hive THINK LOCALLY
Green Building: a new fad that should stick around Living within a mile of everything you need, mixed use developments
A new Austin boutique hotel
Austin’s new skyline Interiors for your modern house
CONTENTS
Hive December 2009
4 Staff Page 5 The New Downtown With Austin’s new downtown almost fully built, buildings are ready to move into.
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12 Places We Like 13 New Vs. Old See the difference between Modern houses and traditional houses. Which is better?
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15 M.U.D. Mixed-Use developments are everywhere, but are they really beneficial?
cover: The Kimber Modern courtyard. From top: The monarch, Austin 360, The Austonian, viewed from the Lamar footbridge; an old house near downtown Austin; The triangle, a Mixed Use Development near UT
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CONTENTS
pg 17 Kimber Modern Kimber Modern, one of the most modern hotels in Austin. What features do they feature? Michelle Trudo, the manager of Kimber Modern tells you everything.
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pg 19 Stuff We Like pg 23 Building for the Future The recent trend in Eco friendly building is a way to turn over a new leaf for the planet. pg 25 Architect’s Inspiration Austin has a whole host of modern architecture firms, who provied innovative ideas for living
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pg 32 Houses We Like
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From top: The Kimber Modern’s light filled courtyard.
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Hive
David David is Asain and around fourteen. No duh. He lives in a house, which is pretty much all the architecture he gets. But nontheless, he was staffed on our magazine, and he has done a lot. He lives with his mother, his father, and possibly a sibling. What he has taken away from this class? Nothing.
Lucy Lucy is fourteen. She likes theater and rowing, and can often be found on Town Lake. She lives with her mother and her sister, and she has two kitties, Maribel and Glinda. She really likes architecture, and was excited for the opportuinty to work on a magazine centered around the subject. What has she taken away from this class? She never wants to work for a magazine. Ever.
Emma Emma is a fourteen year old girl who is five foot eight. She lives with her parents, sister, and fluffball Mabel (a 5 pound dog). She, like Lucy, enjoys architecture, so much that she wants to be an architect when she grows up. What she has taken away form this class? If you meet an Asain nerd named David, run away. He might just drive you to the brink of insanity.
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The New Downtown
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By Emma
The Monarch, Austin 360, The Austonian all are new buildings raising the height fo the Austin skyline
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As you walk out of Cissi’s Market on South Congress with your Prickly-Pear-Agave-Detox-Tea, you might notice that downtown has a new personality. Indeed, it is vastly different from just a short while ago. No, I’m not talking about an excess of grackles or chic clothing boutiques. I’m talking about all the new residential housing springing up in our town center. Downtown has recently become a hub for modern design and shiny new buildings. Gone are the days of the Frost Bank Towers reign as Austin’s most exciting building. All the construction and new buildings downtown have sparked people’s interest, and now that many of the apartments and condos are ready to move into, people are considering moving downtown in earnest. This is where things like the Downtown Living Tour come in. On October 11th the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA) put on the tour to showcase 11 different condos and apartments around downtown. I intervewed Jamie LaGarde, the President of the Neighborhood Association and a coordinator of the tour. “We want people to experience what it really is to live downtown,” said LaGarde. The tour, as stated before, has 11 residences, and is designed to generate interest in moving downtown as well as to help DANA, which is a nonprofit association.
