Flyrite Restaurant

Completed as Project Manager for Marlon Blackwell Architects

Awards

2018 AIA Austin Design Award (Flyrite North)

Flyrite is a new, locally rooted fast-food restaurant in Austin, Texas, with a focus on using no artificial ingredients and antibiotic free chicken in their signature sandwiches and dishes. The recently complete Burnet Location is the first of a prototypical drive-thru and dine-in building. The expressive expanded metal screen address the street, shades the interior and exterior seating area while marking the entry. Simple materials are employed with elegant details to give the building a crafted and refined feel that reinforces the brand’s aesthetic.

Set on a small site along Burnet Road, Flyrite North continues the evolution of the drive thru typology. Inspired by fast food prototypes from the mid-twentieth century, the drive thru concept was reimagined with a sustainable philosophy and a focus on placemaking.

Using standard materials, the building reinterprets straightforward fast food motifs as versatile design elements that adapt to site-specific conditions. The folding wing serves as street signage and solar shading, allowing for an interior-to-exterior connection and daylighting along the western-facing front facade. Shifting wood ceiling panels, space-defining steel planters, and obliquely angled steel-edged windows create a vocabulary that can evolve as the brand expands.

“Drive Thru. Eat Well.” speaks to both the quality the food and the dining experience. The Flyrite concept fosters the next generation of fast food prototypes, simplifying the design and construction process while still responding to site and context.