M Station WINS Property of the Year
Entry by Megan Matthews, Architectural Intern, h+uo
Foundation Communities’ M Station, designed by Hatch+Ulland Owen Architects (h+uo), recently won the Property of the Year Award for affordable housing from the Austin Apartment Association. We are truly honored to have been a part of this important development.
The community features environmentally sensitive amenities and green features aimed at conserving not only electricity, but water as well. With a LEED Platinum rating, M Station provides residents an inviting and respectable place to call home, while offering on-site support services for child care and continuing education.
A project of this scale can only realize such great success after having a continued positive relationship between the client and the architect. Other recent awards for M Station include the Community Stewardship Award for Best New Development from Envision Central Texas and the Social Impact Award from the Austin Business Journal.
A Personal Note from Megan
Before working for h+uo, I worked for Foundation Communities, a local non-profit organization providing affordable housing and support services to low income adults in the Austin area. Once construction began on their new housing community, M Station, I was invited to attend and sit-in on weekly construction meetings. As an architecture student still in school at UT, this was a great opportunity to get a closer look at the construction process. It was during these weekly construction meetings that I met Tom Hatch and from there worked as a Resident Intern at h+uo during the summer and fall of 2011. After graduating in May 2012, h+uo decided to hire me as a full-time Architectural Intern. I’m enjoying learning about architecture through practical applications and seeing just how architecture can positively impact the lives of people.
~ Megan Matthews