Wall Housing/Highway Type, Gulfgate Housing, The Gulfgate Mall (at the intersection of Interstate 45 and the 610 Loop), Houston, Texas, 1993-94
W. Jude LeBlanc, in association with Brian D. Andrews (Andrews/LeBlanc)
Highway Housing consists of dwelling units sited in proximity to an overpass. The construction is of light steel frame and steel stud, sheathed in galvanized sheet metal with standing seams. The south elevation is protected by a bleached cypress bris soliel. Elevated entry terraces are made of poured in place concrete and are designed to support cypress trees.
But for the addition of these evergreens, the dwellings are silver-gray monochrome. In this instance, the dwellings are supported by long span trusses with tension ring connections, fitted with heavy spring dampeners, at the existing concrete columns. In other applications the dwellings would be elevated and supported by pilotis, or ground floor columns.
A bridge is proposed that would offer an alternate pedestrian route to the Gulfgate Mall, the first enclosed shopping center in Houston. The bridge would be made as an habitable box beam and would house a gymnasium. A day care center, the roof of which connects the shopping mall with the bridge from the housing development, is also proposed.
The units are disposed to create front doors that face either a street or a common yard, and rear doors that face semi-public alleyways with parking. The common yard includes a swimming pool and a community house. The site plan includes drop off points for recycling, a community garden and a grove of cypress trees, that in one hundred years time could be used to replace the large south facing bris soliel.
Flexible housing and new social uses. The floor plans are configured in response to current changes in households and the evolving idea of what constitutes a family or family life. Each unit has two entries, a primary entry off of a street or a common lawn and a secondary entry off of a semi-public alley way. Each unit has two equal sized bedrooms on the top floor and a bathroom which can be compartmentalized and used by several persons at once. Located on the main floor, in addition to the living area and kitchen, is a studio-type area which can be used as a home-office, a bedroom, or a semi-autonomous dwelling for another family member or family group.
What happened to all that talk a few years ago about repairing the American "infrastructure"—getting people out to rebuild the roads and bridges that are falling apart? A lot of good ideas just seem to fade away.
Andy Warhol
America, 1985
ARCHITECTURE
Casita Garcia
Ellis House
Twentieth Century
Veterans Memorial
Iceland House
Baton Rouge Cimetiere
Two More Scupper Houses
Dogtrot Scupper House
Shotgun Scupper House
Wall-Highway
Wall-Mask
Wall-Perimeter
Public Space In
The New American City
Free Bridge
Goldstein Studio
Another Glass House Competition
Louisiana House
Origlio/Vanderbilt Condominium
