on the natural space by the pond. Shipping containers take center stage in this technical design, helping to minimize material waste that would have likely been inevitable with traditional construction for a similar project.

Cost Effectiveness

Container-based modular construction was the more cost-effective choice when compared to the brick-and-mortar alternatives considered for the project. Based on careful research, the team at The Pitch chose to work with shipping containers because the modular units were more flexible and easier to modify with lower upfront costs. Falcon helped minimize cost-related design limitations to create a unique food and beverage environment. Additionally, the quick site setup helped the other project contributors quickly complete their work to shorten the time to revenue.