The City of Austin, through its Capital Contracting Office and Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) selected Smith & Company Architects partnered with Perkins & Will, to provide planning and design services for the preparation of an expansion plan to guide the future development and use of the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center located at 1165 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702.

The expansion plan would grow the museum building to 90,000 square feet, with indoor additions including new gallery and classroom space along with a 500-seat theater. Outdoor changes at the property shown in the plan and visible in the slide above include a lawn and stage suitable for live events, a community garden, an open plaza space at the southern corner of the property, and a new parking structure. Many of these improvements were defined during the community engagement process for the project, which would ordinarily include in-person neighborhood and other stakeholder meetings soliciting feedback — but pandemic concerns forced this process, and many others, entirely online, making this our first plan completed 100% virtually.