Designing Austin’s Next Wave of Wellness
Austin’s fitness scene isn’t just trend-driven, it’s lifestyle-driven. With a community that values longevity, social connection, and high performance living, there’s a growing demand for wellness spaces that feel less like gyms and more like modern day social hubs and sanctuaries. We’re excited to continue designing spaces where health, hospitality, and high design meet.
Cold Plunge Amenities in Upcoming South Congress Project
LSI is proud to be shaping the next wave of luxury fitness and wellness environments across Austin. From The DEN on W 5th, to the newly reimagined Westlake Country Club Gym & Recreation Center, and an upcoming luxury gym in South Austin, our team is helping elevate what it means to move, recover, and connect through design.
Why Austin? Why now?
Austin is experiencing a convergence of factors that make luxury fitness and wellness environments especially relevant:
A booming population of highly mobile, health conscious professionals and residents is seeking more than traditional fitness clubs. They want environments that integrate recovery, social interaction, and design quality, not just equipment and classes. As one 2025 wellness guide notes, “From personalized meal plans to state-of-the-art workout facilities, wellness is top of mind in Austin.” (Tribeza)
Developers recognize that amenity-rich, wellness-forward environments add value and differentiate multifamily and mixed-use projects. In the luxury real estate sphere, the shift is clear: “Wellness real estate increasingly emphasises community-oriented spaces… shared gardens, fitness centres, and co-working areas.” (The Luxury Playbook)
The local culture supports it: Austin has long been tapped into outdoor activity, design innovation, and lifestyle focused community building. Fitness spaces are now extending that culture indoors and into built environments, creating layered experiences of movement, connection, and design that align with the modern day social hub concept.
Pilates Amenities in Upcoming South Congress Project
How developers are leaning into luxury wellness
Amenity architecture is evolving: It’s not enough to have a standard gym. High-end fitness and wellness components now include dedicated recovery zones, boutique style studios, curated lounges, and wellness programming. Industry analyses show that luxury properties are featuring private Pilates studios, recovery lounges with cryotherapy, and more. (Matt Winzenried Real Estate Partners)
At LSI, we integrate architecture and landscape architecture so that wellness becomes part of the site experience from outdoor gathering spaces, green courtyards, water and planting features for microclimate comfort, to indoor/outdoor flow that supports movement, recovery and social connection.
Value creation & differentiation: For developers, offering a premium wellness-centered offer helps appeal to discerning renters or buyers, supports higher rents or pricing, and creates a “place brand” rather than just a building. That means more attention to materials, daylighting, indoor air and environmental quality, transitions between active and passive spaces, and amenities that support both fitness and recovery.
Adaptation to post-pandemic expectations: Wellness is no longer optional. People expect environments that support their health goals, mental wellbeing, and lifestyle. Luxury fitness spaces respond to that expectation, meaning design and planning must accommodate flexibility, hygiene, recovery zones, and meaningful amenity value.
Locker Room Amenities in Upcoming South Congress Project
What LSI brings to this landscape
With our roots in Texas and deep experience in planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, we are uniquely positioned to support multifamily and mixed-use developers who want to incorporate elevated wellness environments into their projects. Whether it’s collaborating on the design of a gym or fitness centre within a larger tower, or creating outdoor wellness landscapes that extend resident experience beyond the building, our team helps translate ambition into place. Our work in Austin is just the beginning. As this market continues to mature, we’re ready to help bring luxury wellness into multifamily communities that align with today’s elevated expectations.