Architecture Austin
Feeling LUXURIOUS Want to know the prime in Austin Real Estate Pg. 10
Architectural DEVELOPMENT -
Bringing you from the past to current on Pg. 16
Architectural PROCESS -
The what, the why, and the how of the architectural process. Pg. 22
The Architectural EVOLUTION -
Austin houses from small residentials to modern design. Find out on Pg. 28
FALLING FOR
DESIGN June 2018 Austin, TX JJAC
Eye opening perspective, knowledge beyond expectance, and opportunities to learn from
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ST IN U A E R CT U E IT CH R
A
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The Sun Never Knew How Great It Was Until It Hit The Side Of A Building - Louis Kahn
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Even A Brick Wants To Be Something - Louis Kahn
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Contents Austin Architecture
TOC
Table of Contents........................................6 Numbered list of significant pages with related images.
Letter from the Editors..............................8 Letters from each editor introducing them to the reader, with information about themselves and why they are passionate about the magazine topic
Luxury Homes in Austin.........................10 The process of buying a luxury home goes deeper than you’d expect: this article goes in to detail about these facts.
The Price of Luxury..................................14 Luxury is innately expensive, but how expensive does it get? This infographic goes in depth about the price of expensive homes.
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Real Estate and Development within the City.............................................................16 Austin is changing along with the status of its real estate. Find out about the changing city and how it affects you.
Neighborhoods of Austin........................19 This map of the neighborhoods and major attractions of those neighborhoods provides further insight about each area, and the city as a whole.
The Architectural Process.......................22 The process of building anything from a small house to a skyscraper requires knowledge about these basic things described in this article.
The Evolution of Homes Throughout Time...........................................................28 Over the years, people, their interests, and homes have changed quite a bit. Find out how this change influences the real estate market in this article.
The Price of Normality............................32 Even normal homes can be expensive, and the niche of home pricing is explored further in this info-graphic.
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AL
Hi readers! I’m Alex Zalles, the Feature Article Editor and the Fact Checker of “Austin Architecture” I was born in Austin, Texas and I’ve lived here my whole life. I have 3 brothers, and the eldest is currently enrolled in Rice University. I enjoy playing soccer, tennis, and having fun with my friends. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve never been an architecture nerd. But, when I got to thinking about it, the way something was built holds a lot of significance and each small choice is essential to the final design. It’s this amount of care and precision that architecture needs that brought me to want to create this magazine. Also, I have had some small experiences with architecture, my house being renovated and many houses on my street being destroyed and turned into huge houses. So, I was inspired to write about how houses are changing in Austin, since mine and many others I know have experienced some kind of change. Throughout this entire experience of writing my article and creating the layouts, I’ve learned the importance of persistence. If I didn’t know how to do a certain thing, I learned not to give up but to avidly search for answers until I knew how to do every little detail of said process. Page 8 / austin architecture
ON RS CA
EX
My name is Carson Jones, I am 14 years old, and was born and raised in Austin, Texas. I enjoy video games, music, baseball, and exploring Austin. At the beginning of the creation of this magazine, I only had a slight interest in architecture, but I was very interested in geography and statistics of architecture. These two interests coincide well with real estate and development, so I decided to focus on that for my article. Since I was a child, I have seen firsthand and been told how much Austin has changed in only the past couple of decades, and I wanted to investigate why this was occurring, and how it looked on a statistical level. After interviewing my experts, writing my article, revising it, coming up with the layout, and putting everything together, I came to genuinely enjoy graphic design. I learned how to properly write an article, use Adobe programs, and be proactive in order to get my own work done. The most unique part about the process was the interviews. I had to locate my own subjects, get their information, set a date, and meet up with them all on my own volition. The writing of my article and the creation of this magazine has gotten me interested in something I never would have thought about, and has been a blast throughout the way.
JO
My name is Joseph and my favorite things to do are cook/bake and take flying lessons. I attend LASA High School, I have the best E-Zine teacher ever, and I contributed to the making of this amazing magazine! I worked on this magazine because I think that the things that people can build, the things people can do are really amazing if you think about it. I want to become a private pilot when I grow up and who knows how diverse and how much beautiful architecture I will see on my journey’s.
