Lake Flato’s Porch House. Photographs courtesy Lake Flato, lakeflatoporchhouse.com

The fact that architects have been fascinated with prefabrication is no secret. Over the past 90 years, such luminaries as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Yona Friedman, Team X, and Jean Prouvé engaged in the dialogue. Modernists found it to work in their system of the free plan. Megastructuralists became fascinated with the repetitive unit that the individual could customize after construction. Projects such as Moshe Safdie’s Habitat at the Montreal Expo in 1967 and Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation imagined a new way of building and inhabiting space.

Recently, firms and companies such as Blu Homes, Marmol Radziner, and Alchemy Architects (with their weeHouses) have reopened the discussion of prefabrication, specifically with single family homes. Add Lake Flato Architects to the list. Based out of San Antonio, David Lake and Ted Flato decided to use the recent economic downturn to investigate potential lines of thinking they would not normally have time or energy for. From these explorations the “Porch House” was born. While the aforementioned architects focus on an already miniscule niche of homeowners looking for non-custom high-end homes, Lake Flato noticed a different angle.

Rendering showing a "dogtrot" house, a vernacular form found in Texas.

The reality is that architects design for 2 percent of the world. This narrowness often has to do with the price-tag and the perceived notion that the price-tag will be too high for most. By focusing their efforts on homeowners interested in modest and affordable homes, Lake Flato was able to develop a certain line of thinking. “We wanted to be as simple as possible and start with as few pieces as possible,” says project architect Bill Aylor. Rather than simply making it custom prefabricated homes—a common trap for those firms experimenting with prefabrication—the Lake Flato designs offer a short list of options, configurations, and materials, narrowing the possibilities and allowing construction to be simplified.

The allure of prefabrication lies in the factory setting. By removing construction processes and time from the site and relocating them to a centralized facility, efficiency, and precision can be heightened, reuse of material can be optimized, weather is controlled, and skilled laborers can more easily be coordinated.

However, often overlooked in this idea is an ideal partnership. Without a skilled and experienced manufacturer, the best ideas can never fully be executed. In order to take advantage of certain efficiencies in construction that the factory offers, repetition is critical. As the factory produces more of a certain component, panel, or full building, the time can be further reduced and the coordination streamlined. As with most manufacturing and business in general, economies of scale become critically important. According to Aylor, the success of this model lies in establishing “a critical mass of architects, factories, developers, urban planners—a group effort.” Partnering with experienced builders, Ground Force Building Systems, Lake Flato hopes that after 50 units are produced, they will have the flexibility to explore other options.

In many ways, what the Lake Flato houses also offer that the others on the market do not are site specific architectural considerations. It is easy to say that a house will be covered with Photovoltaic panels and wind generators, but in practice, the economics of such technologies are still prohibitive. However, passive strategies such as orienting the building to capture prevailing breezes, articulating form to allow for proper air flow, and projecting overhangs to allow for solar shading of windows are all easily designed into homes, yet are typically ignored. These considerations created such vernacular types as the shotgun, dogtrot, and saltbox, among many others. Over the years, as air conditioning has been standardized, and construction been reduced to cookie-cutter designs, these ideas have been lost. Lake Flato not only takes these ideas into consideration but adds contemporary versions of vernacular architecture, specifically as the dogtrot and the covered porch, both introduced to make use of the aforementioned passive strategies.

While modest in scale, the homes are contemporary and employ materials often reserved for high end homes including birch plywood, steel, and galvanized roofing. Lake Flato has targeted a price in the range of $150-$200 per square foot (inclusive of site considerations and delivery costs) but aims to reduce that to $100-125 as they begin to develop and refine the design and the process of manufacturing. Compared to the $350+ cost per square foot (exclusive of delivery costs) of the Marmol Radziner houses, Lake Flato’s price is about half as much. In addition, their counterparts’ designs require a significant level of site construction piecing together panels or modules.

Still, in the end, the architects at Lake Flato have recognized that this is not necessarily the answer or the end of the discussion. Most of their clients for this model will be second homeowners looking for a project in the countryside. They do, however, have hopes to expand this model to urban settings and target more affordable units as they expand and develop. But as Aylor notes, “Will this compete with houses made for $75 per square foot? Probably not, but can we influence them with this? We hope this can help move the conversation forward as to how houses are constructed.”

Porch House interior.

Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall. Photo by Eric Hester

The third session of “Spotlight on the Rice School of Architecture” featured Nonya Grenader and Danny Samuels who co-teach introductory courses at the Rice School of Architecture and lead the Rice Building Workshop. (See all posts in the series here.) The workshop is an advanced practicum for undergraduates and graduate students that produces buildings from design to completion. In other words, students donate their labor to a building project and experience first-hand all the logistical, practical, and budgetary challenges that builders face when attempting to execute an architect’s plans. The result is that Rice’s architecture students gain a sure sense of how plans and ideas actually manifest in the real world.

Samuels and Grenader attribute just 15 percent of total effort in any given architectural project to the design process. The other 85 percent goes into actual construction “outside the studio”: meeting budgets, adapting to weather conditions, complying with municipal permitting, communicating with contractors, and collecting and deploying available resources, including materials and labor. “Design is a continual process,” said Samuels, “with problems that have to have design solutions throughout the building process.”

