Welcome to my latest obsession. It started innocently enough: a client wanted me to put together some quick concept floor plans that would illustrate a 3+ unit multifamily building that would fit into a typical single family home footprint. Multifamily Housing at a Neighborhood Scale, if you will. The overarching concept is that each building is owner-occupied with 2-3 income producing units attached. The owner’s unit, a two bedroom/one bath, would be on the ground floor. Adjacent to this unit would be the flex space with multiple options for use: a third bedroom with ensuite, a private office with public entrance, or a separate income efficiency apartment set up with private kitchen and three piece bath. Upstairs would be two, one-bedroom/one-bath units to be rented out. Each home can fit on a standard 50’x150’ lot with auto access from the street for the owner & alley access for the tenants. There is room for an attached garage though I personally prefer it without. Coming in at just over 2,600 square feet, the concept really sparked my imagination, especially with home prices becoming more and more out of reach for many people. If one could own a home that has built-in income, you also create more affordable housing. The idea isn’t exactly new, right? Triplexes and quadplexes set within a single family neighborhood is common place in older neighborhoods, presumably built before modern zoning rules were enacted. Look around the M Streets or Junius Heights in East Dallas and you’ll find examples of neighborhoods that have a mix of these middle density buildings amongst traditional homes. Buildings such as this one, the two-, three- and four-unit buildings, referred to as the ‘missing middle’, are scaled to mimic single family homes in order to seamlessly fit in. Unfortunately, the current Dallas zoning ordinance doesn’t allow for such harmony. Instead, multi-unit buildings are regulated to multifamily districts, often requiring larger square footage per lot and apartment unit, ultimately creating giant apartment complexes at odds with homeowners. Look around North Oak Cliff and you’ll find these monstrous, towering apartment and townhome complexes dwarfing their single family neighbors. Perhaps it’s a bit naive to see these as owner-occupied homes; they don’t necessarily have to be. The ultimate idea is to boost the housing supply. But how cool would it be to approach this as your end game? As my family ages, I will ultimately downsize. I don’t want to live in a shoebox amongst hundreds of others folks in those mammoth apartment complexes. With this concept, I could occupy the ground floor, rent the units out to my children, just starting out, or that friend that is starting over late in life, or anyone for that matter. The ground floor flex space could be my pottery studio, office, or for the occasional short term rental. I could create my own community amongst the neighborhood I’ve grown to love.
DALLAS, TX — October 30, 2023 —Thrasher Works, LLC, a professional architectural practice focused on creative design and adept solutions located in Dallas, Texas, is proud to announce its recent certification as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) through the North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (NCTRCA).
The standard of certification through NCTRCA requires a very meticulous process. This involves a thorough in-depth review of the business to include firm formation, operational processes, and business documents. The NCTRCA process is thorough for a reason, as its main goal is to confirm a business is at least 51% owned, operated, controlled, and managed by a woman (or women). Karen Thrasher, Principal Architect and founder of Thrasher Works, LLC emphasizes how women in the architectural field are traditionally underrepresented. Data shows that today almost half of the students in architectural programs in the US are women, a progressive increase since the 1970s. However, the number of women that become registered architects, achieve upper management levels, become partners and own architectural firms has not increased at the same rate or in the same proportion as their male architectural counterparts. Currently only 17 percent of registered architects are women. About Thrasher Works Thrasher Works, LLC formed in 2016, maintains a diversified practice offering comprehensive services in architectural design, planning and consulting to commercial & residential clients across Texas. Devoted to small to medium-scale projects, their proficiency lies in providing commitment to quality design, creative problem solving and quick responses. Thrasher often teams up with other design professionals to deliver complex institutional and healthcare projects. To learn more, visit our Web Page at www.thrasherworks.com. You can download a copy of our WBE certification below. Searching for a new home for their congregation, my client sent me the address of a building in Richardson. Built in 1976, the building hasn't been touched in over 40 years, which can be good and bad. Built as a martial arts studio, the layout is simple and functional while the woodwork throughout is impressive, the kind rarely seen in similar-type buildings today.
