A comprehensive overview
Much of the presentation involved designs expanding upon the team’s “block clusters” idea, first described here, which introduces a primary and secondary grid of streets. The primary grid creates “clusters” of four blocks that, taken together, become a sort of “superblock”. This allows for a defined exterior, along the busy streets, and interior, where the secondary, more modest streets take over.
Primary streets would fall under the purview of the master developer and would be heavily regulated for quality and design. The results would likely take the form of traditional main streets, two to three story buildings with residential and office spaces and a variety of ground floor shops and cafes.
Among these streets would be the project’s signature thoroughfare, connecting Rackspace with Eisenhower Road. Not only does this design provide the project’s primary commercial gathering space, the buildings fronting the western edge of the street are designed to buffer it from I35 noise and incorporate the existing chain restaurants in a truly innovative way.
Green on the inside
Move to the interior of each cluster, however, and you’ll find a sort of laboratory for environmental living; loosely coded to allow for all forms of innovation in site design and building practices. Each one might be sold to a different builder or developer, who would then define their own concept or approach. Their only limitation being that they must honor the secondary grid of streets connecting them to adjacent clusters.
In practice, this might result in one cluster interior built upon San Antonio’s historic La Villita model – a compact, pedestrian village of permeable streets that aid in water filtration. Or, perhaps a collection of homes laid out to maximize south and southeastern solar exposure and arranged around a community garden on a central square.