Over the past 15 years, the Rice Building Workshop has developed a set of core ideas about design and service that seem quite commensurate with the values and experiences of its student participants, namely thrift, extreme efficiency, and ingenuity in making the most of small spaces. Dorm rooms, shared houses, second-hand furniture, and Ramen noodle dinners in the face of vertiginous debt: these are the conditions of student life. We are kidding ourselves if we think university students enjoy the privilege of being insulated from some post-graduation “real world.”

No wonder that the Rice Building Workshop made for such an apt partner for Project Row Houses, an arts and community center in the Third Ward founded in 1993 by Rick Lowe on the site of a block of abandoned row houses. Since its founding, Project Row Houses has grown in both its physical presence and in its ambition. Today, the nonprofit organization hosts several art exhibits per year, organizes a young-mothers residential program, and works with other arts and educational programs.

The Rice Building Workshop, because it operates on a semester-by-semester timeline and during construction depends on student labor, takes significantly longer to complete its projects than a typical builder would. Because Project Row Houses valued the mission and methods of the workshop, they were able to accommodate their long-term vision. For its first project, three students spent an entire semester first investigating the community around Project Row Houses, as well as the possibilities inherent in its existing architectural heritage. They found that row houses, however they may signal poverty and deprivation to an uninformed outsider, in fact offer unequaled opportunities for joining interior and exterior spaces, and for consolidating neighborhoods through front and back porches and shared backyard spaces.

Six Square House plan.

It took three years to build Six Square House, with students handling all but the electrical, plumbing, and sheetrock. As with later projects, a number of students who had ostensibly graduated mid-project from the workshop and from Rice, degrees in hand, continued to donate their labor to the construction project for months afterward, a testament to the value they placed on the workshop experience.

Six Square House Exterior. Photo by Danny Samuels.

From Six Square House, the students adopted practices and strategies that prevailed in later projects, including modular design, which allows for off-site construction, and then on-site assembly without even much of a toolbox.

They also developed a “core system” that was refined and strengthened in later designs like the “Extra Small (XS) House.” This 500-square-foot building came much closer to the row house precedent and was built within budget for just $25,000. The core in XS, as with later designs, combined storage and mechanical systems—electrical and plumbing—enveloping a bathroom within and supporting a kitchenette without. As the only intrusion into the living space of the building, it separated the single volume into two highly adaptable open rooms. A skylight illuminated the bathroom, whose walls were translucent polygal. The core thus distributed light through the home.

XS Sections and Elevations

XS House interior.

The Rice Building Workshop’s most recent and celebrated project was “ZeROW House,” which they submitted to the Solar Decathlon, an international competition by the U.S. Department of Energy to build houses with “net-zero” energy consumption. Grenader and Samuels recounted the origin of the project, an application which several students completed on their own, and which the two faculty members signed off on without quite believing that the project would ever launch. To their surprise, the application was accepted, and the workshop got underway. (See OffCite’s extensive coverage of the Solar Decathlon and visit the official ZeRow website.)

ZeRow House Plan

ZeRow House exterior

By contrast, the Rice Building Workshop, collaborating with the Rice School of Engineering, was determined to build an affordable solar-powered home, which could be transported to and demonstrated in Washington, but which would finally and permanently be installed in Third Ward Houston. They built prefabricated units on a steel chassis that could survive transportation by truck over freeways and through underpasses. In Washington, they immediately gained notice for their lean-and-mean construction and their row-house typology. They questioned the contest rules for entrants to prove, for example, that they could dry eight loads of laundry. Why not install a clothesline?

Grenader pointed out that “this is a realistic house,” unlike most of its competitors. Though the Rice team scored high in the Architecture and Market Viability categories, their contrarian approach ensured that they would not win the overall contest. However, their principled insistence on affordability made an impression on the competition organizers, which have since added affordability to the judging criteria.

Grenader and Samuels took obvious pride and pleasure in showing off the accomplishments of their students and describing as well their uncommon commitment to the workshop. They capped off our class by announcing the very recent news that designs by the Rice Building Workshop had just been selected by the Menil Foundation for the new café they are planning to install on their campus. Quite a different program for quite a different client, but the workshop found ways to adapt their signature core system to even this project. The design allows for an open plan in which café-sitters enjoy free access and egress, and views in all directions.

To join the distinguished architectural company at the Menil would alone be a high honor, but to have done so as students in a pool of experienced professionals goes to reinforce what the faculty leaders have known all along, that the workshop is capable of excellence through diligent research, independent thinking, practical experience, and problem-solving innovation.

Further Reading
Students designing Menil cafe (Houston Chronicle)
by Lisa Gray

Articles on Rice Building Workshop from the Cite archives:

Small Wonders: Architecture Students and Brazos Projects revive a folk-art museum by Lisa Gray (Cite 53, 2002)

Rice Building Workshop Honored by Mitchell J. Shields (Cite 62, 2004)

Contributions to Cite by Nonya Grenader and Danny Samuels:

Texas Places edited by Nonya Grenader (Cite 39, 1997)

The Small House by Nonya Grenader (Cite 54, 2002)

Freeway as Landscape Living on the edge affords a new view by Nonya Grenader (Cite 63, 2005)

Building the Better Townhouse: Thoughts on an Urban Style by Danny Samuels (Cite 49, 2000)

Port of Call: The deep-water ambitions of a bayou city by Danny Samuels (Cite 56, 2003)

The Disposable (?) City: The many lives of durable building systems by Danny Samuels (Cite 62, 2004)

Rice University ZEROHOUSE integrates line drying laundry in the sun [Photo Stefano Paltera, U.S. Department of Energy; all other photos Christof Spieler]

At the end of day five, the Rice Solar Decathlon team is in third place behind Team Germany and Team California. The Rice entry tied for first in the hot water category, and came in second for both architecture and market viability. For updates on scores, visit the Solar Decathlon website.

