Remaking Main Street: The Riskind

In Southwestern Texas, a design team resurrects the past for the good of the future.

By Joann Plockova

Before the total domination of retail giants, the border towns of Texas were vibrant spots. Their well-planned downtowns were home to shopping districts with history and walkable storefronts that catered to families and business owners from both the U.S. and Mexico.

One such place: Eagle Pass, a once-lively commerce hub. The city’s Main Street is home to the Riskind building, which dates back to 1914 and was named after the original owner — but it had been abandoned since the 1980s, following a long run as a department store. Ultimately, the City of Eagle Pass saw the building as a key site that could help breathe new life into the area.

“This is the city’s first and most significant reinvestment in their downtown,” says Federico Cavazos, LPA Principal and Design Director in San Antonio. “They bought this building that was falling apart. It had water infiltration for around 30 years and a failing roof — but they had a vision for it. And we helped them get there.”

When the city first called on LPA in 2019, that plan was to transform the historic hub into an arts and event space. But following a change of mayors and then COVID, a new idea emerged to convert the building into a business incubator with retail and a municipal hub. The economic development department’s larger goal: to bring back commerce that had been lost due to the pandemic, and to usher in more startups and small businesses.

“Our vision was to transform the Riskind building into a dynamic hub where economic development, entrepreneurship and culture intersect — preserving our history while driving future growth in downtown Eagle Pass,” says City Manager Homero Balderas.

Designing a Destination

Largely a rehabilitation initiative, the Riskind project included a number of unexpected hurdles and opportunities, including its preservation component, which came later when the city applied for state grants to pay for the project. “The biggest challenge was the main façade,” says LPA Design Coordinator Leo Hernandez.

Working side by side with the city, LPA began by gutting the building, from its walls to its wiring to its ductwork, to create a clean slate and bring the structure up to code. That included weatherproofing the entire envelope, giving the roof the necessary insulation values and replacing various antiquated systems. “We worked with the existing structure to be as minimally intrusive as we could, as far as punching new holes into the walls or the roof,” Hernandez notes.

On the first floor, the team added leasable retail space to the storefront, along with a cluster of city offices with a conference room, break room and open office space to be used by the city’s economic development department. A large skill and development room, meanwhile, offers a connection, via a sliding door, to another historic building owned by the city that’s used as an art gallery, with classes for children. The client wanted that program to spill over into The Riskind, so LPA developed a space that fosters a symbiotic relationship between the two.

“When business and culture come together, you create a destination that strengthens community identity and drives economic activity,” Balderas says.

A new ramp-like grand staircase leads to the second floor (along with a newly installed elevator), where a similar setup of private offices and conference rooms awaits. One unexpected addition was an accessible deck for gatherings atop the building, which brought its own set of challenges — including reinforcing the roof structure, ensuring ADA compliance and providing an enclosed, elevated exterior staircase for an additional egress.

Resurrecting the Past

Still, the project’s biggest challenge was restoring its front façade. Because of the building’s historic status, this required going in front of the Texas Historic Commission. The team began with research to locate historic photos. “We had to basically create a narrative to bring the façade back as close to the photos as we could,” says Hernandez. “So we took our best shot with the help of the envelope consultant, Acton Partners. They provided valuable information that helped us approach the envelope stabilization of the project and secure Texas Historic Commission approval.”

Together they were able to remediate and restore the building’s defining brick facade. The first challenge: carefully removing the thick layer of parge covering it. “Old brick is very brittle, so there was quite a bit of it that was damaged,” says Hernandez. Brick that was unsalvageable was replaced with brick sourced by a local company, D’Hanis — which once made the exact same type of original brick. “The contractor was able to get their hands on a couple of pallets of that brick by sourcing it from different places,” Hernandez says. Existing bricks that were reusable, meanwhile, were flipped and put back.

“It was a Herculean feat to remove, flip and reinstall all those bricks,” says Cavazos, “but one that helped us reuse material and reduce the project’s carbon footprint.”

The original storefront openings were kept largely intact. New glazing was applied, and an awning was reintroduced. “Typically those buildings have large storefronts, and then they have a transom above where there used to be a canopy or awning, to let light into those spaces,” Hernandez notes.

Inside, the team embraced a less-is-more approach to let the history of the building shine through, including exposed brick walls and exposed wooden structures in the ceilings. “It’s a simple material palette. But when you walk through the space, you sense that history,” says LPA Interior Designer Alexa Feldman. “We didn’t want to design the space to have a lot of embellishments. We wanted the people and the activity and the artwork to embellish the interiors. Whatever we put in, we just wanted it to really complement the existing bones that we had to work with.”

Wood flooring, textured carpets and upholstered and wooden furniture are accented by industrial-style lighting. “As an incubator, we wanted this space to feel modern and fun and attract clients and companies to want to come work here,” Feldman adds.

Additionally, to pay homage to the building’s history, some of the color palette draws inspiration from a hand-painted mural on the back wall.

Though the project was a “full-on alteration,” the team says it feels like an intervention, “because the history of the building comes through,” Hernandez notes. “We’re glad we didn’t have to tear a building down to build a brand-new one. We were able to reuse this structure and give it life for hopefully another 100 years.”

A design writer for over a decade, Joann Plockova covers architecture, interiors, landscape architecture and urbanism for publications like The New York Times, Dwell, Architectural Record and Interior Design. Her latest book, Courtyard Homes, was published by Monacelli Press in 2025.