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In partnership with cdcb, we recently completed work at the Triplex on 325 W. Levee St. in Brownsville. We are pleased to have wrapped up this project to add to the rental housing available near downtown Brownsville.
Check out the before and after images below!
We recently wrapped up construction drawings for the interior remodeling of the Good Neighbor Settlement House kitchen and addition of a clinic consult and check up rooms.
This work is phase one of our three-phase remodel master site plan we developed for the downtown nonprofit agency serving Brownsville men, women, and children in need as part of our 2020 Brownsville City Design Studio. The partnership with GNSH began when [bc] developed the BCDS 2019 homelessness research initiative, “Restoring Dignity for the Homeless,” in which the GNSH participated as a crucial partner.
Phases two and three will involve the remodel of the two-story historic building which will serve as office space for the outreach GNSH staff and a new computer lab. Phase three will involve remodeling existing flatwork and ramps to be ADA compliant and making landscape improvements to beautify the site. Stay tuned for more!
Current conditions for remodeling:
Phase 1 Render
Along with cdcb, we recently had a pre-construction tour of Samano Studios & Armand's Grocery in Brownsville. This renovation is transforming the turn-of-the-century Samano Building in historic downtown Brownsville into permanent supportive housing studio apartments, office spaces, a grocery store and a coffee shop.
Folks at the pre-construction tour got a sneak peek of the current state of the building as well as what’s in store for the historic structure. Check out these renderings that Alison designed of the future space:
The Rio Grande region lies on the US border between Texas and Mexico and is served by the University of Texas at the Rio Grande Valley, a Hispanic Serving University (HSI) where over 25 percent of students are Hispanic/Latinx.
The UTRGV Department of Science reached out to [bc] last year to help adjust one of their projects that had been disrupted by COVID. Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the aim of this project is to provide the faculty with a deeper understanding of the RGV and by extension their students, then measure how this training affects curriculum and student outcomes. Normally, this training would take place at a 3-day retreat -- but due to COVID, the department had to shift gears to a virtual option. In talking through their objectives and audience, [bc] recommended recreating the content of the retreat through a StoryMap.
The StoryMap recreates the storytelling and highlighting of local places and culture within the RGV, connecting this context to methods of teaching Latinx communities.
The StoryMap will cover four categories:
Place - What is the RGV? What is the history, what are its significant places, the ecology and history of development?
Culture - What are the key essences of the RGV? This section explores the role of family and children as well as water in the RGV.
Pedagogy - This section will focus on the history of education in the RGV, acknowledging the history of children being reprimanded for speaking Spanish at school and the trauma associated with this history.
University as an institution and how it’s seeking to better serve its Latinx population through curriculum development, campus offerings, and more.
This project is set to wrap in the next couple of months. We look forward to learning the results from the study to understand how this type of resource can be used to benefit educators and students of HSIs.
Check out some of these historic images of the RGV that are featured in the StoryMap!
Photo courtesy Museum of South Texas History
Photo courtesy Museum of South Texas History
Photo courtesy Museum of South Texas History
In late 2020, we began work with our partner cdcb on an exciting historic adaptive reuse of the Samano Building in downtown Brownsville. Located at 1158 E. Elizabeth Street, the property consists of five stories, each approximately 5,775 square feet, with a basement. Originally built as a bank in 1925, the Samano building most recently was a Payless Shoe Store, followed by a period of vacancy until cdcb acquired the building.
When complete, the Samano Building will include a small grocery store and coffee shop on the ground floor (filling the gap in nutritious grocery access left when HEB moved from its downtown location), coworking/office spaces on the middle floor, and 34 units of affordable housing on the top floors with set-asides for citizens in transition.
Check out these photos of Samano - including what it looked like in its heyday and a rendering of what the building will look like when work is complete!
Samano soon after construction at 1158 E. Elizabeth Street
The building as it stands today
The future Samano Building - rendering by Donald Hickman
Along with Enterprise Green Communities and cdcb | come dream. come build., [bc] has been at work refining core module options for MiCASiTA, our innovative grow-home model that allows families to purchase a home that is designed to grow as their family and finances do.
Over the last few months, our team has gotten together for several report and design charrette meetings to review required and optional categories for Enterprise Green Communities Certification. This certification allows us to act on an integrative design process and set specific goals. The criteria checklist is a useful guide as we design the MiCASiTA grow-home model and seek to tap into economic, health, and environmental benefits.
Each MiCASiTA module will come prefabricated and will feature a main array of amenities and necessities. For example, our “Smart Box” options include a KITCHEN + BATHROOM + LAUNDRY or BEDROOM + LIVING ROOM. These two core options will then create our main starting point to the MiCASiTA grow home model. After the initial core is created and placed onsite for the family to move into, separate modules that can be added onto the home over time may feature an “Office Box” that has a BEDROOM + OFFICE + BATHROOM, a “Kids Box” featuring 2 BEDROOM + BATHROOM, or a “Flex Box” with GARDEN / GARAGE / STORAGE.