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The glassy front of West Elm, stores below a new Mixed use Development, The Spring Condominiums
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A more vertically challenged apartment building, the Austonian (still under construction) Opposite page: Austin City Lofts, rental cars to drive around Ausint
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There are open, airy lofts like at the Plaza Lofts, and small one bed, one bath condos, like at the 360 Condominiums. Whatever type of residence you want, downtown has an array of options for you. LaGarde chose to settle down at Austin City Lofts, a 14 floor, refreshingly low key building with soaring ceilings and cool concrete floors. He says he considered leasing at first: “I was looking at the fact that I could develop equity by purchasing. And I believed that the downtown housing market was undervalued.” And this might be so, but downtown living is still for people willing to spend $322--or more--per square foot. But regardless of price, downtown apartments and condos, especially the new ones, are modern, elegant, and uberconvenient. According to LaGarde, “If you’re looking for a lifestyle that’s more walkable, that’s a really great advantage, to live in a really dense downtown, [which is something] that Austin is becoming more and more all the time.” Austin’s downtown is very dense, in fact, it has countless bars, hair salons, and clothing stores, so much that you would never have to leave. You can eat out, do your grocery shopping, even get your dry cleaning done, all just a few blocks from your house. “A lot of people who live downtown, they’ll park their car on Friday, and they won’t pick up their car again ‘till Monday,” said LaGuarde. And then there is the issue of transportation. If you’ve ever spent time downtown, you know there isn’t a constant stream of taxis driving through the streets, as there is in major cities. And since downtown is recently beginning to mirror some big cities in both density and accessibility of amenties, it makes sense to have downtown be even more navigable with more public transportation. Things like taxis and rail systems. LaGuarde said: “The city will have to answer to transportation challenges that exist. [We need] some sort of rail system for downtown as it continues to grow from a density perspective.” And downtown isn’t just for single people with busy schedules. Families can enjoy city living as well. LaGarde says there is a sense of community among residents of multi-unit buildings, because the close proximity neighbors have to each other, they have a better chance of getting to know each other than if they are more spread out, like in the suburbs. Also, there are several parks downtown where families can go, like Republic Square, Brush Square, and Auditorium shores on the hike and bike trail. Said LaGarde: ”[Living downtown provides] access to those
great amenities, that people come from other parts of the city to, and they’re right here at your doorstep. And those types of amenities are fantastic for families.” Downtown living is not for everyone, but if you enjoy sweeping views, convenience, and don’t mind paying the extra money for those two, then downtown living might be your cup of tea. There are countless buildings to choose from; renting or buying, skyscraper or block of town homes; your dream house could be in there somewhere.
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The Austin 360, a towering condo building with many amenities on the street level, such as Garridos taco bar.
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Places We Like The Domain The Domain is located in north Austin. The Domain is a large shopping mall where people live above the stores. There are a lot of people enjoying the features such as trails and shopping.
The Long Center The Long Center located neaer downtown is used for events and shows. It is a very large facility, and is very modernly designed.
The Blanton Museum of Arts The Blanton Museum of Arts is a very beautiful museum and has lots of modern art.
The Frost Bank Tower The Frost bank is one of the symbols of Austin. DAVID NEEDS TO WRITE HERE
Click Here for more information: http://davidemmalucy.blogspot.com fall/winter 2009
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New Vs. Old by David 13
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mart homes, which are houses with modern technology, are helping the safety of families living in dangerous neighborhoods these days. With a lot of security systems and devices, our neighborhoods can be safer. However old people and fans of traditional houses argue that smart homes are ruining the tradition of traditional homes. Don’t technologies protect us and help us live high quality life? The smart homes and home automations that contain security systems and all the other devices that make our lives comfortable and promote the image of the houses that we live in. We can always trust our houses and our houses can always be our “safe” shelter instead of being an isolated place that has no protection and a place that you always have to work to be comfortable. Also, with the new technologies that update, and renews day by day, the smart homes will never get old, but only will get better, safer, and more comfortable. To make an opinion with the materials that I researched and found, the traditional houses will only increase the chance of burglaries, and thefts. However with the security systems from the advanced technology that advances and renews day by day, our homes will be secure, and be safe. However, different from the smart homes that are secured and safe, unsecured houses will be always target of the thieves who renews their skill of robbing, and even using modern technology to rob houses. The smart homes these days contain a lot of technology that could make people’s
