Design Cliche-The Texas Donut

Posted on January 2, 2015 By admin Real Estate

Swamplot Design Cliche Award Winner

For insightful (or inciteful?) comments on the real estate scene, you just can’t beat Swamplot. If a property is featured there, it could be for praise or (more likely) derision. They don’t hold their punches, which makes delightful reading.

The recent Swamplot Real Estate Awards for 2014 included the category of design cliches.

They call it the “Texas Donut“, a ubiquitous 5 story wood-frame building surrounding & hiding the parking garage. There is “articulation in the facade and roofline” so it’s not a simple giant box, but there are lots of these popping up all over. They mention 6 in a two mile stretch.

Even the Heights has one of these projects. See my post in another blog: The Heights; No Longer the Funky Little Neighborhood.

Being in a “hot” part of town has it’s drawbacks…everyone wants to be here. These designs pack in the most people, so I guess we have to expect them to be over-built.