The graphic below represents the L core diagram, with the two “Smart Boxes” coming together to illustrate the process of the grow-home model. The top shows Gable Roof and the bottom shows a Shed Roof.
Our next steps as the design team are to come up with a thoughtful façade design and wrap up to begin the permitting process.
Core massing option graphic by Oscar Olvera.
The Jackson Street Cottages are located at the intersection of E Jackson and 16th Street in Brownsville, Texas. After being held by the same owner for decades, the residences went on the market in 2020 and were at risk of being purchased by a commercial buyer.
In an effort to preserve rental units close to downtown and to maintain the historic character of the development, the City of Brownsville approached [bc]’s partner, come dream. come build. cdcb, to request that they purchase the property to save it from being demolished and converted into commercial use. cdcb agreed and has brought [bc] on as lead architect.
There are three buildings on the property, with five units total. All units are in a deteriorated condition, both interior and exterior. Two of the buildings are historically significant. The project will involve rehabilitating the historic doors, windows, and siding for 2 structures on Lot 1, which are on the list of Texas Historic Sites. The two contributing structures are at 1026-1030 E Jackson St in Brownsville.
Records show that the buildings were located on site between 1930 and 1957. The vernacular building is a contributing structure and provides historic character and a sense of place to the immediate surrounding thanks to its location on the corner.
We are set to break ground in March 2021. Look out for more updates from this exciting project!
We are excited to welcome Oscar Olvera to [bc]! Oscar is originally from the Rio Grande region and grew up volunteering, learning, and working for local museums and grassroots organizations. Throughout his career as an architecture student, he grew an interest in city growth, city edges, and urbanism. With his education and work, Oscar seeks to improve the livability of communities across cities.
In his spare time, Oscar enjoys . Read more about him and what he’ll be working on at [bc] here!
We are excited to announce that cdcb | come dream. come build. and [bc] are among the 6 winning teams for the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge from Enterprise and Wells Fargo. With this award, our team will have $2.5 million to expand our innovative solution for rural homeownership, MiCASiTA, from 2020 to 2022.
ABOUT MiCASiTA
Affordable housing is too often synonymous with a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to offer any real choices for families most in need. MiCASiTA allows residents and community members to make decisions about each housing development – cultivating agency and control that yields power.
MiCASiTA is a unique off-the-shelf environmentally sustainable, disaster-resilient modular homeownership innovation. It is designed for rural families across the Rio Grande Valley and more communities struggling with persistent poverty nationwide. MiCASiTA marks a departure from a one-size-fits-all model to a system that empowers communities of color with modest incomes to choose and design their own homes.
WHAT WE’LL DO
Over the course of its grant, cdcb and [bc] aim to build six prototype dwellings whose construction costs are less per square foot than the average unit in the market. They will complete the design and launch of their Choice Empower software system, allowing clients to choose and weigh the costs of design options. They will also expand the MiCASiTA model to one additional persistent poverty region in the United States.
Looking beyond the lifespan of the grant, cdcb believes that successful scale for MiCASiTA is not just increased unit production: It is a client-led design and production system that is easily adopted and implemented across the country. That system will include a franchise model with built-in systems, processes and technology to support market diversity and context, both culturally and economically.
Most importantly, MiCASiTA aspires to generate a documented increase in client empowerment that shows measurable improvement in families’ physical and financial health and the true transfer of intergenerational wealth in communities of color.
Meet the other amazing winners of the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge!
Check out Casitas de Azucar, our latest multifamily project in Santa Rosa, TX!
Read MoreThere’s a new multifamily project in the pipeline in the RGV. It’s set to break ground soon - check out these renderings in the meantime!
Read MoreCheck out our progress on the Belden Trail - a new extension for the Buena Vida neighborhood in Brownsville!
Read MoreWe’re excited to announce we have a new member of the [bc] team — help us welcome Gerardo Gutierrez! He has joined our Rio Grande Valley office as a design associate, where he will work on a range of our making projects, including sustainABLEhouse, multifamily projects, and much more.
Gerardo is originally from Mexico City and holds degrees in Architecture from the Technological University of Mexico as well as the Higher School of Engineering and Architecture of the National Polytechnic Institute. His work experience includes time as a junior architect for Grupo Bimbo in Mexico City.
Outside of his architectural design work, Gerardo is passionate about music. He plays bass guitar and drums and says he loves living close to the beach in Brownsville!
Are you interested in working for [bc]? We’re still hiring designers! Get your application in today. (NOV 2019)
We are excited to welcome Diego Perez!
Diego Perez is a Design Associate at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. He collaborates on several projects in the Rio Grande Valley that help low-income people to have opportunities to create one of their dreams through the design and construction of affordable housing.
Diego studied at the University CESDAA (Higher Studies Center in Architecture and Administration) in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture.
Learn more about Diego here!
