Tom Bates

I've seen a lot of great architecture, but nothing like this.
Last night the AIA held their annual Premier Party for this year's AIA Austin Homes Tour. The house chosen for the party was maybe the perfect house. It was flawless. Our small entourage spent most of the evening searching for the smallest of imperfections, looking for off-scale dimensions, looking for tacky material choices, looking for typical lazy-Austin-but-still-luxury-home-craftsmanship, looking for even a tiny mis-directed grout line behind a toilet...but we were left empty handed...this was the perfect house. Saddend by our disappointment, we put away our rulers and levels and humbly returned for more artichoke dip and lamb chops. Designed by Patrick Ousey, AIA of FAB Architecture this houses is truly...perfect. Most 8500 square foot homes in West Austin lack the right scale and massing to make the home feel inviting, elegant, gracious, austere and comfy all at the same time. From material choice, to scale, to execution, this house is as perfect as I've ever ever seen...and I want to to live there. (Will someone please loosen the lending guidelines.) Will the rest of the AIA Austin Home Tour live up to this magical home? We'll see...

I was recently asked why Tarrytown home values are so high compared to essentially the same 3000 square foot house just north of there in the Beverly Hills / Highland Park area north of Camp Mabry. Great question, here are my thoughts:

I think it's mostly a matter of prestige and luxury brand recognition first, then proximity to downtown second. The schools are essentially neck and neck. Highland Park area is Highland Park Elementary and Tarrytown is Casis Elementary - both rated Exemplary by the Texas Education Agency. The two high schools, Austin High School and McCallum High School are both equally ranked as Academically Acceptable.

Tarrytown is just higher cost real estate...the average listing in Tarrytown is about $900k and the average listing in Highland/Beverly is $725k, like you said, for about the same sized properties (avg 3000 sf). If you look even further north, the area between 2222, Spicewood Springs, Mopac and 360, the average property listing goes down to $585k. When you get over to areas like Davenport, Eanes, etc you start getting significantly larger homes (avg 4000 sf) plus the rock star status Eanes school district, newer homes, etc and so the real estate goes back to about Tarrytown prices per square foot (+$300/sf).

Again, I think it's mostly the Tarrytown luxury brand name recognition...the majority of the people who call me to look for a house start with a popular neighborhood in mind: Travis Heights, Hyde Park, Spanish Oaks, Bouldin, Zilker, Eanes ISD, Rollingwood, Barton Creek....I think there are just fewer people specifically looking in Beverly Hills / Highland Park. Too bad since you can get so much more for your money there!

The fact that there are 5 active listings on Lucas Lane right now is an unfortunate coincidence for those trying to sell there.

I was contacted by a TV commercial producer today who is going to shoot a nationally televised commercial and needs a killer modern Austin area kitchen to shoot it in. It's a one day shoot to showcase a new kitchen product. They will film on October 2nd and could pay up to $1500 fee for the use of the house and they will list the owner as an additional insured. Send me photos and your contact info if you're interested.

Linked here is an Inman article about designing homes with the sun in mind. It's true, our 4-wall boxed home subdivisions didn't have to be and are a discredit to centuries of knowledge about designing homes and orienting them on the lot to maximize energy efficiencies. Even today few build homes with the sun's orientation in mind, the shape of the lot, the elevation and the use of existing trees on the lot. The truth is, smart design costs slightly more because you need smarter people to design them...and paying for smart people isn't a line item expense most builders (custom, spec and especially production) are willing to budget for. Neither is it an expense that lender require.

And it's not all about saving money on electric bills, even though that's one of the main goals of building sustainable green homes in Austin. Building with the sun's orientation in mind is about putting rooms, windows, eaves and outdoor living spaces in places that make sense for the way we live our lives, and to conserving energy. And it's also about using sustainable materials. Ask a builder why he's putting a 20 year shingle roof on your house that the insurance company will replace after the first hail storm, and the likely answer will be "that's how we build homes". That's a pathetic answer. There are SO MANY SO MANY SO MANY energy poor chooses from design to materials in today's homes that it would spin your head to know about them all (and we'll touch on them in the future). And I "get it" for supply and demand reasons at the production home building level...but at the custom and higher end spec level, well, I just expect more...especially for "modern" designed homes.

To truly build a smart house, not one that just been outfitted and accredited by Energy Wise, you have to hire a builder or an architect who believes in smart design. As the linked article above points out, not all "modern" design is smart design, some of it (if not most of it in Austin at least) is meant to look pretty and fit the modern visual vernacular. Dwell Magazine is great, but to get your project on the cover of Dwell you need a sharp looking model, and, hey, to be fair, not all super-models are rocket-scientists! And I'm not saying you can't both look sharp and be smart, but 99% of the new construction modern homes I walk through these days are pathetically build in terms of energy efficiencies and sun orientation.

And yes, there are some 100% smart modern homes and even small subdivisions being built in Austin, which is a great start. In the future I may do a QA panel with some local Austin modern smart home designers and builders like Eric Brown and Russ Becker.

www.AustinModernLiving.com

The "City" of Bee Cave, located at the intersection of Highway 71, Bee Cave Road (2244) and Highway 620, boasts an estimated population of only 1,700 people as of 2004 (source www.beecavetexas.com). But the Greater Bee Cave Area could arguably extend west towards the Hamilton Pool area and West Cypress Hills, east from Bee Cave to MoPac (including the eclectic and funky Cuernavaca Road neighborhood highlighted at www.CuernavacaPrices.com, the luxury homes of Seven Oaks, Rob Roy and Barton Creek, Senna Hills, Lake Point and others), North towards Lakeway on Highway 620, and Southeast along Highway 71 through Spanish Oaks and the Southwest Parkway area. Although the area offers something for everyone, the common theme along the Bee Cave Corridor is easy, Hill-country living. These are neighborhoods characterized by large treed lots, varied and individual architectural styles, xeriscaped lawns and graceful living. Many homes throughout the Bee Cave area have lake access, waterfront or hill country views and a Texas Hill Country feel to them. With convenient access to downtown Austin via Bee Cave Road, residents of this area feel they have the best of country living and city lifestyle. The ever-expanding shopping and dining scene, with the recent addition of the Hill Country Galleria, nearby shopping in Lakeway, Westlake Hills and Barton Creek Mall, make it easy to find whatever you want right in your backyard. Area schools in Eanes and Lake Travis school districts are another important reason many residents choose to live in the Bee Cave area.

More info on Bee Cave and the area at: www.AustinModernLiving