Austin Like Portland

My wife was in Austin, TX last week, and she sent me these two photos because they struck her as similar to scenes in Portland, OR, which we visited together a few years ago.

First here is an extra wide sidewalk:
 

Some effort was made here to narrow the part of the right-of-way that is for driving and widening the sidewalk. This was also done in areas of Portland.

Secondly, these look a lot like new condos you would find in Portland's Pearl District:
 

Views From Trinity Flats

I got inside the new building at Mercer and Vine a few days ago and snapped a couple pictures. The condos are nicely organized around a circular lobby on each floor, eliminating the long corridors that are in other buildings (for example Gateway I). I really like when I get a new view that I have never seen before, like the one looking West down 14th Street towards Music Hall:

Pleasant Street Shaping Up

Jerry's Disco Palace

Before and After:

[where: 1344 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

I'll have a lot more about this building as construction continues.

City Home

City Home is a mix of new townhouses and condos in existing buildings. This is a unique parnership between several parties, notably OTR Community Housing and 3CDC. The development encompasses much of the 1400 block of Pleasant Street. If you don't know, Pleasant Street runs parallel/between Elm and Race from 14th to Findlay Market. The main selling point is proximity to Music Hall and off-street parking. For the new buildings, it is a rare chance to own a townhouse instead of a condo in OTR. Personally, I prefer the larger historic buildings, but having these 2-3 story townhouses adds to the mix of choices to potential homebuyers.

View from the northern end of Pleasant Street looking south and east. The new garden area is to the immediate left:

Looking down on Pleasant Street from the rehabbed building on the west side of the street:

View from balcony of rehabbed building on west side of street:

Interior of new townhouse, living room:

Stair:

This laundry area is at the top of the stairs. The areawell lets light in and separates the front of the house from the garage:

Kitchen:

Bedroom in new townhouse:

Inside of bay window:

Each townhouse has inset area with patio below:

This is the area where a new community garden will be planted. Underneath is storm detention tanks required by MSD:

The rest are photos from a month ago, when I was looking at how they installed the electric underground and re-used the granite curbing:










See here, the granite curb was re-laid with a gentle curve to widen the sidewalk enough for a (future) tree:





Electric being installed under sidewalk:

Trinity Flats

Trinity Flats is a new building at the southwest corner of 14th and Vine. I have followed this project from the early demolition of the old buildings, and through construction. This is the first new building on Vine Street since "Gateway I" (in the 1100 block).

There are 9 condos, one storefront and a first floor garage parking. Each unit has balcony and 3 of them have roof decks. The total project budget was $2.5 million and I noticed that a couple have sold. A bunch of my photos were blurred, so only a few photos here, and none of the Rookwood tiled elevator and entrance lobby:








[where: 1331-3 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Across the street, the next project is under construction:


UPDATE: See Glaserworks website for floor plans on this project.

Mottainai

The second building on the tour is called Mottainai. It is at the southeast corner of Republic and 13th. This has been a very rough corner for many years, and the buildings themselves were also in terrible terrible condition. They had been vacant for at least 15 years. They are also almost the only buildings left on the east side of Republic Street in this block. There are vacant lots to the north and the south. Knowing all of this, I was pretty surprised at the very high level of finish in these units. They obviously put a lot of money into these two buildings (the website says 2.84 million, but that sounds way too high for these 8 units with prices starting at $134k). It is a bit shocking to walk off the gritty street right into such a polished first floor space like this:

This is a cork floor:

The sink on the left is painted cast-in place concrete. Not sure about that:

More cork:

More cork:


And even more cork, leading to a rooftop deck:

[where: 1222 and 1224 Republic St., Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Lackman Lofts

There was an open house, about two weeks ago, showing new projects in the 13th and 14th Street areas of OTR. I will make 4 posts out of this in the order of how I saw the buildings
1. Lackman at 13th and Vine
2. Mottanai at Republic and 13th, 1222 and 1224 Republic
3. Trinity Flats, 14th and Vine, 1331 and 1333 Vine, new building
4. City Home, 1400 Block of Pleasant St.

Following are the Lackman photos. These were developed by Urban Sites and 3CDC. There were some nice details, especially the new Rookwood tiles on backsplashes and added in the old wood mantles. I was suprised to see and elevator inside this relatively small building (7 units?). There was a wig/cosmetics store in the first floor of this building for many years, and it has fantastic carved stone details on the exterior.
















[where: 1237 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]
Here is my old photo showing the rear of the building last year.
Here is a photo of the outside a few months ago.