E JED
Let me start off by saying who I am: I’m Jed McPike, editor of Austin Architecture Magazine. I am 15 years old and I’ve lived in Austin, Texas for most of my life. Attending LASA high school, even as a freshman I don’t have much time on my hands. With the little time I’m granted, I like to spend time with my friends, watch movies and TV shows, and a long list of things on my phone. Creating this magazine opened my eyes to so many new things. The luxury versions of things always interest me creating a great concept to base my article on. Designing the layout and playing with the hundreds of features given by InDesign was fascinating. As a kid, building and visualizing with Legos was my specialty. This really jogged my memory of my love of architecture. On this magazine creating journey I’ve discovered parts of myself I never knew I had and new pieces that have been added.
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Luxury
A High-End Trend Story by Jed McPike
Austin is a place of creativity, expression, along with it’s fun and wacky outlook. It’s made up the culture. There are plenty of reasons to this, but when people think cities, images of buildings, structures, and homes come to mind. Austin hasn’t always been so outgoing. The increasing prices have been and are still causing upsets globally. However, there are pros and cons to these changes. To balance the economy, the need for creativity with the architectural designs have become more prevalent. Allowing more expressive and wacky people to create more unorthodox structures. Modern and luxury for austinites
A
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is now based on how outstanding or interesting a design could be. With this, what has been formed is a beautiful unique city that is deeply loved. Austin, like many other cities, has become quite expensive (more than it already is) and is redefining what luxury means. It’s always a great idea to know the battle before you fight it, which is exactly what this article steps into. Although designing a home can be fun and interesting, it poses many challenges for the clients as well as the architects. When designing a custom requested home, aspects ranging from craft, materials, budget, etc. all need to be thought through. Austin deals with a whole other class of issues.
Loose soil can displace foundations by multiple feet, and the climate can cause cracks and spaces in between wooden floor boards. All of these encountered cause an even bigger hole in the wallets of Austinites. All over the world we have seen house prices skyrocket. In many cases these numbers have tripled over the past 100 years. Burton Baldridge, current architect and head of baldridgeARCHITECTS describes it as, “difficult in Austin to [design or buy homes] for less than three hundred dollars [per square foot] even if you can do that.” For most middle-class families, they look for around three-thousand square feet of space which costs around a million dollars. Baldridge says it is an imminent problem that custom architecture has become so exclusive and expensive for so many people. Most people have two jobs in order to pay for rent these days. Since Austin’s population is continuing to grow, it’s hard to say that this is only a temporary issue. Although the market is becoming more and more expensive, Baldridge says there are positive things being brought out by the increasing budget for custom architecture. “I
“When designing we think is this somebody who really we can convince to do something rather outlandish or is this somebody who really wants it?” -Burton Baldridge do think as a result of that, one good thing that has happened is that people are thinking about things that are smaller and they are more interested or so inundated with images of kind of flimsy finishes that are pretty,” Baldridge says, “people are emphasizing comfort over image and they’re emphasizing durability over trend.” As an explanation to this, generation Z, people born around the beginning of the 21st century, is more on the move, traveling from place to place. There is little reason for them to favor an exaggerated look. It’s short lived
Burton Baldride explained the design process of architecture at the baldridgeARCHITECT office in Austin on Monday,
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and more expensive nowadays. As described this is a healthy thing that’s happened to our community, this means people are more interested in substance and quality than flash or impression. On the contrary, an ideal design for comfort leads us to where massive real estate companies make neighborhoods lacking any variety. For those that can barely afford the gargantuas price of today’s custom real estate, they struggle to find a balance between the requested price and aspects of a residence. Ashley Pitts, who has worked in the architectural field for more than 25 years and counting, says that “it can be withering because usually there is about thirty percent disparity between what clients will ask for and what they’re prepared to spend and that’s always difficult getting people a prioritized system of what’s really important.” Getting the client to understand necessities and the opposite is half the battle. “The client might have something else in mind. So it’s sort of like you have to put your ego aside in order to make the best design you can to give what the client wants,” says Pitts, agreeing with the same principle.
