Posts Tagged ‘design’

TAXI by Zeppelin

David Baker, one the TAXIs architects

TAXI is a mixed-use development in the RINO [River North], an eclectic arts district of Denver set along the Platte River, just to the north of downtown.  Nestled in the southeast armpit of I-25 and I-70, TAXI reclaims the old Yellow Cab headquarters and maintenance facility.  I enjoyed a tour of the site while at the AIA Convention this year and was happy to have two of the architects involved in the project as guides.  The first was Alan Eban Brown, a local award winning architect who is known for his sustainable residential architecture, and who officially lead the tour for the convention.  The second was David Baker, a San Francisco based designer (who’s work I’ve followed for years, as we both primarily focus of urban infill, mixed-use use projects, with a heavy residential component), and who showed up informally to walk the tour with the crowd.

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15

07 2013

The Big Interview

Portfolio, schmortfolio….

Image via Marjeux link here.

Over the last few months I’ve spent a lot of my time slogging through interviews of prospective talent about to, or having recently graduated from college.  Architecture is an almost unique profession that combines the very creative with the very practical, and navigating the thin edge between the two is difficult for some fresh grads.  I’d like to offer a few tips for those looking. Read the rest of this entry →

02

07 2013

False Conclusions

White Buffalo - The Lancaster

White Buffalo is one of our Micro Unit Projects (Fort Worth)

The news source Mother Jones, whom I enjoy reading a lot, today posted and article “Report: Mansions Getting Bigger, Rental Apartments Getting Smaller” in which Erika Eichelberger notes this is a “metaphor for the lopsided economic recovery” and that “many younger and minority Americans have not experienced any recovery at all, and some are still losing wealth. Hence the need for more shoebox apartments.” Read the rest of this entry →

06

06 2013

UPDATE – Parkside at Firewheel

firewheel

Firewheel is an urban Town Center multifamily project located in Garland Texas. The Firewheel Town Center opened in 2005 and is located at the intersection of Bush Turnpike and State Highway 78. While it’s a bit dripping in historicism for my taste, it has pretty rigidly followed recent trends of ‘traditional’ urban town center place making. One could easily argue that, in many ways, it is just a traditional mall, sans roof, with a ring of parking around the perimeter and no viable connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. And I’d agree with them.  However, there is a modest amount of small scale office space, and coupled with the incorporation of residential product, the plan provides a nice start at economic diversity and mixed uses. Read the rest of this entry →

10

02 2013

UPDATE – The Gallery on Turtle Creek

ge1

The Gallery on Turtle Creek is a midrise residential project in the heart of one of the most popular areas of Dallas. At seven stories and approximately 230 units, I’m hoping this offering is going to provide a new option for high end contemporary urban living.  With a vertically integrated stack of amenities at the main corner, including a two story fitness and and outdoor rooftop terrace, as well as a Read the rest of this entry →

30

01 2013

Rowlett 2020 – Form Based Code

FBC

Rowlett Form Based Code Meeting

Last night the Rowlett City Council approved the Form Based code we’d spent the last year or so putting together.  While it was a fight, in the end, I think Rowlett will definitely be better for the code.  That optimism still hinges on a lot of factors, including the quality of city staff involved (which right now is excellent, but as with everything, you can’t predict the future).  I’ll elaborate on this more in an upcoming post where I’ll talk more to whole experience of the process, but suffice it to say, in my eyes, the citizens won this day.

If you’d like to view the FBC you can link to it here.

07

11 2012

Alta Henderson

Nestled in along Henderson Avenue in Dallas, a site that is vibrant with new urban activity, the Alta Henderson development makes for a quiet and sophisticated neighbor amidst a lot of architectural clatter.  I frankly must admit that I am personally rather jealous concerning this development.  Our firm had been asked to produce a conceptual design for this exact site and for an almost identical program, and the design we’d envisioned was a rather revolutionary one for the industry.  As a result, I was really sad to see the client sell the land in the pursuit of other ventures.  In any event, while the project we designed didn’t get built, the ideas we forged there lead do some intriguing R&D that has since resulted in other work, so it isn’t a total loss. Read the rest of this entry →

24

02 2012

Rowlett 2020 Phase II Advisory Committee – Meeting 2

Monday night we met in City Hall to review the progress the consultants had made in engineering the second phase of the Rowlett 2020 planning initiative.  Altogether, I think those who are looking to participate in the process are going to be impressed with the content they will have access to to help them make informed decisions to help shape the future of Rowlett.

To learn more about the second phase of this process, you can visit the City’s website here.

21

02 2012

The Water’s Edge Property – Winter Walk

This last weekend  I headed out to the Water’s Edge property to get a little exercise and give my stir crazy dog a chance to run and run to his heart’s content.  If you’d like to read my earlier post from this summer where I did a similar walk of the property, you can do so here.  I decided to return this winter because it would be a much less daunting jungle of poison ivy than it had been last July, and I wanted to document some areas along the waterfront that I hadn’t before.  Read the rest of this entry →

15

02 2012

Rowlett 2020 Phase II Advisory Committe – Meeting 1

I’ve been asked to participate as a member of the Rowlett 2020 Phase II Advisory Committee and last night we met to kick off phase 2 of the the Rowlett 2020 development initiative.  The goal of the committee is to vet the information that the consultant is composing to engage the citizenry in phase 2 of the process.  This will include public meetings and engagement sessions designed to illicit feedback from anyone in Rowlett who would like to help affect the future development of Rowlett.  You can review my posts on phase 1 of the process here.

12

01 2012