Manchaca Monday: South Austin Office Space Update

As a recap of our office development project on Manchaca Road, the idea behind the office park is to create a setting off of a high volume road that is peaceful and secluded. The narrow lot naturally supports that and we tried to leave as many trees as possible to create a tranquil setting. Many views from the large windows in the offices will be right into trees.

The retention pond is finished and the paving is halfway done. We are beginning to see how everything will eventually work and feel.

This is what the site plan looks like:

Now, the buildings are taking shape! The envelopes on all three buildings are close to finishing up. Building One has most of the framing and decking done. Building Two is just waiting on some siding and window frames. Building Four is the closest to being buttoned up. Next week we will have all the glass windows in and perhaps our metal fabrications that will give the buildings more identity. 

We are working hard to to get these buildings ready for occupancy by early January 2015. Below are some photos of the progress.


South Austin now has some fresh studio office space available around the corner!

BisNow Austin: State of the Market 2014

At Fatter & Evans Architects, Inc. we love keeping up with real estate development in Austin. Last month we attended BisNow's 4th Annual Austin State of the Market to learn more about the health and trajectory of the real estate market. As architects, we believe it's important to have an understanding of the trends and economic issues related to real estate so we can create better design for you.

Below is a fun infographic of what we learned at the BisNow event. 

If you found this helpful, leave us a comment!

If you'd like more information about how we can help with you next project, please email us at info@fatterevans.com.

Back in the Saddle Again - Manchaca Monday

This morning I use the faucet many times to make coffee, brush my teeth or wash my hands. However, I never once thought about how that water made it to my personal sink. I'm pretty sure we use water from the tap everyday and never once think about how we have the privilege to access to it.

 

Today that ends! At our Manchaca site where we are developing an office studio complex, we are in the middle of all the site work that will give us access to this water. In the photo to the right, you can see the workers attaching the wet tapping saddle to the city's public waterline. When we officially tap into the city's waterline, there will be such an insignificant amount of water lost you could catch it in a coffee cup, even though water flow will not be interrupted. I do not presume to be able to explain the physics behind this but here is an infographic below that might help.  

In the picture to the right is our fire line and water line that will be tied into the city's water. During the site plan approval process with the city, there was some back and forth with city officials on pipeline sizes and how best to save the trees (also shown in the picture). These have since been resolved but added time to the schedule. In the next couple of weeks, we'll also be adding a backflow preventer. This is important because our pipeline ends at the back of the site and we cannot have the city's potable water contaminated by any backflow. While we budgeted for these extraneous costs, a developer less experienced might run into some problems.


The moral of this story is the importance of doing your homework before you buy a piece of property to understand the city code on what is allowed on the site and having a team or architects or engineers to advocate for you. 

You can always reach us at info@fatterevans.com if you have any questions about site development or feasibility studies.