Luxury residences tend to draw false conclusions about the differences in the levels of difficulty when constructing homes of seperated price points. However, architects need to pay the same amount of attention to higher end projects as well as lower to mid end projects. Pitts says that although “[You can] be extra creative [when] you’re less limited by budget… sometimes having a low budget also brings out an aspect of creativity because you have to figure out the balance of budget and requests.” Custom architecture has been proven to be a job that requires a very creative person. Like mentioned previously, especially in Austin, people are gravitating to more eccentric structures. An unnatural outlook helps when designing buildings ranging from any price. Comparing the markets once more, luxury homes tend to be much more difficult for the architects. “Multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, high level of finishes and material, and attention to detail,” says Pitts. They are overall more complex than the lower to midend price range. Luxury buyers tend to want more uniqueness, and interesting extremities
One of many models used in the architectural design process
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for their designs. “It takes more time on a luxury because you’re working out unique details, and a lot of times luxury homes have more details,” says Pitts. Luxury means living with great comfort, and it usually requires more attention when creating these kinds of buildings. Between the strifes of design, and the satisfaction in the completion of projects, luxury is a love-hate relationship for architects. Architects are the masterminds behind Austin, making the amazing buildings seen everyday. There is a struggle to the work, but it pays off in the end. Whether people are living in an architect’s masterpiece or appreciating the work that inspires and influences us, architects are the builders of the Austin city and livelihood of the people.
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The “Casual” High End Home Facts of Luxury
What is the “casual” high-end home? There are many aspects that go into a luxury residence. What makes them so pricey can vary from their design, layout, or materials used. This creates quite a variety of things that could be normal in the upper-class. After working in the architect field for more than 30 years, Ashley Pitts has seen a common occurrence of things like big kitchens, pools, breathtaking views, etc. Of course, these are very obvious things, but the newer generations are wanting more outlandish and creative places to live. Something much
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more interesting, is the increasing amount of homes placed on the differing terrain/elevations of a plot. The design pictured to the right is the “Branch House” completed by the baldridgeArchitects. The owners didn’t want to remove any trees creating an interesting, swerving home that was adopted alongside its surroundings.
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Residential Architecture focuses on the buyers wants. They live there for the rest of their lives so it should be perfect and to their liking. The house pictured to the right is known as the ‚ÄúFloating Box House‚ÄĚ and is very unique. It's highly exposing structure allows almost 360 degree view all around the house. The residence has an underground level that connects to the pool allowing a smoothly incorporated connection between outside and inside.
Residential Architecture:
Commercial architecture is always intended with a purpose. Take the Austin Library for an example: it was designed to make you feel relaxed but still focused. It's open design lets and many windows allow for plenty of sunlight to shine through making it one of the brightest libraries in the nation. The sunlight’s naturally bright/warm colors allows anyone to focus and relax at the same time.
Commercial Architecture: $120 Million
$ 20 Million
c) $ 9 Million
b)
a) $ 15 Million
Price!
c) $150 Million
b)
a) $80 Million
Guess
That
A Developmental Austin The Changes in the City of Austin and how they have Influenced the Way we Live By Carson Jones
A
small and sleepy town on the Colorado River lies dormant. Besides being the capital of Texas, the city doesn’t seem like much to the outside eye. There is almost no traffic, plenty of homes and more sunny days than the anyone knows what to do with. However, all of that is changing, and at a faster pace than anyone could have ever expected. This town, Austin, Texas, has evolved at an incredible rate in the past couple of decades, and Mark Zimmerman has some insight as to why. “People keep moving to Austin. They move here for the jobs,” Zimmerman said about the economy of Austin. “Google’s taken space, Face-book has taken space, Computer Science Corp. is headquartered downtown by City Hall coupled with large employers like the University and all the government jobs…has just fueled Austin’s growth.” Austin has a large emerging tech industry, as well as the University of Texas’ flagship campus located in the middle of the city. These reasons compliment each other to make the city a more attractive place for collegeeducated young adults.