Today, on the National Mall, in front of the Museum of Natural History, there’s a house built by Rice students. It’s one of 20 entries in the Solar Decathlon, a Department of Energy-sponsored competition to build a highly efficient yet livable solar-powered house. I came to DC for the installation as the structural engineer for the house.

Roque Sanchez at 2009 Solar Decathlon

Wednesday, September 30, 11:00 pm. The mall is empty except for yellow tape marking the construction plots, but teams are gathering in the dark. It’s officially time to begin. A line of U-Hauls and flatbed trucks waits in the distance, bearing supplies and piece of houses. Team Missouri, on the plot next to us, has their truck pull in with the body of their house at 12:30. Our U-Haul is further back in line; it doesn’t reach us until midnight. Then it’s time to pull out planters — the “green wall” that will cover the front off the house — and boxes of tools. We also wheel over the generator a rental company dropped off for us.

Meanwhile, other teams are working away. Pieces of houses are appearing all around us. Different teams have different approaches. Missouri is driving theirs in place, then jacking it off of the flatbed. Team North, on the other side of us, is lifting the core of their house in one piece, then assembling the rest from smaller sections of floor, roof, and windows. The Spanish team built their house in three nearly finished pieces, each the trailer part of a tractor-trailer; the first piece drives in by 1:45 and its tractor detaches.

The Rice house will lift in one piece. But that won’t happen until daylight. Before then, though, we need to place the foundations, big steel pads that will sit on a layer of sand atop the grass of the Mall. They’re on our second truck; it arrives at 2:00. The students keep unloading in the early morning darkness. That takes a while, and so does placing the foundation. After a few tries, the pads are in the right place and leveled, with a steel jig setting the distances between them to an accuracy of a fraction of an inch. By then, it’s 5:00 am, and the subway is about to start running. I trudge to the station. The students are still working.

Our lift is scheduled for 10:00 the next morning. I make it back out, heavily caffeinated. The mall is now a construction site — generators humming, power tools everywhere, seven big cranes framing the view of the Washington Monument. Our crane is there — it actually showed up the night before and spent the night parked in front of the Smithsonian Castle. The house is there, too, but it’s deep back in a line of trucks, blocks away. I check the foundation again — relieved that it looks fine in daylight — and walk to the house. There are two students on the roof when I show up, mounting angles that will carry solar panels. We also remove the plywood that’s been covering the windows. Inside, the house shows no sign of its 1,400 mile trip: the sheetrock is not cracked, the kitchen cabinets are in place. With the plywood gone, it feels like a nice place to live, even on the back of a truck.

The logistics of this project cost as much as the house: trucks, cranes, flights, hotel rooms. A professional logistics firms hired the trucks, cranes, and crews and pulled all the permits.

Finally, we get the call: we’re cleared to move. The driver starts the engine. Then, another call: the crane company forgot the spreader bar in Baltimore. We can’t lift without it. And there isn’t another one nearby. So we wait again. Pizza gets ordered for lunch; everyone gathers around the disassembled pieces of the future front porch eating, then nearly everyone leans back for a rest.

The spreader bar finally shows up around 3:30. Our house gets pulled around. The crane crew strings rigging together, the crane operator and the truck diver discuss where to pull the house up to so it won’t hit trees, and the event safety coordinators hover nervously. Our project depends on this lift. We’re the only team that’s lifting a complete house in one piece. If this works, we go from lagging behind the other teams to leading. We don’t want to think about what happens if it fails. The Missourians next door are skeptical.

The truck is in place. The crane is hooked up. Team members stand back and spread out to keep the tourists away. The crane revs up. Daylight appears under the living room end of the house. More daylight — but the bedroom end hasn’t lifted yet. The house is suspended off kilter. This is not unexpected — we know from the crane lift in Houston that the center of gravity is not at the center of the house — but it dictates an adjustment. The house is set back on the truck and more shackles are added to the rigging.

The crane lifts again. This time the house is dead level. (Danny Samuels confirms with a level.) The house swings over to the waiting foundation. A rigger at end end aligns it roughly; then they kneel down to line up threaded rids with waiting sleeves. For a moment, the house hangs there impatiently. “Lined up here.” “Here, too.” Another two inch drop, and the house is in place. But the crane stays on (and safety cribbing remains in place) while students connect and tighten diagonal turnbuckles that brace the foundation pads.

4:10 pm, Seventeen hours after work on the Mall started, and we have a house. Everything’s in place and everything’s level. The crane is unhooked. There’s a sign of relief, a brief moment of congratulations, and impromptu team photo. And then everyone goes back to work. There are porches to attach, a green wall to mount, electrical connections to make, paint touch-up to do, furniture to move in, pictures to hang. I’m headed back to the hotel. But the students have another 6 days of construction before then, and then two weeks of public tours. The Solar Decathlon has only begun.

For OffCite’s previous coverage of the Solar Decathlon, visit Going Solar on the National Mall and $olar $avings: Are Affordable Solar Powered Houses Possible?

Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall [Photo Eric Hester, darnart.com]

Students from Rice University are putting the final touches on their entry for the 2009 Solar Decathlon. I spoke with one of the lead student designers, David Dewane, to get an update.

