Erma Center & Bar

Location: Riviera, Texas

Inspired by family and a passion for collecting cactus, Erma Colston near-single-handedly brought the Riviera Telephone Company back from the brink of bankruptcy in the 1940s after her husband ran off leaving Erma, their children, and the company holding a large debt.

The Erma Center, like its namesake, is intended to be a pilar of the community of Riviera. The facility shares donated parking with the adjacent school and will host school events and event overflow from the adjacent campus. The facility will also be available for local community events and will be a leasable venue for visiting events.

Design features include:

• 11,000 SF of interior space with 7,000 SF of covered exterior space.

• Structural brick mass walls reminiscent of the historic hollow clay tile buildings common to this area of South Texas.

• Building volume and mass relates independently to residential homes on the south side and a commercial office building on the north side.

• Large north facing windows and fully shaded south facing windows optimize daylighting.

• Fritted glazing at banquet room tall windows controls views of the adjacent office building to the north.

• A side-lit herringbone pattern of suspended felt acoustic panels creates a floating ‘lamp shade’ effect cutting off views of exposed structure and mechanical systems at the banquet room.

• The banquet room houses a recessed hydraulic stage that is available at the touch of a button through the automated building controls.

• Site and rooftop utility vision screens are composed of phenolic slats interwoven into a galvanized steel frame.

• South-Texas appropriate drought tolerant landscape is irrigated from a 13,000 gallon rainwater capture tank.

• Parking is shared with the adjacent school to minimize overall hardscape footprint.

The Erma “Burnin’ Daylight” Bar is a small stand-alone building on the site of the Erma Center in Riviera, Texas. It is a multi-functional space that can be used in conjunction with the Erma Center or independently. The Bar is composed of a small historic brick storage building which previously housed the central dial office for the Riviera Telephone Company. This structure is maintained and utilized for utilities such as water filtration, HVAC, and a walk-in cooler. 

The new Bar interior is a board-formed concrete and steel window shell that wraps the south side of the historic brick structure, allowing the brick a new role as interior finish and backdrop to the serving area of the back-bar. Utilities are concealed in a ‘floating’ wood ceiling cloud, and detailing of the concrete shell with galvanized steel accents is reminiscent of the utilitarian structures and infrastructure components of the adjacent Riviera Telephone Company.