2012 Texas Real Estate Tour

From June 3 to June 9, a small group of UTA Real Estate Students toured Texas looking at different developments - commercial and residential, for profit and non-profit, sustainable and not so sustainable.  Over 1,200 miles later, here is an overview of our adventure...

Day 1: Austin

The Cool House Tour is a one-day, once a year event.  Celebrating its 16th year, this tour showcases Austin's "top homes featuring sustainable building and design."  Spread out all over the Austin area, these homes showed the diversity of design available to like-minded people interested in making sustainable and earth friendly choices.  We started south of the city and worked our way north through a variety of projects, all exhibiting sustainable design.

 

 9717 Peakridge Drive:  The first thing you noticed about this house designed by Hill Country EcoBuilders is that it is was what most people would consider a traditional subdivision between traditional production homes.  The outside of the home was more custom and sat beautifully on the lot, but that is where the similarities with its neighbors ended.  The home is completely off the grid for water, relying on a 20,000 gallon rainwater tank for both interior and exterior water capable of supplying the home for 1 year without rain.  They also had a geothermal HVAC system which as the owner pointed out was not only efficient, but extremely quiet.  The floor plan maximized the use of space so there was virtually no waste and the beautiful finishes made the home warm and inviting.  Natural daylight in the home and a beautiful covered porch made this home a great combination of design and function.

3115 Sacbe Cove:  Part of a green oriented subdivision Las Casas Verdes, this home was the highest rated 5-star home in Austin as of spring 2012.  The development uses both active and passive solar features for each home as well as other sustainable building practices such as orientation, minimal building waste. and thermal chimney design to help pull hot air away from living areas.  There was great attention to detail including switches in the bathrooms with timers and windows that opened to allow for a cross breeze to help cool the home.

M Station, 2906 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.:  The M Station is a Foundation Community project that represented the incorporation of sustainable design into multifamily developments.  The additional element of affordable housing added another level of sustainability in that many of the features were benefits to the residents living on limited income.  A former concrete manufacturing plant, this site was reborn into 150 units and an on-site child care facility run by Open Door Preschool.  The apartment appeared to be fairly basic, but out of view were solar panels, a solar thermal hybrid system, and a 65,000 gallon rainwater collection system.  The cool urban design gave the complex a sense of truly touching the future.

The Stanley Studio, 1901 EM Franklin Avenue:  The personal-scale mixed use nature of this project made it unique - housing the owner's studio, home, and an urban farm.  Perhaps the coolest room was the office/meeting room inside the recycled silo.  Extensive windows allowed for abundant natural light and the recycled materials and metal work gave the project great character.  The green roof, rainwater tank, and building orientation all demonstrated the owners desire to minimize their carbon footprint while still living in an urban location.

4205 Camacho Street:  Located in the Mueller neighborhood, this home showed the blending of current technology and historic design.  The craftsman style home had rich wood finishes, beautiful stonework, and a huge front porch.  As part of the Pecan Street Project, this house is helping to collect data on energy use and solar energy production.  The Mueller development, which we revisited later in the week, has created an environment that encourages a sense of neighborhood with sidewalks, front porches, and random green space.  The other interesting thing about this property is that they built a small apartment on the lot allowing them to maximize the livability of the space.

1901 Alegria Road: This house was built on an infill lot in a developed neighborhood capitalizing on its exceptional location.  It also had a craftsman style architecture and incorporated recycled and repurposed material.  As a 5-star rated home, this property combined such features as cross and stack ventilation to help regulate the interior temperature.  Spring Builders, the builders of this home, are a local company, are committed to helping "build and develop smart, sustainable, adaptable and enduring properties for the discerning client."  The creative use of space, including a play space with a Murphy bed that transformed the into an additional bedroom, illustrate the level of thought as it relates to living and using the home.

7705 Mullen Drive:  Set in a north Austin neighborhood, this was more than just another great house, despite the name of the design company.  The space was thoughtful and intentional even before you entered with simple and native landscaping surrounding an established tree, which doubled as landscaping and cooling for the front porch.  The house was built with great attention to craftsmanship and efficiency as well as the surrounding homes.  It also incorporated materials reclaimed from the demolished house for use in the new home construction, including 75% of the hardwood floors.  The carport, a feature we saw repeatedly on the house tour, had a beautiful wood ceiling making it the perfect place to extend outdoor living space and include the neighborhood.

