Lone Star Spa
05/01/2005
You would never guess that Lake Austin Spa Resort is the brainchild of two former fraternity brothers going through a midlife crisis. When co-owners Mike McAdams and Billy Rucks—best friends since their days at Louisiana State University—approached 40, they found themselves wanting to get out of their respective careers in real estate and oil. “I never dreamed that this was something I’d get into,” confesses McAdams. The serene lakefront resort, located just outside Austin, Texas, was designed to mimic the experience of staying at a friend’s lake house . . . that is, a very wealthy friend’s lake house.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
A screened-in treatment room with views
of the hill country. (Click image to enlarge)
McAdams’ 13 years with the Trammell Crow Co., one of the largest real estate developers in the world, had given him a background in both real estate and architectural design, while Rucks had been running a successful oil company in Louisiana. Combining their skills and assets, the two purchased the property—a run-down series of buildings that had formerly been a spa—eight years ago. “We would kid that we had bought Green Acres,” says McAdams. “It was in such bad condition that people used to pull up to the gates and turn around to go home when they saw how ugly it was. But it was a beautiful location on a clean body of water across from a nature preserve, and we saw it as a blank slate.”
Completed in phases, the resort has 40 guest rooms, which were the first spaces to undergo a renovation. Theoriginal 10 rooms of the spa were built close to the shore as a fishing camp in the 1940s, but the current building codes would not allow the partners to construct anything new so close to the lake. Building codes also mandated that they could not increase the size of the property, but outdoor gardens were added to the back and terraces to the front, providing more space while still keeping the original footprint. The remaining rooms, which had been added on in the 1950s and 1980s, were rebuilt to accommodate couples and groups.Designing the entire resort himself, McAdams drew not only upon his knowledge of architecture and design, but also his experience as a seasoned traveler and spa-goer. “So many factors have to be right in order to get a good night’s sleep,” says McAdams. “I wanted the same beds as the Four Seasons, so we did loads of research to get the best match. We looked at 14 different kinds of down pillows and all of the mattress pads and sheets we could find.
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The pool barn with a 25-meter open-air lap
pool. (Click image to enlarge)
We washed everything 10 times to see how it would wear, and then had the entire staff vote to see which was the most comfortable.” A light sleeper, McAdams was also aware of soundproofing and light control, so he made the walls extra thick and window coverings extra dark. “The rooms here have more soundproofing than the Oval Office,” he says.
Once he finished renovating the guest rooms, McAdams moved on to the public spaces. The main clubhouse comprises a yoga deck, a demo kitchen for cooking classes and events, a dining room and a lounge.
A garden library—nestled between the pool and a vegetable garden—faces the resort’s private dock.McAdams did most of the planning for the 25,000-square-foot spa facility himself, hiring an architect and interior designer to help execute the project. He also worked with different artists from around the country to give the space, which has 30 treatment rooms, the feel of an American country home.
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The knotty pine walls in the spa’s lounge,
aptly called “the Blue Room,” were
finished with a series of custom
paint washes by a local artist. (Click image to enlarge)
Crisscrossing a small hill overlooking the lake, the walk from the guest rooms to the spa facility leads you through a garden path replete with more than 200 plant species. A newly constructed pool barn housing a 25-meter lap pool comes next, before you finally reach the spa building, which shows off a facade crafted from Austin stone. “We had a local stoneworker build 10 different samples for us to choose from so that we could select a standard model for what the entire structure should look like,” says McAdams. “For the interiors, I spent thousands of hours shopping everywhere from Europe to California, Houston, New York and every small town in between.” In celebration of the area’s rich history of handicrafts, the spa’s upper level has a display of quilts made by Joyce Massey, winner of the most blue ribbons in the history of Texas State Fairs. Downstairs, tapestries from Denyse Schmidt, a contemporary quilter from Connecticut, are draped over several walls.
Ten outdoor treatment rooms are spread out in a variety of locations on the property, from screened-in porches to bamboo gardens. Every effort was made to keep the 20 indoor rooms completely silent and private. “We suspended all of the systems on the third floor in a steel structure so that you wouldn’t hear the air-conditioning click on or water running in the middle of a treatment. And all of the doors have hermetic seals around them, so that when you shut the door, a built-in mechanism drops a plate down to seal it,” explains McAdams.The most stunning space in the spa, the 1,000-square-foot lounge—called the Blue Room—is an eclectic blend of traditional American and exotic decor. Reproductions of Arts and Crafts–style lounge chairs and handpainted linen curtains are integrated with 18th-century framed French botanical pressings and Moroccan footstools. “A lot of people contributed to this,” McAdams says. The rugs took nine months to handweave in Turkey; light fixtures were custom designed by David Jones, a craftsman in New Mexico who delivered and installed them himself. McAdams commissioned local artist Ann Stautberg to take large-scale black-and-white photographs around the property, then handpaint them.
“From the day I laid my eyes on the land, I saw the opportunity,” says McAdams. “We’ve been open now for almost a year, and the greatest thrill is getting compliments from guests who were here years and years ago and are astounded by the transformation. It’s been a liberating experience.”
Lake Austin Spa Resort, 800.847.5637, www.lakeaustin.com