RM: What’s it like putting a house together on the National Mall with Lincoln staring down at you?

DD: It’s pretty exciting because you do it 24-7. You are there [on the Mall] in the middle of the night, when the moon is rising, when the sun is rising. A lot of energy. A lot of public wandering by who are curious and excited. You are symbolically in the middle of the country.

Unloading of materials for the 2009 Solar Decathlon, Photo Christof Spieler

DD: In the design process, we tried to make the house easily constructible. The last week was a good proof of concept. We designed it to go together fast. And it did. We had the smallest assembly team – 9. The second smallest was 19. Teams were as large as 40. It took us about two days counting an 8-hour crane delay. The team next to us has 20,000 pieces to put together. They are going nuts. We had a very, very simple assembly.

RM: It’s essentially a trailer house.

DD: A little bit. You have to drop it off. It doesn’t have wheels. All the conditioned spaces are continuous and are already assembled. We don’t have to worry about weather sealing. We just had to worry about landscaping features – decks, the solar array. It was very relaxing compared to what we saw other teams going through. It was fun. A riot.

RM: Any damage from the transportation?

DD: The plants were a little stressed but fine. The house itself – not one crack in the dry wall.

RM: Past winners have been in the 400K range and look fancier than the Rice entry, which was designed to be less than 100k not counting the solar arrays. Do you think the collapse of the global financial system and the Great Recession have improved the chances of the entry winning?

DD: The last winning house was about 1,000,000 euros. The one before was about 400K and before that about 280K.

I counted [the Rice entry for 2009] out a long time ago. The most important thing isn’t getting the trophy, it is promoting solar energy. We are not twenty teams but twenty members of the same team promoting solar energy. It is good for some teams to promote affordability. It is good for some teams to push the technological development as far as it can go. Affordability is just the angle we took.

RM: It is a good year to be the affordable one.

DD: It’s a good year to be the affordable team. That’s not going to matter as much to the jury as it does to the 120,000 people who walk through. Those are the people we are trying to communicate the message to that solar energy is really accessible.

RM: Are you hoping to give a personal tour to Barack Obama?

DD: I’d love it. I don’t know if he’ll come around. They haven’t said anything. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is coming to do the opening ceremony.

RM: Thanks for taking time out of your packed schedule. Anything you want to add.

There’s just such a great energy right now. A lot of camaraderie. People are proud of the hard work they have put in over the past two years. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work.

Read David’s OffCite post—$olar $avings: Are Affordable Solar Powered Houses Possible?—for additional background.

Photo by Eric Hester, darnart.com

Graffiti [Photo by abradyb]

When the Texas legislature ended its session, a bill that would have created a $500 million subsidy program for the installation of solar panels died. The Chronicle reported that despite broad bipartisan support for the bill Sylvester Turner killed the solar subsidy using a procedural tactic on the grounds that the twenty-cent fee per month would burden poor people. A few days later Turner flirted with another run for Houston mayor.

Sunday June 7

A Mod gets modernized: Business and pleasure [Houston Chronicle, Lisa Gray] “The Houston Architectural Guide calls them “The Macham Building,” and notes they were designed in 1959 by architects Thompson McCleary and Hamilton Brown, who used the larger of the brick boxes as their office.”

Woodlands lures top luxury home builder: Toll Brothers to start selling in Creekside Park in late summer [Houston Chronicle] “‘We have been studying the Houston market for a long time and have been looking for the right opportunity to enter it,’ CEO Robert Toll said in a news release. ‘In 2008, Houston was the second-largest building market in the nation.’”

Also reported in this piece:

Residents of Glenbrook Valley worry if they don’t do something to preserve the character of their mid-century neighborhood, they could someday be living in the next McMansion central.

About 100 homeowners have signed a petition to designate the neighborhood as a post-World War II historic district.

While Houston is known for its lax preservation ordinances, the designation would give the community some level of protection to maintain its original quality, said Robert Searcy, a real estate agent and Glenbrook Valley resident.

THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE High hopes on solar energy go unfulfilled this session: Lawmakers’ failure to pass rebates bill seen as missed chance [Houston Chronicle] “Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat, raised a point about how much low-income consumers would pay to fund the rebate program and used a procedural tactic to delay a vote on the bill until it was too late.”

Sprinklers put guv in the hot seat: Siding with the state or with the homebuilders? [Houston Chronicle]

Saturday June 6

Plan would transform isle into ‘Southern belle’ of U.S.: Galveston will take up proposal next week to halt western growth, rebuild boulevard: Rebuilding plan would cost about $1 billion [Houston Chronicle] “The city would capitalize on its beaches, historic downtown and housing, and its medical school, linking them with transportation corridors. Seawall Boulevard would be transformed into one of the ‘great streets’ by slowing traffic and adding a tree-lined divider. A planned Houston-to-Galveston commuter rail line would connect to a revitalized historic Strand downtown area and clean biotech companies clustered around the University of Texas Medical Branch…Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas embraced the verbal presentation offered after a week of study by the 12 members of the Urban Land Institute, which included the former mayors of Pittsburgh, Penn., and Raleigh, N.C.”