913 Taulbee Lane:  Built as urban infill, this home also boasts the use of straw bale construction.  Designed by the Sustainable Design Center as a multi-generational home, it had an open living space with the bedrooms separated by floor or open air walkway.  While the cedar posts and stucco finish makes you feel like you could be in Santa Fe, the materials were primarily local and construction was completed 'out of order' to allow for the building of the roof early in construction to help accommodate the rainy Austin weather.  Another interesting feature of the home was the absence of duct work, as each room was cooled by separate units or "inverter mini-split systems".

7119 Valburn Drive:  Set in the hills of northwest Austin, this home earned the cool house tour guidebook cover for a reason.  The location was breathtaking, literally, and the home designed by Barley & Pfieffer incorporated the views, the breezes, and amazing material into a usable and spectacular design.  The home was built for a couple nearing retirement age and has all the main living ans master on the entrance level.  The downstairs houses an office/living space with a small kitchenette and additional bedrooms.  The separate downstairs entrance allows for the possibility of private family visits.  The materials of this home were spectacular including a hollowed out geode used as a sink bowl.  The designer said one of the greatest challenges of construction was installing the roof.  The updrafts from the canyon below kept lifting it and and the solution was to install additional piers to anchor it to the canyon wall - a good reminder that only so much of a construction project, sustainable or otherwise, can be anticipated.

14321 Lake Victor Drive:  The final house on the tour, which we did not have time to visit, was built by the production builder KB Homes.  The reason it merits mentioning is that it illustrated a trend in production builders trying to incorporate the sustainable features represented in the custom homes we visited on this tour.  Other home builders like Lennar are also seeking out neighborhoods and home buyers that are interested in green features.  By offering these features as options that balance operational efficiency and ecological responsibility, they are allowing a wider variety of people to enter the sustainable home market.

TAKE AWAY OF THE DAY:  Cool, sustainable projects may have many things in common, but they are far from uniform.  The beauty of a shared vision is that it allows the person applying it to have a tremendous amount of freedom and creativity.

Day 2: Austin

TreeHouse:  The TreeHouse hardware store is located in south Austin and offers a unique blend of education, design, and supplies - with an organic coffee shop thrown in.  Built in a repurposed Border's, the store lives what it professes offering not only sustainable options to homeowners, but demonstrating them in their own design.  The company is very mission driven and intentional and we were fortunate enough to have a tour led by Jason Ballard, co-founder of the TreeHouse and current VP of Sustainability an Education.  The company has a firm commitment to education and understanding and truly being different.  They offer educational displays that show the benefits and limitations of given products - each of which has been individually selected to match the company's goals.  Jason talked about the products, the ordering process and the constant evolution of their idea.  They have no interest in being a "green HomeDepot" choosing instead to meet their clients with a unique product base, free in-house design, and contractors ready to help the "do-it-for-me" customers that make up the majority of their clientele.  Jason spoke at length about the concept of curating their products- like a museum - knowing the providers in a way that allows them to truly be sure their products are in line with their mission or roots. Another thing Jason spoke about was the importance of beauty combined with functionality, using a unique round-handled shovel as illustration.  Not only did it look like art, he promised us it was ergonomically designed as well.

Downtown Austin Alliance: The Downtown Austin Alliance offices in downtown Austin and is funded by a PID tax of downtown businesses.  We met with Molly Alexander, DAA Associate Director to talk about the challenges of creating a "unified voice" for the CBD of Austin.  For a city whose unofficial slogan is Keep Austin Weird, the job of helping balance and initiate decisions that impact the downtown area can be stressful.  The organization's goal is to help balance the needs of the city with its unique character to the benefit of all the businesses that call downtown Austin home.  The diversity ranging from the owners of a huge bank building to mom-and-pop tenants makes it difficult to find consensus.  She also talked at length about the importance of making a downtown socially sustainable, addressing the presence of homeless and ex-con residents.  The organization has tried to incorporate job opportunities and wet housing as a way to give people with limited an options opportunities to get off the streets.  The win-win of this, Molly shared, is that it makes other residents feel more safe and will help the overall reputation of the city.  Molly also discussed the importance of small details such as clean windows and operational trash cans as playing a significant collective role in people's perception of the city.