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it is an amalgamation of all the marketable parts of other popular Austin is changing. Some think it’s for cities, but without their drawbacks. the better, some think it’s for the worse. Austin has Silicon Valley’s major The area is becoming attractive to every tech employers, but with lower cost of living. It has Los Angeles’ large music scene, but with less traffic and “Nobody had heard pollution - and it has New York’s lush of Austin when I nightlife, but is much cheaper and less crowded. was growing up.
The Price is Right
Now, we’re a big location for people to come and do stuff We didn’t even get a shopping center until I was in high school.”
demographic. From IT workers to travelers, there are considerable things that set Austin apart from other cities, such as the great climate, relatively liberal government and unique businesses. However, Austin really shines because
Although those examples may seem to add up to a bright future for Austin, a foil is beginning to form from the recent popularity. The city is starting to lose its unique charm, and becoming more and more like the cities above. “It’s an incredibly less expensive place to live than Silicon Valley and the Bay Area in San Francisco,” Zimmerman said about the Austin area. “Austin’s economic growth, job growth, everything has been fueling an incredible amount of new office projects downtown.” The relative cheapness of Austin real estate and the upward economic
trend have made downtown Austin ideal for real estate. However, downtown Austin is not the only area getting love from the government as there are multiple projects underway near the city.
Birds eye view of Austin Texas showing the landscape and urban environment, August 12th, 2017. (Photo from Carson Jones)
“From an acreage standpoint, the biggest development has been the Domain, and that’s a mix of office, retail, and residential built in phases,” Zimmerman said. “The city has purposefully been trying to build a kind of second downtown, and that’s where they’ve decided it should be. There’s still plenty of growth in other parts of Austin, it’s just not quite as substantial as those two areas.” The tech industry has certainly seen a boost in Austin, but there are other industries that have garnered momentum in recent years, and residential development is a major source of that popularity. “The golden rule of real estate is location, location, location. Right now, residential in Austin is spectacular. Supply still doesn’t equal demand. Rents in the downtown area are pushing $3 a square foot per month. That means that if you rent a 1000 square foot apartment, it’s $3000 a month,” Zimmerman explained. The median household size in the United States is about 1,000 square feet per person, meaning that people are willing to pay $3000 rent for a one person apartment. This shows the incredible desire for the homes in Austin.
Mark Zimmerman of Schlosser Development talks about the current state of development in Austin at his home, February 10th, 2018. (Photo Courtesy of Mazzy Zimmerman
The shadow of a cloud covers a portion of Highway 969 in Austin, Texas on August 12th, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Carson Jones).
Good Old Days
James M. White is the owner and proprietor of the Broken Spoke, a dance hall located in the South Lamar neighborhood. He has lived here for 79 years, and started the Spoke 54 years ago at the age of 25. Over that span of time, there has been an immense amount of change. “Oh, how about taxes and traffic?” White said about change in Austin. “They’re taxing a whole lotta people out of Austin,” he added. The increasing land value and urbanization of Austin has made taxes much higher. This process - normally referred to as gentrification - has pushed people to the outskirts of Austin. The somewhat beneficial side of this is that property value has increased dramatically over the years. “I don’t really want to sell my house, but I’ve been living in my house since 1970 and it’s went up I would say about 30 times what I paid for it,” White said about his South Lamar home. Along with property value and quality of life increasing in Austin, there have been an increasing amount of restrictions and involvement by the city government to facilitate this growth. “When I first built up the Broken Spoke, there wasn’t much around. That’s why I could build where I wanted to. We didn’t have to deal with tons of permits and all kinds of stuff. I built it the way I wanted to,” White said. Photo of Schlosser Development headquarters at the R/GA building on North Lamar Boulevard in Austin, Texas on March 24th, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Carson Jones)
The Spoke had a major change a few years ago when a real estate development company bought property around it and
built a condominium complex called The 704. There were rumors of the Spoke going out of business, but Mr. White had a different story. “We get some business from them, we do get some of the people there who come not only from The 704, but all the other apartments that have been built on South Lamar,” White said. “The people are flowing in.”
