August 23, 2006
Simmons Vedder Will Develop First Apartments at Mueller
Simmons Vedder, the developers who brought us the Triangle, will develop the first rental apartments at the Mueller redevelopment. The plan is for a four-story, 422 apartment complex on Aldrich Street at Airport Boulevard. It was announced last week that Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy and Marshalls would open stores in the Mueller retail center fronting I-35 between 51st Street and Airport Boulevard.
So, Mueller, despite its incredibly awesome plan, is starting to sound like the Hill Country Galleria and every other big-box suburban nightmare. On the other hand, Simmons Vedder, while aesthetically challenged, is at least trying to get into the ground floor retail/vertical mixed use concept. If their apartments and the big-box stores comply with the green building, pedestrian friendly standards in the plan, then they could be reasonably awesome. Best Buy is ok, and the big-box stores will be by the highway, so whatever. Also, a lot of cool shit is going in around them - The Dell Children's Hospital, a Ronald McDonald House, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin Film Society. Plus, the best part of the plan is yet to come - the bulk of the remainder of the site has many streets lined with three-story live/work houses with a ground floor storefront and two floors of housing. We have hope.
A note on aesthetics. According to the Statesmen article, the Vedder development "will be designed as one building but will have the appearance of four distinct buildings because of varying architectural designs." This is probably the second-worst trend in modern architecture (EIFs is the worst). Trying to trick us to think its a bunch of smaller buildings isn't working! Stop insulting our intelligence. 404 Rio Grande is probably the most hideous example. If you're going to do different styles, please make them separate buildings. Judging from the pic above, this appears to be the plan.
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So let me get this straight, the Austinist will complain about there not being a decent grocery store downtown and point out how this forces people to use their cars/not use public transportation, but when a development includes stores that people who just bought a house will need- Best Buy for electronics, Marshalls for clothing and BB+B for house wares and bedding- that’s a bad thing?
If Austin is going to be a large livable city there will need to be major stores where masses of people live. Every store in Austin can’t be a locally-owned, high-end clothing boutique and this still be a workable/livable city.
Have fun carrying your TV on the bus.
So let me get this straight, the Austinist will complain about there not being a decent grocery store downtown and point out how this forces people to use their cars/not use public transportation, but when a development includes stores that people who just bought a house will need- Best Buy for electronics, Marshalls for clothing and BB+B for house wares and bedding- that’s a bad thing?
If Austin is going to be a large livable city there will need to be major stores where masses of people live. Every store in Austin can’t be a locally-owned, high-end clothing boutique and this still be a workable/livable city.
Have fun carrying your TV on the bus.
Except that there is a Target in Capital Plaza already, so people can go there for electronics, housewares, and bedding...and oh yeah, isnt Highland Mall just up from there? So this seems like overkill. Also, what is up with another children's hospital just up the freeway from the one near Brackenridge? Dell just wanted something else to slap his name on. This whole development seems like a total misfire-they should have used *way* more of it for housing.
Charles,
Justin's point, I'd guess, would be that you have to drive to Capital Plaza.
Justin, on the other hand, I suspect most urbanists don't think Bed Bath Beyond is the kind of store they had in mind - it's likely not going to be a very nice trip across those millions of parking spaces to the front of the store for a pedestrian. (I doubt very very very much whether they'll achieve anything close to the pedestrian-friendliness you get virtually automatically with a downtown store).
Charles,
have you ever been to Brack (state owned)? the line to-be-seen, is around the block at all times with 9 hour waits. Children are often brought here for special treatments, being the capitol and all. Dell must get his name on something Humanitarian to keep up with Gates, but bashing a childrens' hospital (private) of any kind is really selling our future short. Remember these are the people who will change your Depends for you in 75 years.
My point is big box stores are terrible, yes, but if "Best Buy is ok" then other big box stores have to be ok too. Ask anyone who lives near the Whole Foods downtown if they'd perfer it to be a HEB. A HEB and Whole Foods near each other would be great, but if you only get one and have to live in the area- I choose HEB. If REI is OK downtown why isn't Marshalls OK? Because it isn't trendy enough?
You need these types of stores to live- I'm sorry you do. You need food, cloths, etc and you have to buy them somewhere. I'd love to be able to buy only hand-stiched shirts at a SoCo boutique, but I can't afford $200 for every shirt I own. I have to fill that with some Kohls clothing.
Done correctly these store would be/look fine. But since it's being developed by the people who did the Triangle it probably won't. There are Best Buys in downtown Chicago that look good where they're located, same for Jewel (the HEB of the midwest) and yes, even Bed Bath and Beyond. Should there be a Wal-Mart, Target, Kohls, etc etc all lined up next to each other? No, but you need one.
"Plus, the best part of the plan is yet to come - the bulk of the remainder of the site has many streets lined with three-story live/work houses with a ground floor storefront and two floors of housing. We have hope."
You better have some money and patience too, because those live-work houses will be at least $300K+ (regular housing will start around $200K) and according to handouts from a housing-centric Meuller Redevelopment meeting, they expect the rest of the development after this apartment complex will take 10 years.
On a green-with-envy note, check out the Houston Craigslist for lofts. Beautiful, industrial spaces over 1000 sq. ft. are renting for $1300! Something like that here (if it even existed) would be $3K and $5K in NY! Of course, you'd have to live in Houston...