EcoWise Hardware Store: eco-wise is small hardware plus store founded  20+ years ago, "before green was cool".  Located just south of downtown, the store offers a wide variety of products ranging from children's toys to eco-friendly paint, to the original linoleum now called marmoleum because didn't they trademark the name.  The store has clearly adapted to meet the needs and requests of it s customers and showcases a diversity of products that makes it a fascinating stop for anyone interested in green and sustainable living.  They had creative furniture and even a satchel with a solar panel to recharge technological devices on the go.  One interesting observation was the large inventory of children's products such as toys, basic clothing, and even ecologically topical books illustrating a growing demand for this type of merchandise. 



Mueller Development: The Mueller development occupies what used to be the old Austin Airport and is an example of a brownfield development.  The 700 acre area has been completely remade into a mixed-use urban development in the heart of Austin.  The development offers single and multi-family housing, retail and office space, a children's hospital and extensive green space.  Developed by Catellus, the project is working in phases from a master plan that incorporates many of the initiatives important to the typical Austin resident such as diversity, sustainability, and responsibility from both an environmental and fiscal perspective.  The development has also attracted the Austin Children's Museum and Austin Film Studios.  While the development may not have finished out as quickly as initially hoped, it will undoubtedly be a model for sustainable multi-use urban development as well as a great place to live, work, and play.

Ronald McDonald House:  The Ronald McDonald House in Austin is located in the Mueller development, across the parking lot from the Dell Children's Hospital.  The building received USGBC LEED Platinum rating and is very inviting and kid friendly.  Kent Burress, CEO, took us on a tour of the building and shared not only the sustainable and green features, but also stories about the design and use of the building.  One thing that stood out was the prevalence of natural lighting.  Kent said that 93% of the occupied space benefits from strategically placed windows.  He also spoke about the close loop ventilation system that allows guests to have fresh air circulating through their living space, especially important because they often have children who are able to stay at RMDH as out patients while undergoing treatment because of their high air quality.  He also spoke to the benefit of motion sensor on lighting not only as an energy saver, but also because parents and families are coming and going at all hours of the day and night and it allows them to feel welcome when they arrive at the house.  Curved hallways, elevators that open facing the hospital so families can orient themselves to where their children are, beautiful rooftop gardens, and play and gathering space all make this a very special project.

SolAustin Neighborhood Development: solaustin is solar powered community with homes capable of being net-zero.  With a large green space in the center that houses the underground water retention tank, the developments aim is to being like minded residents together in a common purpose.  The developer is a majority investor in the financing of the project and actually purchased several homes that are now leased.

The Austonian: The Austonian condominiums are housed in the tallest building in Austin introducing a new concept of downtown living to the city.  Built on 3/4 of an acre, the building was built and is owned by a Spanish company.  There are 54 floors of residential space with the top two floors housing beautiful community space.  The sales representative spoke to the challenges of pricing units based on view - city or lake - and the level of the unit.  The lower floors continue to be in highest demand with their primary residents being Austin residents downsizing from suburban homes and choosing to experience urban living.  The luxury living offered by the Austonian certainly meets their byline - "A Higher Level of Living".

TAKE AWAY OF THE DAY:  Shelter is a basic need, but meeting that can be anything but basic.  Whether you are able to purchase a million dollar high-rise condominium or just need a place to stay while your sick child receives treatment, attention to detail makes the building more like a home.  Providing material options that are eco-friendly and sustainable helps make not only your home more user friendly, it benefits our home planet as well.

Day 3: Austin, San Marcos, Wimberley

Austin Community Design and Development Center:  ACDDC is a non-profit organization dedicated to help bring sustainable and affordable housing to low and moderate income families.  Design Associate, Sam Gelfand shared with us some of the projects undertaken by the organization, most specifically The Alley Flat Initiative.  The goal of the initiative is to leverage the land to help provide additional income to families.  They also see this project as a way of increasing neighborhood diversity.  Some of the challenges they have encountered include tree ordinances that prevent placement of the flat and the parking requirements.  Pricing has also been a challenge as construction costs determine the required rental rate.  The goal is to be able to build the flats for $60-70,000, but current cost is approximately $100,000. 