James M. White, oner of the Broken Spoke, stands in front of the building in Austin, Texas on May 26, 2017. (Photo courtesy of James M. White).
The Differences
The growth in the economy and population of Austin has shown itself differently across the city, due to the different subcultures in the areas of Austin. For example, some areas like West Austin and Downtown Austin have stayed somewhat the same, albeit have grown larger. However, areas like Mueller have grown from a small community around an airport to 35,000 people in only 18 years of development. The area is the most eco-friendly in Austin, and one of the most densely populated in the city. The story of Mueller gives way to the crux of this phenomenon, and why the Austin area is the fastest growing in the nation. From the trendy shops and public parks and events, it’s an attractive place for every demographic. These effects reverberate across the city, and are an effect of smart development by the city, strong local business and a little bit of luck.
Photo of Austin Traffic during morning rush hour on March 23rd, 2018. (Photo Courtesy of Carson Jones
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MLK MLK
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Austin Neighborhoods Color Coded
By: Carson Jones This infographic shows various data about a few neighborhoods in Austin. This data gives more insight on what is going on development-wise in Austin.
Downtown Tarrytown South Central South Lamar Austin
MLK Hyde Park Sources: point2homes.com google maps Austin neighborhood map
Population: 6,900 2010 Population Growth: 4.5% Median Household Income: $67,116 Population: 19,696 2010 Population Growth: 5.3% Median Household Income: $82,159 Population: 44,273 2010 Population Growth: 5.2% Median Household Income: $44,801
MLK
Population: 71,188 2010 Population Growth: 5.2% Median Household Income: $40,962 Population: 15,364 2010 Population Growth: 5.3% Median Household Income: $38,000 AUSTIN ARCHITECTURE / Page 21
An architect from Jay Corder likes to have a hiearchy in which his team works. He uses a process of assigning tasks to people that are best suited for that task. He also makes a preset time schedule with incremental deadlines leading to the end of the design. He does not go to the actual site of construction and instead listens to the customers opinions.
An architect from Bercy Chen studios has a similar style of heiatchy and uses it mostly the same except she does go to the construction site to make sure everything goes accordingly. She believes its helpful to actually be there so that if anything is wrong or should be changed she can fully understand and see it first hand.
Derek is an architect from Atlantis Architects, a small team of 5 working to design the best. Derek is very hands on and likes to beon site during the construction of one of his designs. Him and his team compartamentalize their work when doing a major project. Derek is the “chief architect� and nothing goes unseen by him first. Derek also likes to build multiple layouts and in different forms to see how a design will fit together by looking at it from multiple views. Whenever the team gets stuck on something they build a scaled model of their design for a physical perspective and understanding.
Teamwork - 90%
Hands On Action - 60%
Previous Experience - 70%
Architectural Process This is a picture of a model Derek made for a previous project. This model was used to help his team understand how a roof was going to fit on a hous at two conjoining parts.
