How could anyone hope to top the opening line of River Oaks Examiner reporter Kirsten Salyer’s story about the Mirabeau B. condos?
Pigs flew over Hyde Park as residents and developers came together to promote Houston’s first green condominium.
This full-priced condo building is slated for the former site of Half Price Books, at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh in Montrose. The 4-story development will have 14 units, priced mostly from $400,000 to $600,000 — though one penthouse unit will go for a cool million.
If they can sell 6, developer Joey Romano tells Salyer, they’ll actually build it!
And here’s some of the promised greenishness: The Mirabeau B. will leave 5 large oak trees and a large open space on the site. There’ll be a green roof, a solar array to shade one of the walkways, and cisterns to capture runoff. Harvest Moon Development says it’ll use low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-E glass, and low-VOC paints. A single central heating-and-cooling system to save energy. Attention to natural light in each unit. An in-condo recycling area. And actual native plants!
Plus a few more things that go with the hoped-for LEED-Silver rating: 10 percent of all building materials will contain recycled content, and 20 percent will come from within 500 miles. Half of all construction waste will be recycled.
What’s the punchline? How about . . . the architecture firm is from Austin?
More images of the Mirabeau B. below!
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Hey, you can tell this place is gonna be different, ’cuz the camera angle gets all tilty in the renderings . . .
and they’re already showing a bicycle up on a balcony!
- Mirabeau B. at Hyde Park [Harvest Moon Development]
- ‘Hard-core’ sustainable in Hyde Park [River Oaks Examiner]
- Live Green Condominium (PDF) [Rhode Partners]
Images: Rhode Partners
Once again reinforcing that being “green” is a fad for people to feel good about themselves and to relieve unnecessary guilt.
This place is banking on that guilt factor to sucker some people that can afford the units to buy it……
I’m sorry i missed the part where having a conscience was a bad thing….perhaps what they’re trying to do is take it from a fad to a lifestyle that is less selfish…while profitable…. win win in my book… hope “the fad” catches on…
I don’t really know all the facts about this development…but it is truly aiming to be a good “green” development i applaud them.
“Green” ultimately implies the re-tooling of industry to provide market products that have better efficiencies and 2nd lives. Due to the amount of R&D involved, initial costs of such materials will be expensive and therefore only certain economic classes will be able to afford them now.
I’m sick of hearing people like “kjb434” politicize the term.
Green also in this case is applies to recyclable resource strategies. I can only imagine the roof cisterns collect gray water for irrigation purposes..
: P
I like how people go by anonymous and want to criticize me by name.
Green is purely a marketing tool, just like sustainability. Theses words have been turned in to buzz words to the point people will support anything that happens to use them whether they are good or not.
Because of my statement above, people would claim that I’m anti-environment or no conscience. I’m for environmental realism. Doing something that actually makes of difference versus concept of doing something that makes you feel good (such as buy a hybrid car).
If you must know, I have a cistern attached to my home for watering my plants. Of course I took it upon myself to make one though. So my $200k home has just as much “green” support at this development. I made my cistern with a large trash can that receives water out of my gutter. It was quite easy to set up and cost at most about $200. Now, I have know illusion by me using a cistern I’m saving the planet, because I’m not. I use a cistern because it’s healthier for the plants.
P.S.: Do you want to know the real reason for the cistern on this project? Updates the City of Houston Chapter 9 Storm Water Drainage Requirements requires at minimum 2 acre/feet per acre of storm water storage for Detention purposes for increase impervious cover to prevent localized street flooding. These cisterns for this project prevent the developer from having to dig a hole in the ground and shrink the building size. The use of the green moniker is a feel good marketing ploy.
I like how people go by anonymous and want to criticize me by name.
Green is purely a marketing tool, just like sustainability. Theses words have been turned in to buzz words to the point people will support anything that happens to use them whether they are good or not.
Because of my statement above, people would claim that I’m anti-environment or no conscience. I’m for environmental realism. Doing something that actually makes of difference versus concept of doing something that makes you feel good (such as buy a hybrid car).
If you must know, I have a cistern attached to my home for watering my plants. Of course I took it upon myself to make one though. So my $200k home has just as much “green” support at this development. I made my cistern with a large trash can that receives water out of my gutter. It was quite easy to set up and cost at most about $200. Now, I have know illusion by me using a cistern I’m saving the planet, because I’m not. I use a cistern because it’s healthier for the plants.
P.S.: Do you want to know the real reason for the cistern on this project? Updates the City of Houston Chapter 9 Storm Water Drainage Requirements requires at minimum 0.2 acre/feet per acre of storm water storage for Detention purposes for increase impervious cover to prevent localized street flooding. These cisterns for this project prevent the developer from having to dig a hole in the ground and shrink the building size. The use of the green moniker is a feel good marketing ploy.
Sustainability and quality of life go hand in hand. In the case of this project, there are certain factors that dictate the sales prices and the value one must expect from such prices. As a society, we have become accustomed to the concept of “low cost” over “high value,” especially in new construction housing. The Mirabeau B could have been a lot more affordable had it used up the entire site and crammed in a hundred units of stick frame construction, used low VOC paints, and called it “green”. The cost per unit would have been low but so would the overall sense of value and sustainability.
The Mirabeau B is a passively designed, small scale, steel/concrete building occupying only half the site with the remainder of space, along with the roof, dedicated to green space. Although there are high costs associated with this type of construction for this scale, the overall result is a high sense of “value” for both residents and neighbors. It is a building that is scaled appropriately for the neighborhood and will hopefully become a special place in the neighborhood. Sustainability is nothing without community.
KJB434, I appreciate your comments and agree that there is too much green-washing out there. However, the sustainable measures taken on this project are very real and have nothing to do with code issues, etc. The cisterns are there because it is only practical and economical to catch rainwater and use it for irrigation. It’s a little frustrating to hear you say that your home has as much “green support” as the development when the the project’s 15 KW solar system alone is a six figure cost.
As the developer, I have spent over two years of my life dedicated to this project and only this project (where I also plan to live). I have put an emphasis on smart design, resource efficiency, and (most of all) quality of life. I believe in the project and hope others will come to love it as much as I do.
I am not Speaking for my company, but Kj is partially right, The city of houston takes steps to limit stormwater runoff so the only way to build this condo is to make it green. Other of the measures it looks like they are taking are cost-saving measures that are also good for the environment. Take a look at most new development in the houston area and around the country and you will find a lot of buildings going up in this fashion. It isn’t a fad, and there is no guilt trip. It’s a way of making the buildings we live in work for us, and preserve our environment. So you can still fish in the gulf, and so your neighbor’s house doesn’t flood. The price tag is because of the location, and has little to do with the condo’s Green features, because these all at the end of the day, make the building cheaper to build.