URBAN FORESTRY

Street Tree Planting

Street trees are a key component of any urban residential street section and fortunately, the City of Cincinnati actually has a robust Urban Forestry program through its parks system that makes an effort to constantly replenish its supply of street trees and other landscape features. Case and point, the new Redbud tree that appeared in the landscape strip between the curb and sidewalk in front of my house earlier this week, which matches the other Redbud trees lining the street.

HOUSE FLIP

Mirrored Plan

On Wednesday I met with my builder, Richard Brown of Mike Brown Construction to go over some 6-month walkthrough items on the Pleasant Ridge House and we also had an initial discussion about the plan for the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley project. One of the recommendations for the new house was to flip the plan so that the garage was on the high side of the property, which is preferable as it cuts down on excavation and foundation costs. I went ahead and made the change, and below is an updated rendering of where things are at with the exterior design. For those interested, the image was produced by taking a perspective from Revit and sketching over it on my tablet.

CONTEXT STILL MATTERS

Maintaining Neighborhood Rhythms

One of my very first Starter Home 2.0 Blog Posts called 'Context Matters' expressed my strong view about how architects working on urban infill housing projects should make a concerted effort to respect and enhance the architectural cadence of the existing neighborhoods and communities in which they are located, rather than destroy them in the name of 'modern design'. That said, I am still very much in favor of clean contemporary home designs that maintain a timeless quality without trying to mimic the styles of the past, which should become more apparent as the SH2.0 Oakley project progresses and is illustrated in the image of the massing model below.

SPRINGING FORWARD

Starter Home 2.0 Spring Prep

In anticipation of Spring I made a couple new purchases for the Starter Home 2.0 Pleasant Ridge house that included porch furniture and a lawnmower. 

One of my favorite things to do when the weather is nice is to sit out on a porch or deck and relax, read, take in the surroundings, and enjoy a nice cold beverage, which I was happy to be able to do yesterday once I set-up my chairs and side table pictured below. 

I also purchased a gas powered lawnmower, which while not as glamorous, was able to effectively trim down the rapidly growing grass on the lot. The nice thing about the Husqvarna lawnmower I bought is that it folds down for storage and transportation and is light enough for me to lift into the trunk of my car, so that I can drive it over to the Oakley lot to mow as its grass grows as well.

BOUNDARIES, BUILDINGS & LANDSCAPE

Revit Site Model

One of the critical components of developing urban infill housing is understanding the existing context of a site and how the new building design will relate to it. Following up on last week's site visit and documentation, I spent some time this weekend creating a site model in Revit to show the surrounding property lines, building structures, and topography for the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley lot. Using a combination of my own photos and measurements, along with information from the Hamilton County Auditor's web page and CAGIS software, I was able to generate the site model shown in the screenshots below. Admittedly, it still needs some refinement and additional detailing, but it's a nice starting point for transitioning this project from schematic design to the design development phase.

2016 NEIGHBORHOOD SUMMIT

Making Your Place

Yesterday I attended my second Cincinnati Neighborhood Summit event (here is a re-cap of last year's event), and my first as an official Pleasant Ridge resident and Pleasant Ridge Development Corporation Board Member. The theme of the Summit was Creative Placemaking and it was great to gain some insights on what other Community Development Corporations are doing to help revitalize their neighborhood business districts, similar to what we are doing in the Ridge. One of the new features of this year's conference was the large map of the city's 52 neighborhoods where participants could mark their residence and make note of different initiatives they are working on. Needless to say, I made sure to locate the Starter Home 2.0 projects in Pleasant Ridge and Oakley as shown in the image below.

OAKLEY SITE PHOTOS

Initial Site Documentation

With perfect weather in Cincinnati on Tuesday, I decided it was a great time to take a quick site visit to the Oakley property during lunch to get some measurements and photos of the existing conditions. These photos have been uploaded to the 'SH2.0 OAKLEY: ALBUM 1' link on the sidebar of this blog and a few of those images are posted below. One of the things that stands out walking around the lot is how deep it is and the fact that there is a good amount of elevation drop from the middle of the property to the back that makes a walk-out basement a nice potential add for this project.

INDOOR OUTDOOR LIVING

THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR MILLENNIAL BUYERS

Builder Magazine recently published an article titled, '3 Things to Consider When Building for Millennial Homebuyers', describing the importance of Indoor Outdoor Living Space along with Energy Efficiency and Low Maintenance features when designing for Millennials. While the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley project will certainly address all three areas, the design opportunity for Indoor Outdoor Living Spaces in this project is one of the things I am most excited about. With the main living and dining area spilling out onto a large deck in the back of the house, one of the items I am looking to incorporate is a moving glass wall like the Milgard product featured in the Builder article and shown in the image below.