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The Architectural Process ow do architects do what they do, what makes people’s dreams come true? What is behind the scenes, the brainstorming, and all the magic going from an idea, to a plan, to putting it on paper, and ending with creation? You are in a building and it’s collapsing on you, your stuck and your legs are broken. As your gasping for air you begin to question “how has this happened” while you’re fading away into the excruciating oblivion that is death. The answer; your architect did not follow the architectural process. This is how it’s done, and why buildings don’t fall on you and crush you to death. Architecture is a major part of the Austin lifestyle. Renters and buyers in Austin often seek out local architects and companies for “vibe” Austin has for creative infrastructure. Atlantis architects, a small company on Guadalupe Street, has a wide variety of styles and tries their best to make the dream of the client come to reality. The architectural process begins with the client. The client will be asked a series of questions usually starting with:
“what do you want your new house to be?” The architect and client spend time on using some form of planning and tracking all the realistic ideas you have, and the pros and cons of each idea. Derek from Atlantis Architects says, one of the things with handles is, you know sharp clients will say, I want a dark bronze handle you know kind of like this, and so we sort of show them, so this one, this one is fifty dollars, this one is a hundred and ten dollars this one’s 250 dollars. The architect then moves on to creating an estimate on how much it will cost you to do this, which will probably lead to revision. After the client decided on the first draft of ideas, the architect will begin to explain the architectural process. The architect will then begin the more complex pieces of the architectural process. “But if a client has an unrealistic budget and unrealistic expectations. we try to not take the job because if it doesn’t start well it’s certainly not going to end well” said Derek. The architects base most of their ideas off of the opinions given by the client and what was requested. Architects will make sure to copy down the clients ideas, and then they will expand on it in their minds as well as with you so that they can create
fine details for a more precise job. Architects very well may critique these ideas, but they are the ones who bring reality to those ideas, and if there is something that isn’t possible they will tell you if there is another way or it’s just not going to happen, allowing for time to think on a substitution. An architectural team usually has either a hierarchy in which everyone receives their own tasks or an all in team where everyone works on each part one at a time. Some teams think one is more efficient than the other, some teams just prefer one over the other. In a hierarchy, a team will receive a client and all communicate their ideas with each other. Then, the head architect will make a plan of what needs to be done and when. The chief architect will group related tasks together and give each team member a different task. Usually each member in a team has the same task, a task that they will be familiar with every project. Each team member can still contribute to other tasks as long as the work gets done.
“We just begin on paper and sort of right down all his needs and spacial requirements and come up with an idea of okay, it’s going to be about a five thousand square foot house. And then sort of look at all the parts of that house and lay them out. Some people are like wow the garage is the biggest room in the house. And so where you put the garage on the site effects how Your house looks,” Sierra from Bercy Chen Studios Said.
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1. The new IberĂŞ Camargo Foundation headquarters preserves the collection of more than 4000 works by the master of Brazilian expressionism in nine art galleries (photo by mimoa.edu). 2. Los Angeles, Downtown (photo by pixabay) 3. El Museo Guggenheim Bilbao (photo by Pinterest) 4. Walt Disney Concert Hall (photo by Flickr) 5. New York, US(photo by unsplash @benobro)
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Architectural blueprint (photo by unsplash @Daniel Mccullough) An architectural team starts blueprinting once they have a rough idea in their heads on what they are going to do. A team usually goes through three or more revised blueprints, depending on if the client’s mind changes or they miss something. Blueprints are used for showing what everything will look like in a detailed map style that is 2D. Sierra says, we will kind of then start off the floor plan. And I that kind of work more freely on, you can see this one is half computer half floor plan because while I was doing the floor plan other people worked on the roof.
how something will fit together or how it will look finished, along with a visual aid to the client when describing a design. After the architects have made the first blueprint, they have to decide what is going to be made of what. You can’t have a second floor made of softwood and a ton of marble sitting on top of it. So, every section’s materials are chosen in relation to each other, usually there are many options in each section that allow the client a variety to choose from, unless the client chooses something that can only have one other material supporting it.
Blueprints help architects see the math side of the design and begin to make precise calculations so that an engineer or construction worker knows what to do. Blueprints also give the client an idea of what their house will actually look like. There are many types of blueprints ranging from 3D to exterior to interior to plumbing, all of which are considered in the design process.
The architects at some point will have to give the blueprints and list of materials to the engineers to begin construction. If not already done so, the architects will convert the blueprint to the preferred layout of construction so that the engineers can understand what they are explaining. The materials will be delivered to the job site when needed and the blueprints for each section as well.
