September 4, 2009 – 12:26 pm
The Brookesmith home of Kevin Freeman and Jen Feldmann — fashioned from shipping containers by Numen Development’s John Walker and Katie Nichols — meets a national audience in the pages of the latest issue of Dwell: “The meat distributor [across Cordell St.] begins loading trucks as early as 5:30 a.m., but the couple imagines themselves as hipsters living in New York City’s meatpacking district, and that makes it okay. . . . The corrugated steel of the container that houses the master suite becomes a textured wall for writing messages in the home’s entrance. ‘When we were furnishing the house, I thought, “Oh no! Our fridge isn’t magnetic for Eli’s artwork,” but then I realized the whole house is magnetic,’ Feldmann says. ‘We’ve become magnet connoisseurs,’ Freeman adds.” [Dwell; previously in Swamplot]
Read more about: 77009, Brookesmith, Construction Materials, Green Design, Green Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Shipping-Containers, Transportation
Hey, what’s happening to those fancy solar-powered recycled shipping containers on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh, meant to attract eco-minded buyers to the $400K+ condo units in the Mirabeau B.?
Up and away they go! Did the Mirabeau B. meet its sales target? Nope . . . but it’s time for construction anyway, developer Joey Romano tells Swamplot:
Our financing is in place and we have signed our contract with Mission Constructors who have commenced work on the site. If all goes to plan at the City, the building work will begin in the next few weeks.
How’d that happen? With a little switch: to rental. But Romano says none of the project’s “green” features will be changed:
We’ll still plant our green roof; our 15 KW solar PV system will still power all common areas; and our rainwater retention system will still irrigate our native Gulf Coast plants. Our units will be large, open, and spacious, offering unique, high-grade finishes, high-end energy efficient appliances, and natural light in every bedroom.
So where are the shipping containers headed?
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Read more about: 77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategies, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, Portable Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Shipping-Containers, Solar Power
February 26, 2009 – 10:57 am
The solar-powered portable building fashioned from recycled shipping containers that’s been waiting patiently at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh since last September isn’t just the sales office for the Mirabeau B. condo. It’s also a prototype.
Designers Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana of Metalab have teamed up with ttweak Renewables (creators of the Mirabeau B.’s sales graphics) and Harvest Moon (the condo’s developer) to market the structures, which they call SPACE. That stands for Solar Powered Attractive Container for Everyone — though more likely it’ll be for companies that want a sales center that also works as a big green sign.
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Read more about: Buidlings for Sale, Green Design, Houston Architects, Office Space, Portable Buildings, Real Estate Marketing, Shipping-Containers, Solar Power, Utilities
January 14, 2009 – 11:19 am
Next experiment at that Swamplot-Award-winning house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith? The unique driveway installed earlier this week. John Walker of Numen Development writes in with details:
It is composed of recycled crushed glass, with a resin binder, and achieves the consistency of caramel popcorn for lack of a better description, so it has voids that allow surface water to percolate through the paving and ultimately be absorbed into the underlying soil rather than running off into the storm drainage system. It is a triple threat: recycled material, reduces environmental impact of development, and it’s really cool!
Walker says Presto Geosystems, a division of Alcoa, installed the driveway as a pilot project for the Houston market.
This installation has been described by their consulting engineer as most likely the “first and last” residential project they will do in Houston as the product is expected to meet with huge commercial demand, especially for “landlocked” developments for whom expansion is limited by Harris County stormwater detention limitations.
Some views of the installation:
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Read more about: 77009, Brookesmith, Construction Materials, Flooding, Green Design and Development, Paving, Recycled Materials, Shipping-Containers
September 8, 2008 – 11:23 am
The new sales center for the Mirabeau B. is looking pre-fab! Now at the northwest corner of Hyde Park and Waugh: two 20-ft. recycled shipping containers, outfitted with a solar array on a digitally fabricated rack. The website for Metalab, the architecture firm in charge of the project, claims the solar panels will generate 180 kilowatt hours per month. What’s that figure converted to condo sales?
Oh, but selling condos is apparently only this structure’s day job for now:
Solar panels on the roof can fold shut at night or during bad weather, said Andrew Vrana from Metalab.
“We would like to further develop this as a solution,” he said. “People could have one of these made and put in their backyard and supplement their energy with solar power.”
Below: more pics!
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Read more about Buying and Selling, Condos, Construction Materials, Development Strategy, Environmental, Green Design and Development, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Hyde Park, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
Read more about: 77006, Buying and Selling, Condos, Construction Materials, Hyde Park, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Shipping-Containers
January 10, 2008 – 2:42 pm
That house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith looks like it’ll be ready for delivery soon. Yes, this was a spec house — and yes, there already is a buyer.
Last year, Numen Development owners Katie Nichols and John Walker used shipping containers to construct the Apama Mackey Gallery on 11th St. in the Heights — because the gallery owner wanted a structure she can move when the property owner kicks her off the land. But the house Numen is building on Cordell looks like it’s going to be around for a while. It comes with its own, uh . . . doublewide lot, and it’s right across the street from a meat-processing plant.
After the jump: drawings, models, and an earlier construction photo of this neat little three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,851-square-foot package!
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Read more about: 77009, Brookesmith, Construction Materials, Green Design, Green Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Shipping-Containers, Transportation
Here’s a building method that seems well-suited for Houston: It’s fast, it’s temporary, and it involves both shipping containers and fine art. Remember the demolition permit for the site on 11th Street in the Heights we mentioned a few days back? By Friday, it’ll have a completed building on it, according to ’stina, who wrote in her LiveJournal Wednesday:
Today, the shipping containers will be delivered and installed to the new site of the 1400 square foot gallery, and you can see for yourself what this form of construction looks like. They started this morning with merely a few spread footings and grade beams and they’ll finish this evening with all the containers set and a good portion (if not all) of the roof in place.
It’s the new Apama Mackey Gallery, pieced together out of three shipping containers by Numen Development. The gallery will occupy the site for a few years, until the landowner is ready for a more permanent development in that location. Then Mackey will be able to move the gallery to a new lot she hopes to find in the meantime.
Some of the project’s green features, according to ’stina’s report:
- From conception of the idea in March, it has been three short months to a nearly final product!
- The Mackey Gallery is built to be moved and reassembled with less than 5% waste.
- Custom panelized roof and floor system utilizing Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs are extremely energy efficient and virtually eliminate the need for traditional framing while dramatically reducing waste and build time.)
- Clerestory panels and office windows made from Polygal. (An insulated polycarbonate that is more energy efficient than glass, yet less expensive and more secure.)
- The job site for the Gallery will need NO dumpsters because the building process has so little waste.
- Even the parking lot will be made of Permeable Paving squares which are green, and reusable.
Photo: Flickr user Ross Dunn
Read more about: 77008, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Galleries, Green Design, Green Development, Houston Heights, Shipping-Containers
