Style

Themes of science, architecture and nature thread through the art collection at The Loren at Lady Bird Lake and overlap seamlessly with the ethos of the building’s architectural style —a building in harmony with the environment and natural surroundings. In the lobby, guests are greeted by major artworks by Matthew Ritchie and Michael Joo, two artists well known in the art world for their interest in science, artifice and nature. Also in the lobby is a sculpture by Sarah Braman that was chosen for its relationship to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The interaction between natural, found elements (for Braman discarded chairs and wood) and human-made materials, and especially the dialogue between light and glass, are springboards for both artists. In the restaurant, Olafur Eliassen’s dynamic color wheels offer a nod to Austin’s Ellsworth Kelly Chapel, which is famed for its melding of architecture and color with the intense Austin light that pours inside. In the hotel's guest rooms, Karl Blossfelt’s precise photos of plants that often look like ornamental ironworks demonstrate the principle that some of the best designs had already been anticipated in nature.