Sometimes when creating a design for someone, there will be a time when either the architect or the client just can’t only think in their heads what something will look like physically, they have to put it on paper. Thus leading to a model being built, it helps the architect understand
Every once and a while, if not every work day, an architect will swing by to make sure that all construction is going according to plan. The architects will also stay on the construction sight sometimes in case an engineer has a question on
a blueprint or an issue with the design materials. After the building is complete, the architect will sit down with the client and explain a quick summary on what they did, what happened, what issues they had and how they were resolved, along with any extra details. Then, they will probably try to have a nice, sort of farewell conversation and make some lame joke that their client will pretend to laugh at to be nice. You will then get to see your amazing new dream to reality house, ask some questions, have them all answered and then your architect will say you’re welcome, here’s my card, contact us again soon, and goodbye. The last step of the architectural process is a final check on if everything is alright and if you the client likes it. In a wrap, Architects know what it takes to bring dreams to reality. Most architects have a style, some follow guidelines, and some wing it. But almost all architects know how to do a good job. They do as best as they can to suit their clients’ your wants and needs, to make designs perfect. If you don’t trust your architect, just refer back to this architectural process article, so you can know for sure that the building won’t collapse on you.
As an architect you design for the
present
with an awareness for the
past for a
future
which is essentially unknown - Norman Foster
White ribs in a facade against a white sky (photo by unsplash @lucabravo)
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Picture
The Evolving Austin Houses
How homes in Austin have changed over time
A
story by Alex Zalles
city that has always been known for its vibrant cultures and diversities, Austin, Texas, was put on the map for its wacky tastes. But with this recognition came the attraction of people. Specifically young, intelligent people, and then these people began looking to settle down and buy a house for themselves. With Austin being so expensive, their options
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A house is being built by a construction team in suburbian Austin on Tuesday, March 27, 2017. Next to the house lies a dumpster, full of the trash that made up the building that used to be on the same lot. (Photo by Alex Zalles.)
were few and far between. They had to choose between a small house with barely enough room or a large house that they could afford just by the skin of their teeth. Unsurprisingly, the young couple chose the smaller house that gave them more leniency with their money. This happened all across Austin, and the need for space and lack of money was what lead to Austin becoming a city made up of tiny homes that were simply smashed together. In the past 18 years, Austinites chose to live in houses much smaller than the houses they may have grown up in. It seemed that the large amount of young adults who lived in Austin greatly influenced the kind of living spaces that were built. Gone were the humongous houses of the 20th century, because the people who were trying to purchase a house did not have the money to afford such big plots of land. Instead, they turned to apartments or newer, smaller homes. This decision that thousands of Austinites made affected not only them,
but the older generation as well. Because of them, someone who had an older, larger house and was looking to sell and move to a new place had surprisingly small options, so they had to turn to a new option, a house with one very large suite and another tiny guest room. The architecture in Austin, specifically how home sizes had changed, showed the power that the younger demographic had on our city, even if certain outcomes were unintentional. People who experienced the influence of young adults the most were the elderly; the people who were living in Austin long enough to see the drastic changes in the city. As someone who had been living in Austin for most of her life, Nancy Toombs, Head of Public Services at the Austin History Center, said that before these changes, many houses didn’t have common things we have today. “We didn’t have a dishwasher, we didn’t have garbage disposals, we didn’t have an ice maker.” Toombs, being born in the 1950s where many appliances that people assume to be household did not even exist, could easily see some differences between now and then.
Trey Hailey smiles at the camera, looking sharp and professional for his company photo. (Photo provided by Trey Hailey.)
The drastic amount of new devices showed just how much society had changed technologically and culturally. No longer were people forced to cut holes into their walls for ventilation, nor did people need to wash and clean their clothing or silverware by hand. But, instead of progressing to gigantic houses with unprecedented amounts of appliances, many people started reverting to smaller, cheaper homes.
A large room in the Austin History Center remains quiet and untouched as the guests read in the adjacent library on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. (Photo by Alex Zalles.)
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was one of the places that was urbanized much later than other parts of Austin.
“It’s like they’ve increased the
master suites but the rest of the bedrooms have gotten tinier and tinier”
-Nancy Toombs
Trey Hailey, architect and president of Hailey Studios, said the main reason for this is that a lot of them live in apartments but want to buy something more stable, but they’ve got limited money. “They’re usually single or they’re a couple, young professionals, no children or anything.”