Texas Downtown Association & Preservation Texas: Catherine Sak, Executive Director of Texas Downtown Association and Krista Gebbia, Executive Director of Preservation Texas visited with us about their organizations and the impact their work has on small town Texas and the restoration and repurposing of historic buildings around the state.  The Texas Downtown Association works primarily with small and medium sized cities as a resource and clearing house of ideas.  Their focus is on helping revitalize downtown areas into sustainable centers with a sense of community and history.  Catherine spoke about the challenges of small towns in the area of financing, resources, and expertise and how their organization is trying to find ways to help the local leadership problem solve.  Their website shares local events and they encourage their members to support neighboring towns with the hope of building momentum and recognition.  The Texas Historical Commission has added the Main Street Program as a means to encourage towns to focus energy and resources on preserving local history. Preservation Texas works to preserve the structural history of communities by encouraging renovation and repurposing of historical buildings.  It was fascinating to hear them talk about the challenges of education and understanding when it came to saving old buildings and was an important reminder for "city folk" to seek out ways to encourage and support the Texas history found only in small to medium sized towns around the state.

Perdenales Lofts: Located in southeast Austin, Perdenales Lofts is a live-work space with the first floor set up for office/residential use.  It is located on the light rail system and offers a place to "hang your shingle" on the street entry side on select units.  The developers discovered that many residents chose the first floor "back" units while it was only the units that fronted the main street that were used for commercial use.  The lofts were sold as condominiums and several have entered the lease by owner market.

Sanctuary Lofts, San Marcos:  Repurposing an old church into student housing is not a typical project, but Sanctuary Lofts has proven it a successful one.  Based on the individual/shared apartment model, Sanctuary Lofts renovated an old church and build additional housing space for students attending Texas State University in San Marcos.  Located blocks from campus, the Lofts offer private bedroom/bath configuration with shared living space.  The developers kept the character of the building such as stained glass and wooden railing on the stairs while incorporating modern amenities such as fitness centers, media rooms, and computer centers.  The developers also focused on security using fob technology to limit access to community areas and hallways.  The monthly rates range from $549 for a 4 bedroom to $1,029 for a 1/1 super loft.  The management offers roommate matching and online application, all designed to make leasing simple and straightforward.  They also include utilities, Internet, and basic cable - a heavenly combination for students and their parents looking for off-campus housing.

Office of Architecture, Neel Morton, Wimberly: Set back from the road just outside of Wimberly is Neel Morton's architecture office.  Housed in an old Quonset hut, it is immediately evident that this is not your ordinary architectural firm.  Neel, a former Austin architect, has created a niche for himself designing and building sustainable buildings and helping design intentional communities.  Neel referenced Milagro, Spanish for "miracle" in Tuscon, AZ - a project he worked on comprised of 23 energy-efficient homes.  Neel is also someone who practices what he preaches.  He took us to his home site further outside of town where he is completing construction of his personal residence using a number of construction practices so he can "know " how they work.  From a rammed earth building to insulated concrete walls, Mr. Morton is making his home a study in sustainable living.  One primary building material was FAS walls, made of shredded pallets that are treated to remove the sugars from the wood (to discourage termites) and then made into construction blocks. Incorporating a thermal chimney and flexible stucco (mixed with acrylic to give it bend) are all examples of green building practices and material.  Mr. Morton's commitment to honesty and integrity when it comes to recommending products to his clients is commendable and it will be exciting to see what he discovers. 

TAKE AWAY OF THE DAY: The integrity of a project may be in the design, the vision, or the materials, but it all stems from a clarity that creates a plan and encourages the execution of that plan.  Maximizing resources is one example of integrity that may show itself in the use of land, renovating or preserving existing structures or building a new structure responsibly.

Day 4: San Antonio

Build San Antonio Green: Lina Luque has been with Build San Antonio Green almost since its beginning 10 years ago.  She described the early years as very slow, but the organization held true to its mission and has seen a surge of activity in the last three years.  The organization focuses on education, awareness, and a certification process that allows builders the opportunity to show their green features without the high costs associated with the USGBC LEED program.  The group created a checklist to simplify the certification process and it is very performance based.  Many of the projects they work with are part of the affordable housing program, so low operational costs are a significant benefit to the residents.  Last year BSAG started working on multi-family projects with the San Antonio Housing Authority and helped them retrofit and certify their large portfolio.  Lina  expressed great appreciation for the San Antonio Housing Trust who has provided money for projects and now requires their projects to receive BSAG certification.  The organization has also set community education and awareness as a priority, attending community events and acting as matchmaker for members and contractors.  They also had displays of different green and sustainable building materials, embracing the teachable moments created by visitors.