Here's a peek at one of the design ideas we are working on for the exterior. It's a balancing act to present practical solutions that meet the client's goals: sanctuary space that can grow with their congregation, updated building systems, and an updated, modern exterior. And did I mention creating a welcoming and inspiring space to worship? I'm to excited to see how this develops! This is a project that has been on the boards for a while. It is to be a pool house that gives my client's expanding family the space they need to spread out. It is designed to have two bedrooms, a living space for TV and gaming as well as a small kitchenette. I've situated the 3-piece bath to be accessible from both inside and out. Plus there is an outdoor shower & storage rooms for all your blow-up-unicorn floaty. Unfortunately, the project has languished as the pool is worked out. Oh, to have that problem! As the temperatures in Dallas begin to reach into the 90s, I wish I had my own pool to cool down. The Casita is just over 700 square feet which is fairly large for a backyard guest house. The size and function has raised some flags as we sort through the City of Dallas' requirements & restriction for accessory dwelling units (ADU). In 2018, the City of Dallas created two paths by which a homeowner can legally rent out small apartments, or granny flats. Since then, there remains some confusion of what is allowed. The explosion of short term rentals in North Texas & the strife they have stirred up has not made the water any clearer. But lets take a look at what the ordinance actually says. Here is a good article that explains it all. Basically, the new ordinance enables a homeowner to seek approval to rent a secondary dwelling. It doesn't enable construction per se. A quick summary of those items directly related to the form and construction limits of the ADU:
I love these tiny homes & would like to design more! I'd like to do one that has a more open living space with less need for a private/separate bedrooms. Maybe with a more sleek, modern look. We still have our shipping container in the back yard. We have been rethinking the design purpose for a while; a small little apartment would be cool. What do you think?
Construction is wrapping up on our small, little medical office building. Looks good, right? I'm excited to get some professional photos done once all the punch items have been corrected. I believe the developer has already found a tenant so I'm excited to see this building come to life soon!
This was a fun exercise I did at the end of last year. You may recognize the building. This is the addition we designed a few years back. The two buildings were built to infill the giant hole left when the anchor tenant grocery store backed out while the rest of the center was built in the 80s. Completed at the end of 2021, Fresenius Kidney Care moved into the medical space right away. The retail space remains empty.
This exercise was obviously done to entice a tenant. The first illustration shows how we can add two drive-up ATMs at the front of the shopping center next to the soon-to-be-improved pole sign. The other two renderings illustrate the location & size of possible building signage. It also shows how we can modify the storefront to accommodate the walk-up ATM. In my line of work, I get to work with a variety of people in all different fields. While I tend to concentrate on commercial work, I do take on the occasional residential project. This particular project is something of a rare hybrid: a residential additional to accommodate a fine art conservation studio. The client is wrapping up construction with their chosen contractor & sent me these photos which I wanted to share.
The project entailed adding both a two-car garage + an art studio. This was not just any back yard studio either. To serve the client's future business endeavor, the space needed to hit several conditions: appropriate lighting, large open space to accommodate large pieces of artwork, a secure vault for storage, a photography room, office space and storage to properly store supplies & precious artwork. Quite the laundry list of items to squeeze into the back yard. Luckily I was able to work with a true professional that knew exactly how they needed to operate to be successful. We worked hand-in-hand to arrange a space that would meet their high standards. And I think the contractor did a great job executing the project. Construction completed this spring on our South Dallas project, Cliffview Crossing. This 1980's shopping center located at S. Polk Street & W. Ledbetter in Dallas, Texas has long been a stretch of sleepy buildings hugging an over-sized parking lot. Since the time of its opening, the heart of the center was left empty due to a grocery store anchor-tenant that never materialized. Though many would argue (including myself) a grocery store would have been the best fit for this location in South Dallas' food desert, that wasn't to be. The two new buildings infill the space left bare the last four decades. The larger of the two has been custom built for Fresenius Kidney Care which moved to this new location from just around the corner of the same shopping center. Right next door is 6,200 square feet of retail/office shell space ready to be demised into up to four tenant spaces. The rest of the 60,000 square foot shopping center received much needed attention as well. The green fabric awnings were replaced with new metal awnings while both decorative & security lighting was added to the building. All tenants received new signage & the center's monuments signs were redesigned. Finally, the parking lot & surrounding grounds got some much needed landscaping.
We work with developers and property managers which are often looking for ways to improve their properties in order to gain interest & relevancy in the rental market. Sometimes that means taking a look at the curb appeal. Here are some before & proposed photos for a building in Duncanville, Texas. We are proposing new storefronts which provide needed daylight in the spaces + giving the shops more visibility from the street. There is also a new tower element we hope will assign the building an identity as well as organize the facade in a more symmetrical manner. This is a peak at a new project which will soon be kicking into high gear. This is a ground-up small medical office building in North Texas. I can't wait to share more as the project progresses. Design should be complete by the holidays with construction to be completed around this time next year.
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