“This was all in East Austin and there was nothing else, I mean it was nothing over there like it is now,” Hailey said about his first experiences in East Austin. In a time where there was almost no development, and Hailey and his team had to work on a whim sometimes, not knowing how the community would react or how their buildings would fit into the general look of the region. But the industrial growth in Austin had positive as well as negative effects. The industrialization also brought much needed technology and development to areas that really needed it. Not only did the regions become more advanced, their culture flourished with the incoming excess of money and opportunities. “That was 14 years ago and it’s hard to believe all of the stuff that’s around there but back in those days, out of a dangerous place to be, like why would you want to live over there,” Hailey said about East Austin.
Considering that Hailey had not really experienced what it was like to go through the process of actually meeting the people who lived in his homes, it was interesting to see how these kinds of people act when they first buy a house. This point of view can be found from realtors, people who sell the houses and actually see the buyers experience buying a home. “I do love first time homebuyers because they’re so excited and it’s all so new for them,” Leslie Davenport, a Realtor in the downtown Austin area said. “And it’s really such a big purchase and change, kinda walking them through that process.” Davenport experienced something that most people feel only once in their lifetime, the fear and excitement of buying a house. Before Austin became compacted and relatively crowded, the city was empty and ready for innovation. This happened all over Austin, but East Austin
Leslie Daveport grins at the camera, getting a professionala headshot taken. (Photo provided by Leslie Davenport.)
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A painter puts the final touches on his mural in East Austin in August of 1978. The mural can still be found on East 3rd Street today, becoming a time capsule of the past. (Photo by William Newton.)
He said because it was such an underdeveloped place, he and his team were just trying to design affordably and effectively so that the residents there could actually live there. This shows just how much Austin changed throughout the years, that a region that used to be so much less developed became like the rest of Austin. While Austin became more developed, that came with negatives, arguably losing the soul that Austin was known for.
While Austin became a more modern and civilized city, that came with both positives and negatives. Because of the huge amount of people and little amount of space, prices skyrocketed. However, with this increased price came a burst of the most vibrant cultures in all of the U.S. and this fact truly defines Austin architecture. Hailey said, “It’s a pretty creative city, and I think that’s starting to reflect in the architecture too.”
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ADU Vs. Average Home By Alex Zalles
How Acessory Dwelling Units How Acessory Dwelling Units Are Taking Over Austin Are Taking Over Austin
Acesssory Dwelling Units, or ADUs are smaller places for people to live, but they’re on the same land of a larger, already lived in home. ADUs are becoming more popular all across America, but specifically in Austin, Texas. Because of the large group of young adults that live Austin, many of them want a nice place to live, but not with the huge cost of buying a house. Since many of these new adults are at most married and usually just in a relationship with someone, they don’t need the extra space that a house entails. So, the acessory dwelling unit fits the perfect niche that one of the largest groups in Austin want, being small and affordable, but still aesthetically pleasing for the ones living in them. This is an ADU, but drawn to scale to a regular house in Austin, Texas. The maximum size of an ADU in Austin Texas is 1,100 sq feet, and most acessory dwelling units don’t even get close to reaching that. The difference in size shows how Austinites differ from other Americans by the fact that they can function on less than half of the normal amount of space they usually have access to.
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Average ADU Size
Some pros to having/living in an ADU -Smaller space, so less clutter -Costs less than a large house -Can be rented out to other people for income -Uses up land that may be useless without it -Increases the price of your property -Provides extra space for loved ones visiting
Average Home Size The average Austin home is 2,068 sq feet. Comparing this not to the average size of an ADU, but the maximum size of an ADU, it’s almost double the size. If we consider that most ADUs don’t even reach 1,000 sq feet, we can begin to imagine what that size actually means.
Some pros to living in a house
-There’s more space available for families that can’t fit into a smaller house. -More potential for nice furniture or accessories that please the owners -If you are looking to sell, some people may be looking solely for a house and don’t want anything else on the land -Gives members of the family or the couple living in the house some space if needed, while in an ADU you’re forced to always be closed to one another. -Provides more potential for an open backyard that can entertain children if they are part of the household -No need to endure construction in the backyard of their home while the ADU is being construced AUSTIN ARCHITECTURE / Page 33
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