"Electrolit’s Houston Headquarters Brings Guadalajaran Craft to a Texan Landmark: For Electrolit’s growing US operations, a team of Mexican, Spanish, and American architects reimagined a 1930 Spanish Revival structure in Houston," Metropolis, June 6, 2026.
A collaborative of architects led by Guadalajara, Mexico-based Luis Aldrete, alongside Houston-based Troy Schaum and Jesús Vassallo, joined together last year to redesign a landmark Spanish Revival building on the edge of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou—the city’s main river—as a homey office space for the sports drink brand Electrolit. Originally built for the Star Engraving Company in 1930, the structure later hosted a repertory theater company and a children’s museum, and had to be cleaned up. The interior was retrofitted to meet the new owner’s needs. Electrolit has a remarkable origin story reflected in the design.
The parent company of Electrolit is the family-owned Guadalajara-based pharmaceutical company Pisa, founded in 1945 by a doctor dedicated to producing medicines for children that were not available in Mexican pharmacies. Pisa, an acronym for Productos Infantiles S.A. (“Children’s Products Company”), began distributing treatments for common childhood ailments such as colic, inflammation, fever, and cough. Electrolit was its serum engineered for severe dehydration in the aftermath of flu. It evolved over the years into a sixteen-flavor electrolyte drink, the most popular energy drink and hangover cure in Mexico, and Pisa into the largest pharmaceutical company in Latin America. The company markets its combination of electrolytes—magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium glucose, and sodium lactate—and ions for electrolyte absorption, as a medical-grade formula for recovery from a night of partying, as well as from intense exercise. It is now the fastest-growing sports drink brand in the US, distributed in partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper group.
Full story in link.