Planetarium idea floated for Astrodome: Lee’s proposal would leave additional space for other uses [Houston Chronicle] “County Judge Ed Emmett, who had been skeptical of plans to pay for the convention hotel, said he supports the planetarium idea because it focuses on public use. It also would leave space in the facility for other features, such as a gathering space for festivals or concerts. ‘My main interest is to turn the Astrodome into something that can be used by the public,’ Emmett said. “The question of funding is always going to be an issue, but basically cleaning up the dome and using it as an open space that you put other things into is very different than turning the whole thing into a hotel.’”

SPACE 101 Creating an oasis: Bring the indoors out when designing an airy and intimate backyard lounge [Houston Chronicle] “Even in the heat of summer, Keith Dalhover has a cool space to retreat to – outdoors. The Houston-based interior decorator has created a living area in his backyard that feels both intimate and grand.”

Friday June 5

Another take on street art [Houston Chronicle] “As the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston prepares to open an exhibition showcasing its Latin-American art collection, visitors can see its latest acquisition, a street installation by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, before they set foot in the building. Five crosswalks that connect the museum’s central campus have been painted in three color palettes – green and orange, blue and orange, and green and blue, each with a black diagonal – to create “zebra” grids. Viewers trigger the grids’ optical effects by walking across them, effectively completing the artwork with their own movement – an effect often found in Cruz-Diez’ kinetic works.

State alleges violations by BP Penalties could pass $100 million in Texas City refinery pollution suit penalties: Pattern of violations alleged [Houston Chronicle]

Thursday June 4

Making it easier to catch a train The city’s new transit corridors ordinance will offer incentives for developers[Houston Chronicle] “The city’s urban transit corridors ordinance, which it began developing in June 2006, is expected to be considered by the City Council in July. It would offer incentives for developers in six light rail corridors to include a 15-foot “pedestrian realm” with broad, unobstructed sidewalks and other features intended to create appealing, walkable environments.”

Multilevel interchange at U.S. 90A, Texas 99 proposed: No funding available for $116 million project [Houston Chronicle]

Artist reopens 1.37-square-foot gallery: No Zoning exhibit remains ever-changing [Houston Chronicle] “This isn’t the first time Gallery One Three Seven has been open for business. [Sharon] Engelstein, a former Glassell School of Art Core Fellow, built it in 1994 as a 6.5-by-10-by-20-inch model of Texas Gallery to test an idea for a sculpture installation. After talking with fellow Core alum Jeff Elrod, she decided to run it as a real gallery out of her studio at the time, with an Elrod exhibit inaugurating the space.”

WOODLAND HEIGHTS Residents fear trees will be butchered by trimming: Center Point says work is necessary to prevent outages [Houston Chronicle] “The contractor working in Woodland Heights, Trees Inc., uses a trimming method known as directional pruning recommended by the U.S. Forest Service and arborists. The method aims to train tree growth away from power lines, Dixon said. ‘Proper pruning is not always aesthetically pleasing,’ she noted. In a post-Ike report, a Houston task force on electric service reliability has recommended Center Point re-examine its trimming practices to prefer structural pruning, a method that might improve strength of tree limbs, thus reducing the number of weak limbs breaking and damaging power lines.”

Woodlands legislation sets changes for Township: Bill aims to ease transition of government [Houston Chronicle] “The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and state Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, was the last piece of the puzzle needed to transition the community from one managed by property owner associations to a community-wide special district.”

The above add is from the Burghli Homes website.

Solar-powered housing for the masses is happening in Houston. At least, it’s on Houston TV. Besides the above commercial for subsidized affordable housing built by Burghli Homes, there was a Fox News report on the Rice Solar Decathlon House that David Dewane wrote about on this blog here and was part of the RDA Small Houses Tour.

Friday May 8

HOUSTON PAVILIONS — Downtown project gets upbeat news: Bowling, Lucky Strike Lanes back on track after capital infusion [Houston Chronicle] “The stylish bowling alley, bar and cafe concept was originally to open late last year, but in early February the company announced that the project had been put on hold due to a lack of financing. It is now scheduled to open in September.”

BORDER FENCE FUNDS HIT A WALL: Reversing Bush’s policy Obama budget includes nothing to extend barrier beyond 670 miles built or planned [Houston Chronicle]

Thursday May 7

Sugar Land man starts fundraising campaign to build facility for homeless” Steve Kobrin formed nonprofit to help needy [Houston Chronicle] “Five years ago, Kobrin said he was driving home from work when in a matter of ‘split seconds’ God gave him a vision, he said, something he had never experienced before.”

Developer unveils ‘green’ medical office in Tomball [Houston Chronicle] “Located at 506 Graham St. in Tomball, the commercial real estate developer, headquartered in The Woodlands, has constructed the 55,000-square-foot, two-story Tomball Medical Plaza. It is registered to be Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design Certified at the silver level by the U.S. Green Building Council.”

THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Toxics bill a lot of hot air. Watch-list measure by Gallegos doesn’t do enough, say environmentalists [Houston Chronicle] “‘If they’re going to deal with it one time, forever, then this bill doesn’t do enough,’ said Elena Marks, director of environmental and health policy for Mayor Bill White. Marks has lobbied for changes to the bill, including enforceable deadlines for emissions reductions and the required use of monitors at the fence lines of refineries and large chemical plants in areas on the watch list.”

Home starts dive in the first quarter: Credit crunch gets lot of blame. Dramatic Houston-area drop-off may mean higher prices later in year [Houston Chronicle] “New construction of single-family homes fell 55 percent compared with a year ago to 3,150 units, according to data released Wednesday by Metrostudy, a Houston-based market research and consulting firm. Starts were off 70 percent from the first quarter of 2007.”

