The High Bar: A Mixed Income Solution for Living in Midtown Houston

Midtown is located south of Downtown and is best described as a collection of fragments from the neighborhoods that surround it.

In 1995, pieces of the fourth ward and third ward were united in terms of economy, forming the Midtown TIRZ (Tax Increment revitalization Zone), an economic zone created to incentivize development near downtown.

However this development was not meant for the current residents and manifested itself as a form of intense gentrification that started along the west end. This divide can be seen when you map how the unit density changes within the neighborhood and what non-residential buildings are active during the day and night.

A deep divide becomes more apparant when Midtown is mapped in terms of income and rent. The neighborhood has a high level of economic diversity, but with a median rent of $1,300, only half or less of the community is being offered desirable housing solutions they can afford with the rest being either ostracized or pushed out, taking existing social networks with them.

While one building alone won’t solve these contextual issues it can set a higher standard of responsibility for housing and future development in Midtown and for us, that starts with selecting a site that is in the center of this community.

From here, most of Midtown is accessible within a half mile walk. As for the lot itself, it is relatively small at about 15,000 square feet and the existing building takes up about half of that, framing two side of the lot while doing so.

The site is located between Tuam street and Anita street and sits between two major transportation routes. The metro rail line is located northwest of the site, while a high comfort bike lane is located a block southeast of the site. The arrows running parallel to the site indicate the direction of the prevailing winds, which follow the existing Midtown street grid.

The surrounding context is identified by use. Our existing building shares an edge with a local bar, one of several in Midtown.

Also, you can see that there is an abundance of parking spreading throughout the area.

Because Midtown is considered a resource rich neighborhood, we believe mixed income housing is an appropriate solution. Mixed income housing can provide an environment where valuable relationships can form. It can also help cross divisions between class and race. It can prevent displacement and preserve existing social networks and can provide better amenities and opportunities for all incomes.

Mixed income housing, when paired with a neighborhood recovery nonprofit and a new Midtown branch of the Houston Public Library, can enhance the effectivenss of our overall strategy.

This is a first look at how we are organizing our program. We have a total of 40 residential units, stretching 12 stories. We have a unit density of 118 units per acre. 40% of these units are affordable, 40% are low income, and 10% are market rate.

To provide space for the library and commercial program, we carved out most of the interior space of the existing building. We then added a residential bar on top, with the addition of a new skylight and walkway.

Our addition makes use of the prevailing winds by providing several openings in the form of social breezways. Cross ventilation is carried through each individual unit design.

The exterior corridor on the southern face of the building limits exposure to direct sunlight during the cooling months and the skylight of the library provides daylighting by using angles to optimize and capture light throughout the year.

Also, the height and form of the residential bar provide shade to the ground plaza during the hottest periods of the day. The plaza fills the remainder of the site, providing a pedestrian focused space where the activity from our building and the rest of Midtown can intermingle.

The exterior then carves into the existing, providing a semi-public streetscape that separates the library from the retail spaces while giving high bar residents a more private entrance towards the back.

Meanwhile on the interior, the lower portion of the library is devoted to both group study and reading material. The bookcases provide a central access point for finding reading material while providing pockets and nooks to filter their choices before ascending to the first floor.

The short end of the existing that extends beyond the residential bar becomes an opportunity for this HPL location to express itself while still integrating with the rest of the activity on the site.

The library uses the full extent of the first floor, dividing it up into a children’s spaces, office and a reading area that is open to the ground floor and lined with foldable doors along the walkway that can be opened during fair weather to extend into the plaza.

The second floor is recessed to serve as an aesthetic transition between the existing and the proposed. We used this pause and calmer setting as an opportunity to provide classroom space for the economic education arm of the NRCDC. The rest of the floor is seeded, allowing the rest of the roof to be seeded as a casual outdoor space that would be accessible to the residents.

The fourth and sixth floors show how the breezways maximize space. The fourth floor breezway is smaller, but provides a nook for residents to relax, while the sixth floor community breezway opens up to a social space as well as the main residential stairwell.

Connecting these openings in the building is an open air back corridor. The width of the corridor allows for personalization in the front of each unit. The spaces between staircases also allow for additional seating or other additional furniture. All this variability increases the chance for social interaction between residents.

The community program on the sixth floor provides social space to be used by residents.

It also provides a space to meet and hang out with visiting friends or family.

The double height NRCDC offices are located on the eighth and ninth floors in purple. The space is paired with a double height breezeway that can be used by the residents as well as the NRCDC to host events that might provide networking opportunities for all residents.

On the tenth floor there is a medium sized breezway that might be used as a place for residents to sit and reflect or take their pet for some fresh air. The eleventh floor shows all four unit types, ranging from studios, to market rate one bedrooms, to three bedrooms.

We appreciated how steel framing of the existing contrasted with the tilt-up concrete walls and have maintained that aesthetic in the redesign of the envelope.

For the proposed we have designed a system that takes the perforated screen along the elevated corridors and wraps it along the aluminum paneled facade of the residential bar, terminating at each breezeway.

While the elevated corridor wraps around the side to provide a second stairwell for the residential units, a mesh screen wraps around at the existing along the covered streetway to facilitate vine growth as a buffer between our building and the parking lot behind it.

We took a more playful approach when laying out the stairs along the elevated corridor. Even if each resident keeps to a range of three floors when using these stairs, there are still ample opportunities for casual interaction.

Because we were trying to achieve a high unit density, a lot of the interiors were at risk of feeling too enclosed and so we wanted to shape spaces that were expressive in volume to compliment the blend of interior and exterior.

These axonometrics give a better sense of how the spacing between the perforated screen and aluminum planeling changes as it wraps around the facade while the windows in each unit operate by opening inward.