Alongside our partners La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), A Resource in Serving Equality (ARISE), the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, and four selected musicians (Frutoso Villareal, Jonathan Salinas, Refugio Ortiz, and Juan Manuel Alejo) we have recently wrapped up a series of three songwriting workshops in the Alberta Meadows and Owassa Acres colonias.
In July, a workshop was held at each colonia where musicians, residents, and partner organizations came together to write corrido verses following discussions about daily life and the impact of flooding in the colonias. The workshops began a walk around the neighborhood and a Colonia Audit of Public Spaces (CAPS), where the residents recorded the physical conditions and their thoughts on spaces in the community focusing on areas related to drainage, flooding and safety. Musicians participated in the audit as well to hear about challenges and success stories within the colonias. After walking the neighborhood, the musicians performed some of their music and spoke about the corrido process and the musical elements that make a compelling corrido. Residents discussed the music performed and then began to write their own stories as corrido verses.
The second round of workshops took place in early September. During these workshops, groups worked collaboratively to write corrido lyrics, and residents shared out their writings. Musicians led conversations to explore the format of the song to be produced. At the end of September, residents, musicians, and partners re-convened to weave the writings produced through the second workshop into cohesive songs that represent the struggles of each colonia.
We are looking forward to continuing work with our partners, residents, and musicians to record the songs produced through these workshops and plan a dance celebration in the new year. Stay tuned for updates!
El Sonido del Agua is a multi-year creative placemaking project that supports the expression of local voice through music, and is supported by ArtPlace America.
We are excited to welcome Valeria Landeros!
Valeria Landeros is a Design Associate at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. Valeria collaborates on a range of architectural and community projects in the Rio Grande Valley.
Valeria studied at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a Bachelor of Architecture.
Learn more about Valeria here!
Tangelo Quarters, a housing development comprised of 18 single-family units, is currently under construction. Framing for the first five units has begun, and foundations for four others have been poured.
When complete, Tangelo Quarters will provide affordable, contextually-appropriate housing for 18 families in Brownsville, TX. The site will feature a range of community amenities, such as a community garden, for residents to enjoy together. The project meets density goals while preserving individual identities of homes and fitting in with the existing neighborhood.
We look forward to continuing work with our partners on this project, the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville (CDCB) and the Housing Authority of the City of Brownsville (HACB) and to seeing the project's completion in 2019.
We are excited to welcome Sara Taketatsu, our RGV bcINTERN this summer!
Sara is from Antonito, Colorado and is currently a junior at the CU Boulder Program in Environmental Design working on her Bachelor of Environmental Design, specialization in architecture. You can learn more about Sara here.
Throughout the summer, Sara will be working on creating materials, documenting, and attending meetings for the El Sonido del Agua project, as well as helping out with architectural design and low-impact development projects in the Rio Grande Valley.
Sara says, "It's been amazing to meet so many wonderful people in the [bc] community and in the LRGV. There's a depth of knowledge and experiences here that is truly remarkable and exciting to learn from."
On June 13, 2018 the musician selection committee—comprised of community organizers, conjunto musician experts and designers—reviewed applications and held live auditions at the ARISE Support Center in Alamo, TX. The Support Center is just a few miles from Alberta Meadows and Owassa Acres, two colonias which are focus areas for the project.
Four musicians rose to the top of the list during this session and the committee thought that finding a way for the four of them to work together would foster the best possible outcomes for the project. Two of the musicians are from the colonias themselves (one each from Alberta Meadows and Owassa Acres). The other two live in the Rio Grande Valley and have experience working with colonias. This combination of local expertise and regional understanding of drainage and music should make for a lively experience!
We will announce the musicians at the July 11 and 12 songwriting workshops and community audits, to take place in the colonias. These events will kick off the next phase of the project. Musicians will lead corrido writing writing workshops, following walking community audits led by [bc]. The community audits are designed to support residents of the colonias in identifying, documenting, and reporting infrastructural issues that impact drainage and catalyze conversations about the challenges of daily living in a flood prone area. These audits and conversations will be a foundation for writing corridos (narrative ballads) about these conditions.
Additional workshops will be held this summer to refine the corridos and then produce conjuntos based on these stories. This effort to put the daily struggles that colonia residents face into song is at the heart of El Sonido del Agua.
This project is supported by a grant from the ArtPlace America National Creative Placemaking Fund.
This summer, for the first time ever, [bc] will host an intern in each of its 4 offices.
Our Summer 2018 bcINTERNs are:
Ucha is currently pursuing a Master of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Rights and Environmental Studies from Southern Methodist University.
Sara is working on her Bachelor of Environmental Design, specialization in architecture, at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Alison is pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University.
Lilith is a recent graduate of Tulane University with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Policy and Practice, Political Science and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fine and Studio Arts.
We are excited to welcome these four new interns to our team! Follow the links to their bio pages to learn more about them and what they'll be working on this summer!