Wednesday May 6

Opening doors to ecofriendly homes. SOLAR: Homes will cost around $135,000 each. City subsidizes solar-powered houses for those with low incomes [Houston Chronicle] “A couple living in a prototype built in the 4300 block of Elysian has received no energy bill for the past three months, said developer Zack Burghli, who built that home and the 10 in northeast Houston and is slated to build the 13 being considered by council. Utility costs in the homes – including electricity, water, sewer and natural gas – are not likely to amount to higher than $50 a month for a 2,000-square-foot residence, depending on usage, Burghli said.”

Climate bill gives area lawmaker star quality GREEN: His district is home to refineries, plants Cap-and-trade backers need to have support of Rep. Gene Green [Houston Chronicle] “Green has told congressional leaders and President Barack Obama that some carbon dioxide emission allowances will have to be given for free to refiners in order to win his support.”

Tuesday May 5

Smog season could be expanded EPA report says effects of global warming could hamper efforts to reduce smog in Houston [Houston Chronicle]

Homeless project ‘probably gone’: County likely to remove funds to convert motel [Houston Chronicle]

EDITORIAL Short arm of the law Who gets tough against companies polluting Texas? Hint: It’s not the state. [Houston Chronicle]

Monday May 4

MOVE IT Recent flooding renews talk of fixing infrastructure [Houston Chronicle]

CAMH zones in on local works [Houston Chronicle]

“No Zoning really is about Houston’s art permeability,” said Toby Kamps, CAMH’s senior curator, who organized the exhibit with curatorial associate Meredith Goldsmith. “For some reason, all kinds of projects here crop up outside of museums and galleries.”

Kamps identifies two related influences on artistic life.

“Certainly, the fact that the city doesn’t have zoning regulations and there’s a more or less mixed-use approach here means that there are all kinds of unused industrial buildings, vacant lots, unrestricted domestic lots with no setback regulations – and artists are able to create works of art and creative environments for themselves all over the place,” he said. “I think the other (factor) is the Texas spirit of being a maverick and a go-it-alone kind of person. With our extreme interest in property rights and our ingrained respect for entrepreneurs, there’s a kind of (attitude that) ‘as long as it’s not on my property line, who am I to tell anybody what they can and cannot do?’ ”

PORT: Bipartisan effort wins praise. More stimulus money coming than lawmakers had requested [Houston Chronicle] “The stimulus money – $99 million for the Port of Houston and $25 million for the Port of Galveston – will fund dredging, port operations, maintenance, facility rehabilitation and marsh restoration. Texas lawmakers say that the massive cash infusion is larger than all the federal aid the ports combined have received over the last four years.”

IKE DOCUMENTARY A PROJECT CLOSE TO THEIR HEARTS Galveston high school students chronicle the recovery from the devastating storm. [Houston Chronicle]

COULD THE NEXT STORM BE WORSE? FLOODING: Developer says floods won’t worsen Katy Prairie development, some fear, would mean more severe floods in future [Houston Chronicle] “Development encouraged by a planned segment of the Grand Parkway connecting Interstate 10 to U.S. 290 threatens to diminish the environmentally sensitive prairie’s capacity to absorb floodwaters, said Jim Blackburn, an attorney representing the Sierra Club in two related lawsuits.”

Saturday May 2

Editorial Just the tonic Creating a sustainable future in Galveston. Idea House on Galveston Island showcases ways to create a sustainable future. [Houston Chronicle] “The effort to shape that long term is symbolized most recently by the shiny Idea House featured by Coastal Living magazine on the east end of the Island. The magazine’s dream home, designed by San Antonio-based architect Michael G. Imber, is in a tony beach-front development out of reach economically for most Galvestonians.”

Aerial view of Virginia Point [Courtesy of Adams Architects]

Solar power dominated the Earth Day coverage. There was a review of the Virginia Point house designed by Adams Architects, which feeds into the grid during the day; a complaint from Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy that CenterPoint does not support the sale of energy from homes like Virginia Point very well; an update on a bill that would provide 500 million dollars of rebates for solar panel use that passed the Texas Senate; and a city task force that called for local rebates for solar panel installation. If the solar buzz is making you feel you’re not in Houston anymore, read the story about an energy plant to be built on South Main that will burn refined grease and lard.

Friday April 24

Editorial: Training Texas With stimulus, Obama support, timing is right to start on high-speed rail across Texas. [Houston Chronicle] “The notion that high-speed rail is a high-tech toy suited only for densely populated areas such as the Northeast corridor is as out of date as a conductor’s ticket punch. Population in the Texas Triangle area is expected to reach 35 million by the year 2050. Our interstate highways are getting more clogged by the day, but right of way for rail lines is still available at affordable prices. It is not a moment too soon to begin putting efficient rail service in Texas.” Here’s the reported story.

County envisions community built around veterans Housing agency buys land for a project dependent on relocating the city’s VA services VETS: Advocate says plan strays from aiding poor [Houston Chronicle]

Shell Oil to reduce Deer Park emissions: Environmental groups file a rare citizens’ suit after agency efforts fail. SHELL: Has 3 years to cut back on ‘upsets’ [Houston Chronicle] “Shell also agreed to pay nearly $6 million for past violations of the Clean Air Act – an amount believed to be the largest penalty in Texas history to come from a citizens’ suit seeking enforcement of the federal law.”