life much more comfortable. Technologies such as scene lighting, automated lighting, whole house audio, voice recognizing security systems, and other technologies make our life productive, and comfortable. When we are in an emergency, we can call 911 just by telling the machine to call 911, instead of dialing the phone. Also, we can just say “On” to turn on the lights when we have stuff in our hands. The home automation could reduce a lot of green house gases, and slow the global warming. Also there are a lot of home automation technologies that saves a lot of water sources, electricity, and other sources that causes global warming and limits our sources. However the traditional houses wastes a lot of water since most of the traditional houses are old, and might have leaks. With the modern technologies that are applied to our homes these days we can have one of the safest homes and be separated from a dangerous world and enter a world of peace and comfort. Also, using various kinds of technologies applied in our modern homes, we can be more productive, creative, comfortable, peaceful, and have a higher quality of life. However, some old people, and some people who likes to keep their traditions, disagrees to the modern technology homes, and states that modern smart homes does not help the global warming, but make the global warming worse. However, that statement isn’t always true. The smart homes actually save a lot of energy, and uses less natural sources. Also there are a lot of technologies that stop people from using too much water, and there are also energy conserving devices and technologies. The modern home automation/smart home technologies are very important, since it is changing from an old tradition to modern technology that might be able to help slow down the global warming, comforting our lives, and almost guaranteeing the safety of our homes.
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s I was heading into a Panera Bread in Lakeway, I happened to look up. These buildings were really tall! I noticed that where there should have been the roof of the building, there were windows. And lots of them. I asked my mother what they were there for, and she told me they were apartments. I asked her why, and it turns out, these are mixed-use developments, something that are showing up all over Austin. A mixed-used development is where, in an area about the size of a typical shopping center, there are shops, housing areas, and office buildings. Essentially, if you live in one, you never have to leave. You can live above a Nordstrom, and everything is within walking distance. Sounds great, right? But there is a problem with these mixed-use developments, they are changing the way that people across the United States are thinking about architecture. Instead of thinking in terms of “how can I make an innovative, energy efficient, and interesting design”, architects are thinking, “how can I fit all this stuff into this little area, while still having it appear to
be something that people want to live in”. And these aren’t just the architects working on the mixeduse developments, but architects all over. We are moving into a place where everything is smaller and cheaper. Residential and commercial architecture are large parts of what makes Austin so… Austiney. If Austin continues to churn out mixed-use developments, then we will lose a very valuable part of Austin culture. People will start living in apartments that are all squished together, and local businesses will be forced to relocate to cookie-cutter storefronts, where they will be plagued with rules and regulations, just in order to keep customers. Also, if the demand for getting a space in the “new mixed-use development” is high, then where are the people that are building houses, getting architects to use their creative ideas to construct something where the design isn’t all but built. In mixeduse developments, there are strict building codes and rules to help everything look unified, and this takes away one great part about being an architect, the creativity factor.
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These are apartments above the galaxey cafe at the triangle, a mixed
use development.
I have always wanted to be an architect, but I would never want to be an architect if I wouldn’t get to be in control. When people change the way they think about architecture, it changes a lot more than you think. If an architect works on a project like one of these, then it may influence their future projects. Can you imagine 6th street if everything was built according to the same layout and looked the same from the street? It is crucial that architects are able to help us “keep Austin weird”. The developers of these projects insist that these mixed-use developments are super convenient for the people living there, and that they guarantee customers for the businesses located in them, but I don’t think that any of these benefits are worth losing our architectural freedom over. Another point made is that these mixed-use developments promote a “strong sense of community” that no longer exists in today’s environment of e-mail and texting. Everyone would live close together and hang out in the park and go jogging together if they lived in these mixed-use developments. The truth is, however, that there is absolutely no fact basis anywhere to back that up. There is nothing stopping you from hanging out with your developments. The truth is, however, that there is absolutely no fact basis anywhere to back that up. There is nothing stopping you from hanging out with yourneighbors when you live in a conventional neighborhood, so who’s to say that squishing you all closer and giving you a smaller place to live is going to make you talk more? With so many of these showing up in Texas and the United States, we need to be cautious of the superpowers we claim these mixed-use developments have. Although mixed-use developments may seem like the perfect place to live, there are actually many consequences associated with them. We need to not let out architecture (Which is a giant part of out culture and heritage) be industrializedand commercialized. We need to place restrictions
on where it is and is not legal to finace the building of these mixed-use developments as well. Currently, according to the Austin zoning plan, anywhere on the map coded as a neighborhood office, limilted office, general office, neighborhod commerical, community commerical, general commerical services, and commerical liquor sales are all fair game for building mixed-use developments. Instead of supporting these mixed-use developments, we should support plazas where when the buisnesses decide to go there, they are able to be themselves. They need to maintain their individuality, or architecture means nothing.
