Projects \ Plaza Saltillo Mixed-Use
As defined in the Plaza Saltillo Station Area Plan, “The Transit Oriented District (T.O.D.) is a compact, walkable, mixed-use development connected to high quality public transportation, which balances the need for sufficient density to support convenient transit service with the scale of the adjacent community.” The Plaza Saltillo T.O.D., located between E 6th Street and E 3rd Street, within two decades will be enveloped in the urbanity of Downtown Austin. The solution is to design an urban plan that morphs the T.O.D. into an Eccentric Nucleus for the expansion of East Austin, while addressing the needs of the existing communities. An Eccentric Nucleus, defined in A Pattern Language, is a community core formed by local services and a transition between the nearest major urban center to a subculture — East Austin. The urban plan is a high density bulge adjacent to downtown inwardly swelling by accomplishing four goals to create a dense fabric that will extend through East Austin. Four main goals of this urban design: 1.Concentrating local services along a central artery 2.Improving pedestrian and street connectivity 3.Utilizing public space as an organizational framework 4.Concentrating residence and jobs to transit stations.
The mixed-use design is the flagship to my group’s urban design, Eccentric Nucleus, which defines public assembly and proximity to services as the organizational framework to high density housing in East Austin. Contrasting the typical Texas doughnut design found adjacent to the site, the design carves out the initial code massing to create public space and street connections. The housing then becomes the solidity that defines these public spaces in scale and program. To the east, the building becomes the bookend to the major park created through my group’s urban strategy. This face is a defining wall of housing and is activated by the grocery store front. To the south, housing continues the zoned massing, but carves out elevated social balconies. The main lobby is located on the southwest corner closest to the new light rail stop also created by my group’s urban strategy. The mixed use design moves from the scale of the city to the unit to study and exploit the relationship of urban housing and its setting within an urban fabric. The design addresses all sides allowing public space to enter or be bordered. East Austin within twenty years will become an extension of downtown, and the design becomes the transition between downtown Austin’s urbanity to East Austin’s culture.
Location Austin, TX
Class Design IV - Spring 2015
Professor Dean Almy
Award UTSoA Design Excellence 2015