PROTO-ARCHITECTURE

The following is a excerpt from a Facebook invitation sent by Councilman Gallops inviting people to engage in the vision for the Water’s Edge development.  The meeting is tonight:

Time

Monday, June 27 · 7:00pm – 8:30pm

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Location

Rowlett City Hall

4000 Main Street

Rowlett, TX

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Created By

Michael Gallops

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More Info

The City of Rowlett is contemplating the execution of a land lease at the July 5 City Council Meeting for City-owned property located behind Pecan Grove Park. The City has had a letter of intent signed with the developer since November of 2008 and has now progressed to the point where a land lease is the next step. The City Council publicly discussed this lease during the work session portion of the June 21 Council meeting (see June 21 Work Session at http://rowlett.com/index.aspx?NID=397).

The developer is interested in creating a mixed-use development that could include residential, office space, restaurants, a government center and a marina. This is precisely the kind of development our citizens have expressed to us they would like to see happen in Rowlett and we are looking forward to exploring this opportunity!

If executed, this lease will give the developer control of the property and they will then engage the community through a planning Charette and other meetings designed to gather input on how Rowlett residents would like to see the property developed and then evaluate what the market will support.

At the conclusion of this public input/data gathering process, which is anticipated to take several months, the Council will have to determine whether the proposed project meets with the community’s vision and generates an appropriate return on investment for the City’s leased land. If so, the project will proceed as planned. If not, the lease will terminate.

The City would like to invite you to a meeting about the development so that you might become educated on the process and where we go from here. The goal is to keep you informed so that you might stay involved as we move forward with this exciting new opportunity.

After having participated in the Rowlett Comprehensive Planning Charrette, I’m very excited about the possibilities that our community has open to it.  I’d like to take this opportunity, therefore, to examine the area that is the most likely to experience development first, the Water’s Edge.  If you read my post summarizing the charrette, you’ll remember that the Water’s Edge had formerly been considered for development with a very ambitious master plan in 2009.

This will be the first in a series of posts I’ll make examining this area and what might want to be developed there based on the information I’ve seen and the thoughts I’ve heard from citizens.  First, however, before we consider all the fun stuff, dreaming up what fantastic things might occupy the land,  I’d like to establish a little perspective.

Understanding space is not an easy thing, it takes skill and training, but it is essential to the manage the scope of a successful project. During the charrette a plethora of ideas where thrown out by people for what uses might well be accommodated here.  Clearly not all could be fully realized, but having a grasp on how this land area compares to others nearby should help.  For those Rowlett stakeholders who have an interest in this area, I believe the following analysis will be illuminating. Read the rest of this entry →

I present the preceding image (hereafter to be referred to as “Item 1”) as evidence pertaining to the specific crime involved.  On May 17th of this year, I did knowingly and willfully walk through one outdoor mall known as the Domain (hereafter referred to as “the victim”) gratuitously and without consent, taking photographs of the assembled buildings.  It was immediately after taking this image that I was stopped by a bicycle mounted agent of the victim (hereafter referred to as the “rent-a-cop”) who informed me that I was in violation of management’s security policy which prevents photography of their properties.  I proceeded then, to explain that I was an architect who was actually in the process of designing two new phases of the Domain, and that I was simply taking photos of the existing properties for contextual reference.  The rent-a-cop said that I could only proceed with my photography with written authorization from the management.  At this point, I departed from the scene, but immediately out of sight of the rent-a-cop did proceed to photograph with reckless abandon. Read the rest of this entry →

Last night I attended the first of four local meetings detailing what happened in the charrette a couple weeks ago, and offering new data based on that event.  Unfortunately it wasn’t terribly well attended, as these things often are not, but I suspect it had something to do with the Mavericks playing in the NBA finals at the same time…just a guess. Read the rest of this entry →

As the country emerges from the great recession, my home town of Rowlett, TX is poised to make the most of the upturn and craft it’s future.  My wife and I have lived here since 2000, and this is frankly the first time we see any energy and optimism around the future development of our little burg.

For those who have never experienced it, this half day long charrette is organized by the city and the development team (comprising urban planners, architects, engineers, economist, etc.) to engage the citizenry and illicit feedback that will help shape the future of the plan going forward.  I engaged in the process for the first time as a citizen, and I hope that my professional experience in community and mixed-use/TOD development offered something unique. Read the rest of this entry →

Last week my wife and I attended the first in a series of interactive planning sessions associated with the Realize Rowlett 2020 campaign to redesign the city’s comprehensive plan.  Being more of a kick off meeting, the organization was such that several stations had been set about the community center room, each dealing with a particular aspect of the city like “people places” or “parks” and all had a map of the city with an associated board for listing citizens’ input. Read the rest of this entry →

I hate working in the office.  I never seem to get nearly as much done in the office during daylight hours as I do when  no one is around. You will almost never find me working late at the office or coming in early, and the times I’m in the office on the weekend probably coincide with the solar eclipse.  Now, don’t let that fool you into thinking I don’t martyr myself for the architectural cause with the best of them, I just don’t do it in the office.  I seriously love some of my coworkers as if they were family, but nevertheless, when I need to get things done I much prefer isolation and in this age of technology, with smartphones, VPN connections, and remote desktops, I frankly see spending any time in the office outside of normal working hours cumbersome. Read the rest of this entry →

This is an interesting video of a local WFAA newscast from one of my projects.  The West 7th development is a new, vibrant part of the downtown Fort Worth urban scene.  This phase consists of 96 market rate units in four stories above a podium with retail at the first floor.

Design Intelligence posted an interesting article last week concerning mentoring, and its evolution within the ever-changing nature of our profession.  The author, Mr. Stewart (an associate principal with Perkins+Will) makes a thoughtful analysis of the evolution of the practice of mentoring in architecture and how technology has put distance between the different levels of experience within the firm, inhibiting the mentoring process.  As a result, Mr. Stewart argues what is “desperately needed is the recommitment of every leader throughout the profession to re-instill the culture of mentorship that is fundamental to the profession.”  He goes on to say that “You can initiate creation of an internal mentoring program to augment your professional development program.” Read the rest of this entry →

Amassed on the Capitol Lawn

With a mob of black clad individuals large enough to make the lay person think someone really important just died, over 260 architects from all over the state of Texas came together at the Capitol building for the first annual Advocates for Architecture day.  Buses packed with participants from both Dallas and Houston left in the wee hours of the morning to trek to Austin, as well as hundreds of other architects making their own way.  The goal was help affect policy in the state legislatures by way of individual architects speaking directly with their own representatives.  While the Texas Society of Architects has an excellent lobbying machine in their own right, there is a distinct difference between a hired lobbyist talking to a representative and one of that representative’s own constituents discussing the issues that effect them.  Utilizing the hashtag #archday, participants tracked and commented on the event throughout the day via twitter. Read the rest of this entry →