A triangle chiropracter, right next door to a Mama Fu’s
A Blockbuster right under neath apartments in another mixed use development fall/winter 2009
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Kimber Modern The manager of Kimber Modern, Michelle Trudo, introduces Kimber Modern. Take a look at features that Kimber Modern presents and get into the whole new generation of modern hotels.
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“If the Museum of modern art were to build a hotel, this is what they’d build.” Michelle Trudo, the manager of Kimber Modern, says this is one of the best compliments she’s received from a guest. The Kimber Modern features numbers of modern amenities and unique materials. Trudo says some of the materials were not avaliable in America when the hotel was built, so they were shipped from other countries. The Kimber Modern, which was completed in October 2008, has an urban setting, and is close to downtown. While many hotels around Austin are very traditional, Kimber Modern is one of the few hotels in a generation of hotels with few rooms, or a boutique hotel, which makes it very special. Trudo says, “I like the
uniqueness of the hotel.” The hotel is one of a kind because it is made of various materials, and these are some of her favorite exterior features of the Kimber Modern. “The work place is very beautiful and Zen-like.” Although it is a very hard job to keep up with organizing the hotel, Trudo says she likes working there since the mood of the hotel is very clean. “I feel very calm when I come to work,” she says. Trudo says this feeling of tranquility motivates her to work hard. Trudo says a lot of good things about the setting and the mood of the hotel. She also gets complements about the condition of the work place. Trudo also loves working in Kimber Modern because not only does the
Kimber Modern have a lot of beautiful features such as glass windows and water features on the deck, but it feels like her house since it is very small. Trudo also says it feels like a tree house since there are trees coming out of the deck and a lot of plants inside the hotel. Managing a hotel also requires getting lots of feedback. “I love talking to all the guests.” Trudo enjoys talking about the journeys that guests have taken around the country. She is always friendly with guests who stay in the Kimber Modern. Trudo also talks about the uniqueness of Kimber Modern, and how special it is to have this newly built modern hotel in an urban area. Her favorite part of the hotel are the materials that make up the hotel. Some of the materials are even from Germany, Trudo says. They also recently placed a water feature on the deck. The water feature has lights underwater, so at night, the light bounces off of the canopy, a triangular canvas sheet, reminiscent of a ships sails. Trudo says it is like a light show. Trudo also says although this light show was unplanned, it is still very beautiful. However, in afternoons, when the sun is up in the middle of the sky, the best attractions of the hotel are the kitchen, the living room, and the common room. “It is like your own kitchen” Trudo says, “It also has a lot of amenities such as European coffee maker.” A lot of features of the hotel are set up like your own house, she comments. The kitchen is beautiful, and she likes cooking in hotel since the kitchen is very modern in its designed. She also likes the natural lights that go through numbers of windows, which you can see often around the hotel since there are a lot of windows surrounding the deck. “Guests love the simplicity and the beauty of the lines and
spaces we’ve created.” Also the building has one more taste of uniqueness and simplicity added by the shape of this building, Trudo says. “The building is sort of like a pie, and had to fit on a very unordinary plot of land, so we had to put a build a hotel on this uncommon piece of landscape. Trudo says this and shows an example of how the building was shaped.” Then she took a piece of paper anwwd ripped the edge in half to the midpoint of the paper. Then she held one of the sides of the paper upward and the other side downwards.
