I'm sure you've seen some really fancy, grand ideas of how to revitalize a sleepy neighborhood that has seen better days. The solution often comes with a hefty price tag that keeps the execution out of reach. For this little exercise, we new we had to keep things simple & keep improvements to the level of a can of paint and some twinkle lights. Baby steps.

This particular area is tough as it is divided by a four lane highway.  Still we kept to the easy first steps & concentrated on adding vibrance, places to gather & a clear walkable sidewalks. Ideally, we can add density to the area by adding residential to the south of the highway with vital retail to support it to the north side. Taking these first small steps will add momentum to revitalize businesses in the future to add to the urban fabric.

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.  

Here's a peek at the early design of a new health center in El Paso, Texas. The ground up project will accommodate a single-practitioner family practice clinic + a separate area for executive office space & conference room. The building has been sited in such a way to allow for the future expansion of the health center.  

You can see we are really leaning into the idea of playing with light & shadow as well as introducing vibrant colors. What do you think?

Our little medical office building broke ground in April.  The underground utility & foundation prep work has been a challenge due to soils & your typical gotcha-discoveries.  In June we finally poured the slab and now we are wrapping up the steel work!  We are marching forward & hoping to complete construction by the end of the year!

One of the best part of Oak Cliff where I live and office is that there are small pockets of urban developments tucked into neighborhoods. These old commercial buildings once housed mom and pop businesses that I imagine were vital to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, many stand empty today.

This small little postage stamp of a building in my own neighborhood is one of them.  It's perfect for my own offices + another tenant. We took a tour of it the other day and interior renovations would be fairly minor--just a bit of demo and clean up. What do you think?

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.