Solar San Antonio: Solar San Antonio was founded in 1999 by William Sinkin, a forward thinker committed to the power of solar energy.  Solar San Antonio was also a driving force behind the formation of Keep San Antonio Green.  We met with Lanny, Bill's son and Nic Jones who shared with us the vision and work of the organization. As a non-profit, Solar San Antonio is interested in educating people on the benefits of solar and collecting the resources - both financial and material - to make implementing solar power a reality.  They have worked closely connecting people to available rebates and helping them see the long term value of the upfront costs of installation and purchase of equipment.  They are fairly active politically as well as attempting to insure the longevity and success of the increasing demand of solar power and believe that a turn to solar power is inevitable.  One of their recent success stories is the policy that will not allow an HOA to prevent homeowners from installing alternative energy equipment, such as solar panels, on their property.

Marty Wender, Developer:  Charles Martin Wender is probably best know for his development projects in the north west area of San Antonio, but as he sat down to visit with our group it was clear that clarity and a willingness to share his story are two of his greatest community contributions.  A self-admitted "deal junkie," Mr. Wender has devoted a large portion of his life studying economic generators and the direction of San Antonio's growth.  The pictures on the wall of his conference room speak volumes to the success of his vision, a vision that was not shared by his peers when he initially undertook the project.  Mr. Wender is also a salesman and when he believes in a project he uses that gift to help others buy into his vision.  He is also willing to invest money to make his visions happen, building his own roads to provide traffic flow to his projects.  He talked at length about seeing the bigger picture, understanding that SeaWorld was not only a good thing in and of itself, but it would draw attention and traffic to the area as well.  As he predicted, the Hyatt destination hotel came in to the area building momentum for the entire project.  Mr. Wender is also a listener, willing to "say yes until you give me a reason not to."  Early in his development, AT&T offered to put in $5 million of fiber optics if he would provide the easement.  Even though this was well before fiber optics were mainstream, he said yes and created the opportunity for data centers to choose his development over others where they would have to pay to install the technology they needed.  Mr. Wender also offered several nuggets of truth.  The first was based on Red Combs' saying "Always tell the customer what they want to hear."  Mr. Wender pointed out that this was not permission to lie, but rather to listen and provide the information that the buyer was looking for.  The next word of wisdom was that "You can prove no positive with a negative."  He told the story of he and his wife deciding where to have dinner and the need to not just say no, but offer alternatives as  means of problem solving.  Finally, he stressed the importance of hiring the "best people and listening to them" as a key to success.  Mr. Wender is very clearly a hard worker and this has contributed greatly to his success.  One of the greatest parts of his legacy, however, will not come from the physical developments he has built, but his willingness to share his experience and wisdom with others.

3+1 Development: Four distinctly unique homes with four distinctly different construction materials, the goal - to see how the differences impact efficiency. Each home is approximately 1,050 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. One home is built out of SIPs, structural insulated panels. Another home is constructed with aerated autoclaved concrete and the third of three is built from a shipping container. The final home is traditional stick construction.

The homes will be occupied by residents under the affordable housing program in conjunction with Build San Antonio Green.  The residents have agreed to allow their energy use to be monitored for 2 years as part of the program.

City of San Antonio, Economic Development:  David McGowen, City of San Antonio Economic Development Coordinator visited with us about the challenges of helping a large city mange its real estate and land holdings.  The current goal of the city is to try to find ways to keep young professionals in the central business district by creating live-work-play venues.  He talked about the importance of having the numbers work and the creative approach of land swaps to make redevelopment projects work.  It was interesting to hear the perspective of the city after listening to smaller organizations and private developers.

Lake Flato: Lake Flato is an architecture firm that has won national acclaim for its designs.  Their focus on making their projects fit their clients and location and their emphasis on sustainability have created a unique and successful niche.  Heather Holdridge talked to us about the groups approach to design, from building orientation to color scheme to make a project successful.  The group has worked on residential, commercial, and hospitality buildings and is currently involved in a number of education projects around the country.  Their designs are not only beautiful, but under the guidelines of USGBC LEED construction, they are user and earth friendly as well.

Pearl Development: The former Pearl brewery and bottling company has been transformed into a jewel for San Antonio residents, although tourists are welcome.  Located at the non-tourist end of the Riverwalk, the Pearl offers retail, restaurant, education and venues for lease.  The adaptive reuse nature of this project has provided both definition and character and appears to be doing well.

TAKE AWAY OF THE DAY:   Compatibility can be seen as it relates to mission or environment, but is at the core of a project meeting and exceeding expectations. When you create the opportunity to make suitability compatible to the average person's life by offering education and incentives or you develop a property that is compatible to the needs and expectations of its surroundings, you help insure a high level of success.