Timbercreek Apartments

PROJECT LOCATION: Austin, Texas
CLIENT: H & H Texas Partners, LTD
DOC: 2007

DESCRIPTION:
The client is a San Diego, California based real estate investment organization. Timbercreek was purchased from the RTC and successfully operated in an as purchased condition for almost ten years.

In 2005, Barbee Architects Inc., referred by a previous client, was commissioned to assist the owner in a feasibility analysis to determine the best path of development for this 8-acre site in a "hot and trendy" South Austin neighborhood. Options explored ranged from demolition and redevelopment to rehabilition for a short, five-year period. The real estate value trends suggested the latter with sale or redevelopment for high-rise condominiums at the end of five years.

The program required bringing all 200 units plus management and maintenance structures to current code and giving the complex a new image and identity "more of the time" and more about the spectacular site surrounded by wooded Bouldin Creek.

All balconies and stairs were rebuilt. Other improvements included new roofing and electrical upgrades. All siding was replaced with clapboard cement board. All surfaces were painted with each building receiving one of three different paint palettes. A family of colors created a townscape where previously all buildings were a cool grey with charcoal grey details. This project transformation was achieved with paint and imagination. The results are dramatic.