The Chicon mixed-use project achieved a major milestone late last month when neighbors and community members gathered for a groundbreaking celebration in east Austin.

In the making for the past three years, h+uo architects is proud to be helping usher this important neighborhood revitalization project into reality.

The Chicon is the brainchild of the Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation (CNRC). CNRC resident members sum up the mission of this community-initiated project:

“With a mix of affordable and market rate homes, along with commercial spaces to foster economic growth, The Chicon is more than just a condominium development – it’s a manifestation of the legacy, culture and future growth of east Austin. One of the only affordable mixed-use condominium projects in such close proximity to downtown Austin, The Chicon aims to fit into and support the area instead of changing it, through positive, sustainable growth”

In Phase 1, two of the three buildings, The Joyce Building and the Gibbs Building, will be built at the intersection of 13^th and Chicon St. in east Austin. Phase 1 is expected to be completed in December of 2016.

To learn more about this exciting project, visit thechicon.com.

Our work on the Lakeline Learning Center is pushing hatch +ulland owen architects to the cutting edge of sustainable, green design.

As just the third Living Building Challenge project set to receive full certification in the State of Texas, this unique education facility is designed to meet exceptionally high green standards.

The Living Building Challenge, overseen by the International Living Future Institute challenges all designers to “define the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and act to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions.”

Foundation Communities asked h+uo architects to help design an ambitious building that meets the Living Building Challenge’s seven performance categories called Petals: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty.  This meant that in addition to the space being beautiful and supportive of the human spirit, the building would also need to collect its own water, gather its own energy, and process its own waste.

The program of the Lakeline Learning Center is also ambitious. While most apartment complexes provide their residents with a central clubhouse featuring fitness equipment or a pool, Foundation Communities, a local non-profit specializing in affordable housing, offers its residents a central building focused entirely on education and community uplift. At the Learning Center, school age children receive after-school and summer learning opportunities, while adults are offered financial education, tax preparation assistance, and even Zumba fitness classes.

Working on this project has given our team the opportunity to examine the holistic operations of a building and their direct relationship to the natural world. Also, we have never before peered so deeply into the chemical makeup of the building materials used in our work. The lessons learned are already spilling over into our approach to other projects.

Project Manager Kristina Olivent explained, “The Lakeline Learning Center has been a great learning experience for our office and an ambitious model for our architectural thinking and process moving forward.”

To learn more about Foundation Communities visit them at: foundcom.org

To learn more about ILFI visit them at: living-future.org

Tom Hatch, the founding partner of h+uo architects, spoke recently at the Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) event, “Affordable Housing – A Green Home for Everyone”.   The seminar featured the current landscape of affordable housing in Austin, case studies of AEGB rated affordable multi-family and mixed-use projects and the collaborative process of building green on a budget.

A recent AIA Austin (the Austin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects) design competition led our Project Manager, David Carroll, AIA, to a winning project entry.

David, and his partner on the project, Gerard D’Arcy from Sixthriver Architects, have been assisting with the latest Mobile Loaves and Fishes project called “Community First! Village.”  The new development will help house a large number of citizens of the Austin homeless community. Carroll and D’Arcy have been spending the past year designing and now building the structure on a plot of property near the Expo Center.  Once the shelter he helped design began taking shape, it was so well received the organizers decided to make it a chapel instead of a dwelling so they entire community could experience the unique structure.

Along with this and other micro-homes making up this community, there will be tents and trailers for those in need to rent out as they build their way back to financial stability. The community is fit with kitchens and restrooms, gardens and dog parks, a bus stop and health clinic.

“I’ve worked on several homeless shelters and affordable housing projects,” says David of his architectural career. “I’ve witnessed people wanting a sense of independence…” an independence he thinks this affordable community can make a reality.

To learn more about the project and ways you can help, visit Mobile Loaves and Fishes website here: http://mlf.org/community-first/