City permits going green in rice warehouse [Houston Business Journal] “An 86-year-old former rice warehouse in downtown Houston will be converted into a fully ‘green’ building occupied by city permitting offices now scattered at four sites. Houston City Council in late March approved an amount up to $5.7 million to purchase the property at 1002 Washington Ave. from the estate of Leslie Appelt.” Swamplot adds that Studio Red Architects are the design firm and Trammel Crow the developer.

Thursday April 23

OBITUARY Vernon Henry, urban planner and civic leader [Houston Chronicle] “Henry worked on a number of area subdivisions and shopping centers, including parts of Kingwood and the Woodlands and the Town and Country Shopping Center. His firm also developed the master plan for the redevelopment of Midtown. But those who knew him say his true legacy isn’t the buildings and streets he helped design, but the environments he worked to create. He was involved in civic organizations including Trees for Houston, the Park People, the Houston Parks Green Ribbon Committee and the Houston Zoo.”

OLIVEWOOD CEMETERY Cemetery’s celebrated past can help secure its preservation: Black cemetery is one of area’s oldest [Houston Chronicle]

Retail space’s growth to slow Expert gives lowest projection in a decade. RETAIL: Market stability helps area [Houston Chronicle] “Retail construction in the Houston area will decline by 53 percent this year compared with 2008, Ed Wulfe said Wednesday at the annual Retail Forecast Luncheon sponsored by O’Connor & Associates.”

Sugar Land residents oppose proposed low-income housing: Developer has applied for state tax credits to build 150 units [Houston Chronicle]

Shop Girl: Lawndale market home to great finds [Houston Chronicle] “Vendors from across the U.S. fill the nooks and crannies of Lawndale with items reflective of modern design. When the first Modern Market launched in 1995, there were just five vendors. Now there are 14, with a waiting list for next year’s event.”

Alief Cemetery is designated as historic site [Houston Chronicle] “Dr. John Magee, a dentist, and his wife, the former Alief Ozelda Morris, settled in the area in 1896. Alief Magee became the community’s first postmistress, operating a post office out of her home, and the postal area became known as Alief. She died in 1899, and her remains were moved to Alief Cemetery in 1935.”

Wednesday April 22

Hotel could get a tax deal: City hopes its location at Discovery Green lures conventions [Houston Chronicle] “Houston is poised to provide a $9.6 million tax subsidy for an Embassy Suites downtown, part of a raft of public-private hotel development that has sprung up since the completion of Discovery Green.”

No glow yet from going green: Will meters spin backward? [Houston Chronicle] “At a time when green energy initiatives are gaining popularity nationwide, John Berger ought to be basking in the glow of increased solar panel sales. But his Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy is seeing limited installations locally because, he claims, Houston’s grid operator, CenterPoint Energy, is dragging its feet on solar initiatives. The federal government recently renewed a tax credit for installing solar panels, but for most Houstonians the real benefit – saving on electric bills – remains elusive.”

Senate going solar: Bill passes that could jump-start this kind of energy. Homes could generate electricity [Houston Chronicle] “The Public Utility Commission would determine the amount of the rebates, with $30 million a year going to homeowners and up to $70 million for utility-scale solar projects.”

Galveston mayor visits Cuba to talk hurricanes. Thomas hopes to build on a bond that dates to 1900 CUBA: Visit in works before recent thaw [Houston Chronicle]

Tuesday April 21

EDITORIAL Clear win on air: EPA agrees with Mayor White on improving methods for measuring air pollution. [Houston Chronicle]

Investment in grid could bring quicker power return: Task force wants new technology it says can cut wait time after storms GRID: Group wants action now [Houston Chronicle]

Monday April 20

EDITORIAL One cool idea: How to create jobs, save the planet and beat the heat [Houston Chronicle] “Since 2006, the City of Houston’s Residential Energy Efficiency Program has swept through 12 low-income neighborhoods. With homeowners’ permission, the contractor teams weather-strip doors, caulk windows, insulate attics and make other improvements that cut the houses’ average energy consumption by 12-18 percent – and even more in summer, when our electric grid strains to meet air-conditioning demand.”

Sinkhole opens near park in Kingwood: Visitors forced to leave vehicles and walk out [Houston Chronicle]

Sunday April 19

LISA GRAY: Native plants work hard [Houston Chronicle] “As of the [Hermann Park's new Lake] plaza’s official debut yesterday, that sweet spot in the park – the area between the Houston Zoo parking lots, the zoo and the lake – is suddenly one of the city’s best places to hang out. It’s a great place to do nothing.” Here is the news report on the opening of the bridge, plaza, train, and new landscaping.

‘Environmental evangelists:’ High-powered couple turn to green power for their home [Houston Chronicle]

“They could have done anything,” said Joe and Gail Adams, the husband and wife team that is Adams Architects, “but they chose to build green.”

The high-powered Hedges – Adele is a judge and Dan a lawyer – started by making lists of what they wanted in their new home. They wanted storage space. They wanted energy independence and low operations and maintenance costs. They wanted self-sustaining landscaping.

An old power plant site is getting new life from a plan to create electricity by burning waste vegetable oil and, eventually, animal byproducts [Houston Chronicle]

Architects are looking toward a green future [Houston Chronicle] Check out OffCite’s earlier post about this vision for Houston’s downtown in 2030.

Erin Morrison and Professor Brent Houchens assemble the frame and header for an Apricus evacuated tube collector for a solar water heater. [Photo from Ze-Row Blog]

The Fall issue of Cite included a short piece (pdf) on the Rice University Solar Decathlon Team. David Dewane, the lead architecture student, provides an update and analysis.