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“I like how small the hotel is” Trudo says, and adds “There are only six rooms so you get the whole space” Since the land that this hotel was built on was very uncommon and small, not, the hotel itself is very small and has very few rooms compared to hotels like Hyatt Regency Hotel near downtown, which is huge. This is a very urban area, but suddenly when you come into the building, it feels like your private house.” Trudo also says that Kimber Modern has a creative private setting. Buildings and trees surround you. Trudo says this is a very hard thing to accomplish when you are in an urban setting, and a lot of guests think the hotel is like a tree house since there are trees coming out of the deck, and some from the ground level of the hotel. Trudo says and explains about how hotel is very
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green since there are natural lights coming in, and trees placed in various places of the hotel. “Our hopes is that it sets a peaceful and quiet setting”, Trudo says Trudo again refers how peaceful the workplace is, and hopes guests can stay in Kimber Modern with calm and peaceful mind, and having a accessibility to full running kitchen and common room is a very great settings and there are glasses so the lights merge interior and exterior spaces of kitchen and common room the deck area. Kimber Modern features variety of uniqueness and simplicity including some of their building materials and amenities. Kimber Modern is a very special hotel in Austin that opens up a new generation of buildings. Many guests who stay in Kimber Modern leave a lot of compliments and sometimes review how good the Kimber Modern is on the Internet.
Stuff We Like
Vases in Ligne Roset
Cool light in Ligne Roset
Hanging decoration in NEST
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left; Nelson blimp lamp, lot left; Nelson lamp series; top right; white glass chanedlier in DWR
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Nelson Chain in Design within Reach
Design within Reach lamp
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Building for the Future
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By Emma 23
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ouses can save energy, and saving energy saves money and the planet. This seems like a win-win situation, and it is. But unfortunately, not everyone is working towards this ideal vision of the future, where houses, man, and society can live in harmony with the environment. All we need to do is make some easy adjustments to our houses. These are called green building methods and they need to be taken up en masse by the general public, as well as big companies and corporations. At the present, not everyone employs these practices, and if we do not make a swift change to more Eco-friendly building materials and technology, the environment could be in immediate peril. The buildings in the US contribute 38.1% of CO2 emissions. You may think building green is entirely hard, expensive work, with no personal benefits. However, this simply isn’t true. There
are numerous benefits to building green, and the one people are most familiar with is probably the environmental ones. By building green you not only improve air and water quality, you can enhance and protect bio diversity in ecosystems. And maybe the most relevant today: it can help conserve and restore natural resources. If, for example, you were using recycled materials for the outside of your house, then there would be less waste coming from the plant that usually makes the non recycled equivalent of the material, and less those materials would be less in demand, and it would raise the demand for the recycled material. Opponents of green building may say it is too expensive. An article form Reed Construction Data written by the RSMeans Engineering staff even said it could raise construction costs by 2-5 percent. But really, making a house eco-friendly isn’t that expensive.
In fact, it can save you money the long run. A calculation following the Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development showed the cost of ownership would go down by $160 of energy efficient homes, and you would have a monthly savings of $61. In about five years, you would have been reimbursed fully for the extra cost, and then you could begin to save money every month. Green building also has immediate benefits, and they benefit the resident directly. Your house
can even become more comfortable to live in. Combined with using less energy to operate, energy efficient cooling and heating systems can be quieter and help reduce humidity. And proper insulation can also help maintain an even temperature throughout the house. In general, they improve your overall quality of lief. If we all put the small effort and money into utilizing these eco-friendly methods, we can spend less money, have more comfortable homes, and prevent the further destruction of everyone’s home, Earth.
