Clark | Richardson Architects wins AIA Design Award!

We are excited to announce that we won an AIA Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects for Design Excellence!  Below is a brief video with some of the jury comments: http://vimeo.com/41501824

AIA Merit Award 2012

Demo Starts on Hyde Park Residence

Construction on CRA’s extensive remodel and addition to a historic 1930′s Hyde Park residence began last week in Austin, Texas.  The interior primarily consisted of ship lap pine with some of the original wall paper maintained below the thin gyp board cladding that was added later.  In keeping with the goals of the historic district, the existing interior flooring will be refurbished and reused in the new house along with the historic windows and exterior siding.  The project is seeking a five star rating in the Austin Energy Green Building Program as such waste materials will be stockpiled by type for recycling per the programs requirements. We’re excited to see this project start down the road to completion.  Click here to see some images of the house in our “On the Boards” section.  Or to see an animation fly around of the project Click Here. 

Tropism & Bending in Nature

This was an invited blog post on the theme ‘bending’ for UTSOA’s The Collective:

Tropism is a phenomenon in nature whereby plants deform in response to environmental forces.  The taxonomy of tropisms is organized predominantly by stimulus from Geotropism, movement or growth in response to gravity, to Thermotropism, movement in response to temperature (and on and on: Chemotropism, Hydrotropism, Heliotropism, Thigmotropism…) .  The net effect is that natural systems have evolved to interact dynamically with their environment; constantly adapting, adjusting, shrinking, thinning and growing in response to external conditions.   The evolution of our own culture of building systems is following a similar path as we leave behind blanket approaches to environmental systems that overlook the genius loci of given sites.  One of the great hopes for architecture is the potential for new technology to engender an architectural tropism of sorts. If digital responsiveness can be infused into the physical; buildings can be in constant vibration, constant synergy with the environment.  Skin systems can open and close like pores to regulate moisture, dynamic shading devices can act like feathers or scales to regulate light and breezes, envelopes can thicken in response to extreme hot and cold.  Buildings can leave behind permanence in lieu of the many joys of bending to the provisional.

East Austin Art!

We love this installation in East Austin! Thanks Ink Tank! When I was taking pictures of this project for the blog an Austin Energy employee pulled up and asked me what happened here, he said he had heard that a tornado might have touched down in East Austin a few weeks earlier.  We laughed – what an organized artistic tornado!  That is what is great about public art installations- the random conversations that are inspired between strangers.  When you stumble on an installation like this it makes you think twice about your environment and things you see everyday – it causes you to take notice and pay a bit more attention to your surroundings and if it is great it resonates.  Congratulations Ink Tank – we love what you did, this house has been sitting here empty for at least 6 years that I can remember but probably more, it is nice to see it reacting to its isolation and rejoining the neighborhood in a big way!

Wood Gusher Art and Architecture in East Austin

Things to Consider when Looking for Land to Build On: Part II – McMansion , FAR and Impervious Coverages

This is the second installment in our blog posts about things to consider when purchasing a residential lot for construction. The first installment discussed City of Austin Setback Requirements. This installment will look at the City’s Sub-Chapter F ordinance known as the “McMansion Ordinance” as well as looking closer at how the city defines FAR and Impervious Coverages and how they are calculated. Note that all these calculations and building setback planes must be submitted to the city at the time of permitting, a licensed architect will take all of this into consideration when designing and should set up code review sheets to lay out the information for the city.

1. The McMansion ordinance came about in 2006 as a reaction to small central Austin bungalows being remodeled into huge property filling houses.  There is still much debate around it which constitutes its own series of blog posts but in an effort to avoid divergence from our topic at hand we will just accept it as a fact and explain it some. The ordinance effects the following building areas on a site:

The heavy blue line indicates the “tent” formed by the side and rear setback planes. The buildable area is the smallest area included within the front, side, and rear yard setbacks; maximum height limit; and the combined side and rear setback planes (shown here as the green area).

• Building Height limiting it to 32′

• Building Setbacks The COA defines “setback planes”, for the side yard and back yard setbacks.  These are found by taking the 5′ side yard setback, extending it up into space 15′ and then angle it 45deg towards the center of your lot.  The 15′ is measured from the ground at 40′ intervals to take into account sloping site terrains.   There are of course different exceptions allowing for dormers and gables.  This is best explained with an image – most architects I know have to look it up for every new project because the ordinance just does not make sense.  Keep in mind these setbacks are in addition to the setbacks discussed in our previous post.

• 

  Side Wall Articulation (Existing Side Wall Exceeds 32 Feet) Articulation is required for side walls on additions or new construction that are 15 feet or taller and located within 15 feet of the side lot line. No wall may extend for more than 32 feet without a projection or recession of at least 4 feet in depth and 10 feet in length.

  Sidewall Articulations:  The code requires that your building jog if a sidewall is too long.  “A side wall of a building that is more than 15 feet high and is an average distance of 15‘ or less from an interior lot line may not extend in an unbroken plane for more than 32′ along a side lot line.”

2. FAR – Floor to Area Ratio: This is the amount of building the city will let you have on a lot after all other setback and impervious restrictions are met.   “FAR measures the square footage of a building relative to the amount of land on which it sits . The City of Austin defines FAR as the ratio of the gross floor area (total square footage of building on all floors with some exceptions naturally) to the gross site area (total square footage of lot). For example, if a home is 4,000 square feet in size and the size of the lot is 10,000 square feet, the FAR is 4,000 divided by 10,000, which is equal to 0.40.”  Most residential zoning in Austin has an FAR of .4, this is determined by your lots zoning and any affecting overlays in the area. The city has an online calculator you can use here.

3. Impervious Coverage- Increased impervious coverage in the city results in increased runoff which has negative affects on our creeks, lakes and water reservoirs.  For most residential lots in the City of Austin the Impervious Coverage allowance is 45%.  This means that 45% of your property overall area can be covered by surfaces that do not allow water to penetrate the ground.  Now with all things city related there are exceptions.  The city will calculate uncovered decks at 50% for instance and water features (including water harvesting equipment) are not counted.

Natural and Impervious Cover Diagram from the EPA

Much of the above discussion centers around things that will dictate what you build on a lot but it is good to know up front prior to purchasing a lot in the City of Austin.  While there are numerous benefits to living in the City there are likewise numerous restrictions to building here!

Happy New Year 2012!

C|R Austin Architects Happy New Year!

Clark | Richardson’s Graham Foundation Grant Proposal Proceeds to Second Stage Review

We were pleased to be selected to advance to the second stage review from over 700 entries for our Graham Foundation Grant Proposal. We would love to delve further into this research area:

Storyville and Other Edge Communities: The Rise and Fall of Public Housing in 20th Century New Orleans

Abstract: New Orleans public housing is often understood through the lens its decline, a long but steady abandonment by the government of both financial and intellectual support.  New Orleans was the first city to qualify for funding to build 6 low income communities under the Housing Act of 1937.  Each community represented an edge community, most famously represented by Iberville which was located on the former site of the country’s first vice district, Storyville, on the outskirts of the historic French Quarter.  We propose to explore both the urbanism and architecture of New Orleans’ early public housing communities through both original architectural drawings, archival urban planning documents and other historical data on file with the Federal Government, City of New Orleans, Tulane University and other historical sources.  The intent is to reconstruct the phenomena of public housing in New Orleans not through the lens of its demise but its conception.