Texas Avenue Neighborhood

residential

A pocket neighborhood tucked into a beautiful live oak grove offers small-scale infill development with multi-family housing around a shared common space. Pocket neighborhoods are distinct from standard apartment buildings because they place people at the center rather than vehicles; by fostering a shared sense of ownership in the common spaces; by creating porches and landscape to establish a sense of belonging with privacy. These also create clusters of housing at higher density than single family tracts; reducing the infrastructure needed to serve the same number of residents. Social, resilient, and efficient.

This project enhances climate resiliency with porches for shading and rain protection – but these also support social resiliency around shared views and sidewalks. The modern beach houses have exposed framing and are raised 1 foot above BFE to provide enhanced flood protection and allow air and water circulation to the tree roots, with pier footings instead of continuous foundations. Existing live oak trees were preserved to reduce the heat island effect and pervious paving was used near tree roots.

The development includes: (3) Studios, (2) 1-bedroom units, (4) 2-bedroom units, and (7) 3-bedroom units, for a total of 16 units. The common space includes a recycled quonset hut and shipping containers to form a party pavilion and firepit area.