This modern house has lots of windows, letting sunlight in, so the owevers save
This house features a giant glass paneled
money
building behind it, which provideslight too
A xerosacape garden in front of this house saves water which is good for Austin’s dry climate
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Beyond the Building
By Lucy fall/winter 2009
I was standing on Lavaca St., looking up at the AmLi. I was looking at the wonderful use of balconies and I noticed these interesting glass cubes on each one. I wondered what these cubes were, and where the idea for them came from. And then I realized that the architect responsible for the building was probably responsible for these interesting patios. I set out to know more. In the United States, there are more than 5 million buildings, but recently, with all the new development downtown in Austin (the Austonian, the AmLi, New Central Library), you may be wondering where all these buildings are coming from. Architects. That’s who. And when there are so many new buildings, the architects themselves become an integral part of the Austin culture, or, scene. The architects themselves influence their buildings which influence the culture of our town. The two firms I talked to specifically were Black + Vernooy and Images of... Images Of... is a local Austin architecture firm located out east of 360, in a large office-house, belonging to Mr. Eliot Johnson, the main architect. Images Of... has a strong commitment to sustainability, and wants to spread that idea around. Black + Vernooy architects are another local firm. They are downtown, on 4th street. With their buildings, they focus on keeping the houses connected to the land around them, and on promoting a sense of living. left: Images Of...
top: Images Of... below: Black + Vernooy fall/winter 2009
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Images Of... fall/winter 2009
Both of these firms have worked on lots of projects in Austin of all shapes, sizes, and sorts. Black + Vernooy have designed both residential and commercial buildings, while Images of... focuses strictly on housing. This may seem like a silly thing. There really isn’t a difference between houses and commercial spaces, right? A building is a building, is a building. However, to Mr. Sinclair Black, of Black + Vernooy, the difference is large, and a big part of what he believes. “I like the public buildings we have done,” Black said, “houses are private, and they really do the public no good.” Some of their public buildings include the AmLi, the Central Market on Lamar, and the Helm fine arts center at St. Stevens. Both however, had houses featured on the AIA homes tour (October 10-11), so their residential work is recognized as well. In addition to the homes tour, both firms have received numerous awards and lots of recognition. Johnson has had houses featured in magazines such as Natural Home, and even in a book Dreaming Green. Black + Vernooy have received countless merit and honor awards on their work, as well as second place in a national design competition. When every house or building that these architects create being so well designed, you have to wonder where these ideas come from. I asked both architects how they go about starting a project. They both said that they always visit the lot. Johnson said it’s really easy for him to get an idea.
Images Of... The AmLi Downtown, one of Black + Vernooy’s projects
Images Of...
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Images Of...’s owners home and office fall/winter 2009
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“We like to refer to ourselves as professional amateurs,” Black said, “There is very little that [architecture] doesn’t have to do with.” Since architecture is so broad, it seems to be something that you wouldn’t think to do as a living. However, it seems that both Black and Johnson were headed towards it from a young age. “I used to build forts in my house, and the joke was, I was either going to be a furniture mover, or an architect,” Johnson told me. Black also built things at a young age, such as models, and at 14 he started remodeling cars. “When I graduated from high school, my counselor told me I should probably be an artist, but
One of Black + Vernooy’s projects
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that they don’t make any money. She suggested that my mother put me in architecture school, but that I would probably flunk out,” Black said. Turns out, his mother had wanted him to be an architect since before he was born. Architecture really is an important subject, because buildings don’t just appear, they take time, thought, and effort, as well as other things. A well designed building takes a well trained architect. And that’s what I learned.
1239 Enfield Rd. Austin, TX 78703
2103 Kinney Ave. Austin, TX 78704
Houses We Like fall/winter 2009
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2413 Dormarion Lane Austin TX 78703
2201 Stanford Lane Austin, TX 78703
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2112 Paisano Rd. Westllake Hills, TX 78746
3314 Enfield Rd. Austin, TX 78703
1017 Riverside Dr. Austin TX, 78704
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