Multi-Housing News - August 2009 - (Page 30)

development & design A Deeper Shade of In addition to its music scene, Austin, Texas is fast becoming known for its sustainable buildings By Jeffrey Steele, Contributing Editor Austin, Texas is renowned for many distinctions. It’s often near the top of Money Magazine’s “Best Places to Live” and has been called “America’s Top College Town” by the Travel Channel. The city’s official motto is “the live music capital of the world,” an homage to its long tradition of musical performance across styles and genres. Austin is also the home of Fortune 500 firms Dell and Whole Foods Market, the base for cyclist Lance Armstrong and the wellspring that spawned Willie Nelson and Sandra Bullock. Despite all this renown, Austin is fast becoming better known for something else entirely. The Lone Star State capital has become a star of the sustainability movement, reflected in its recent placement atop CNN’s “10 Greenest Cities in America” list. Designers of multifamily communities are striving to ensure Austin continues to lead the pack, as this look at three recent Austin projects—Amli on 2nd (MHN’s August cover shot), University Park MixedUse and The Austonian—makes abundantly clear. Austin’s pursuit of sustainability is nothing new. In fact, it was well on its way to greener status back in the mid-1990s. In that era, a city department called Resource Management worked toward greater energy and water resource conservation, recalls Lawrence W. Speck, FAIA, principal of Austin’s PageSoutherlandPage LLP and professor and former dean at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. The goal: creation of LEED-like guidelines before the USGBC’s standards existed. “We were working with [the Resource Management] office to develop guidelines, test them and see how we could quantify the advances in meeting environmental goals,” Speck recalls. Austin’s Energy Star program was the result, establishing residential standards—particularly in energy conservation—that some say go beyond LEED, he adds. The city also has a number of other sustainability initiatives. As part of its code requirements, Austin limits the percentage of impervious cover—such as 30 August 2009 | Multi-Housing News

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Multi-Housing News - August 2009

Multi-Housing News - August 2009
Contents
From the Editor
Executive Insight: David Hendrickson, JLL
Market Pulse
Operations
Finance: Green Lenders
Property Management: Mentoring
Development & Design: Green
Profile: AMLI
Market Report: Florida
Kitchen & Bath: Saving Water
Products: Paints & Finishes
Technology: Resident Screening
Perspective: Leasing Practices

Multi-Housing News - August 2009