Rice students from the departments of architecture and engineering are engaged in a joint venture that seeks to answer one simple question: Can a 100 percent solar-powered house be affordable?

The answer, so far, is yes. There are a few catches, though.

First of all, the question is highly subjective. Two points have to be clarified: 1) the size of the house and 2) what exactly one means by affordable.

In terms of size, the solution proposed by our team of designers for the Rice Zero Energy Row house (ZERow) was to scale back the size of the house to a very modest 650 square feet of conditioned space. While this might at first seem shockingly small, several devices (such as an open plan, high ceilings, and providing shaded outdoor spaces for exterior living) are employed to increase comfort and livability. There is also a reciprocal relationship between how much volume a modestly-sized solar array can condition. In order to maximize the potential of every watt harvested from the sun, efficiency must reign.

As for affordability, the ZERow is a 99k base house outfitted with a 30k array for a grand total of $130,000. The economic model is built for distance, not for speed. For 130k, you get a house suitable for one or two people that will be energy independent (and under warranty) for twenty years. A thirty-year mortgage with an interest rate of 6% would yield a monthly payment of $872. That would be about 25% of a household with $40,000 annual income. While this is still out of the range of low-income families, it is well within the range of those of average income.

Once you are responsible for producing your own energy, you quickly come to terms with the finite nature of the resource. Most of us are already all too familiar with the finite nature of our financial resources. There is a possibility that through innovative design we can move in a direction that is both more environmentally sensible and economically viable. While the ZERow is far from innovative on some fronts, it is an important piece of research that will hopefully be foundational in the push for affordable sustainable design in the future.

*The ZERow house is the Rice University’s 2009 entry to the Department of Energy-sponsored Solar Decathlon. Upon completion, it will be donated to Project Row Houses where it will provide housing to a low-income household. The Rice Building Workshop, who manages the design and construction of the ZERow, aspires to continue refining this model in order to make solar energy viable for people of more modest incomes. For more information please visit ricesolardecathlon.org.

You can make a donation to our team. Typically, these projects are funded by architecture, engineering, and construction firms, but the recent economic downturn has caused these industries to run for cover. Luckily, we are building a low-income house, so our overall funding goals are more modest. Nevertheless, we are currently short of our fundraising goal and every donation (no matter how small) really helps. Thanks in advance for any generosity – it is all the more meaningful in these economically stern days.

Emergency Response Artist Studio [Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ferrara Gallery]

The Rice Gallery features site-specific, commissioned installations and every one that I have visited there has been extraordinary. Last Fall, an installation by Aurora Robson used cut plastic bottles and rivets to create winding translucent tunnels and domes. When I took my two-year-old daughter to visit she ran through it with arms outstretched pretending to be a dragon. The gallery’s next adventure is a departure from the lyrical, morphogenic pieces I have come to associate with it. In fact, it’s a “FEMA trailer.”

In August 2006, on a visit to post-Katrina New Orleans, Paul Villinski wished he could transport his studio from New York to the Lower Ninth Ward, so he could create work in response to the conditions he found there. Creating Emergency Response Studio was his solution. Over seven months, Villinski transformed a salvaged FEMA-style trailer into a rolling, off-the-grid live/work space that could house displaced artists, or allow visiting artists to “embed” in post-disaster settings.

“I believe we ought to consider deploying artists as part of the mix of disaster workers, medical personnel, NGO’s, architects, and urban planners – those people charged with responding to, repairing, and re-envisioning disaster sites like New Orleans,” says Villinski. To this end, from April to October of 2008, Villinski worked nonstop, gutting, rebuilding, and playfully rethinking a 30-foot Gulfstream “Cavalier” trailer virtually identical to the 50,000 trailers built by Gulfstream for FEMA. Re-born as the Emergency Response Studio, the trailer’s formaldehyde-ridden original materials are replaced by entirely “green” technology and building materials, including recycled denim insulation, bamboo cabinetry, compact fluorescent lighting, reclaimed wood, and natural linoleum floor tiles made from linseed oil. It is powered by eight mammoth batteries that store energy generated by an array of solar panels and a “micro” wind turbine atop a 40-foot high mast. Not only practical, Emergency Response Studio is a visually engaging structure with an expansive work area featuring a wall section that lowers to become a deck. A ten-foot, elliptical geodesic skylight allows extra headroom and natural lighting in the work area. Though designed as an artist’s studio and residence, Emergency Response Studio is an ingenious prototype for self-sufficient, solar-powered mobile housing.

Emergency Response Studio will be installed in front of the gallery on the Brochstein Plaza. It is the second in an ongoing series of architectural installations; the first was Bamboo Roof by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Paul Villinski’s project will be accompanied by an installation in Rice Gallery which details the construction process, and features further information about “movable” housing.

The installation will also be accompanied by an exhibit by the Rice University Solar Decathlon team. The current issue of Cite includes a short piece on the home that is now under construction and will eventually be transported to the National Mall.

Below is a schedule of events:
Thursday, 29 January
Opening Celebration 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Remarks by Paul Villinski at 6:00 pm

Friday, 30 January at Noon
Gallery Talk by Paul Villinski
Complimentary light lunch for all who attend

Saturday, 31 January – Sunday, 1 February
Paul Villinski will be on site to answer questions
about Emergency Response Studio.