Orenco Station
Hillsboro, Ore.
A model for Transit Oriented Development throughout the country, Orenco Station has been honored with numerous awards since it opened five years ago. Portland, Ore., is famous for its urban-growth boundary laws, and this 209-acre community west of town is a smart-growth solution.
A collaboration between Costa Pacific Communities and PacTrust, Orenco Station features 1,800 homes, a town center, office, and retail, all adjacent to Portland's Westside MAX Light Rail system. Extending out from the light rail and town center is a grid of walkable, tree-lined streets and parks, featuring cottages, condominiums, lofts, and townhomes in a broad range of sizes and prices.
"The most noteworthy thing is that it's a greenfield site that we took from scratch and created a community in its entirety including the town center," says Dick Loffelmacher, director of retail development at Pac Trust. "The light rail was the only existing amenity." And people really are using the train as anticipated. The first year, ridership was only at about 4 percent; last year 23 percent of residents used the rail on a consistent basis.
Buyers at Orenco still see the rail system as an amenity that will add value to their properties, but most importantly they are buying a lifestyle. "There's only one true test," Loffelmacher says, "and that's if people like it here, and they really do." The pedestrian scale, parks, and safety that is inherent in this kind of design attracts people who want to be part of a community and know their neighborhood. That attraction is reflected in healthy sales with a consistent absorption rate and only one phase left..
Highlands Ranch
Denver
In 1978, the Mission Viejo Co. acquired an option on a 22,000-acre parcel of property 12 miles south of Denver. It was developed soon after, and in September of 1981 the first residents moved into Highlands Ranch, the area's largest master planned community.
Although it has since become the poster child for anti-sprawl campaigns in the Denver market, and has been eclipsed by communities like Castle Pines and more recently Stapleton, Highlands Ranch remains the largest and most successful community in metro Denver. "If I were a builder and could choose one place to build, Highlands Ranch would be it," says architect and Highlands Ranch resident Mike Woodley who worked for Mission Viejo in the 1980s and is doing some designs for the development's new owner, Shea Homes. "Consumers love it because it's a great place to raise a family and it's got all of the suburban amenities," he adds. Enthusiastic residents choose to stay in the community, routinely moving up to larger homes within the subdivision.
Home to 75,000 people, Highlands Ranch has grown into its own town. If it were incorporated it would be the sixth largest city in Colorado. There are now 25,000 homes in the master plan, and there will be a total of 36,700 at build out, which is slated for the end of the decade.
To meet the needs of this growing community, Shea is developing a new downtown area. An urban transit center and library are completed, and there are plans for a park, civic building, an urban residential product, such as brownstones, and main street retail
Incredible Growing House
America has become the land of the incredible growing house, and whether they need it or not, consumers are demanding even more space. Builders have heard the call and responded by maxing-out lots with bigger houses than ever. The average square footage of new homes has increased nearly 29 percent in the past few decades to 2,253 square feet in 2003, up from 1,750 in 1978.
Cottage Charm
Big garage doors have long been reviled as a necessary evil of residential design, but clever architects have embraced the element and make it an asset to the elevation. Architects who design traditional housing were pleased to see the re-introduction of the cottage-style garage door. "In 1993 we tried to get Overhead Door Co. to make a metal or fiberglass cottage door for the 1995 New American Home, but the company thought it was silly," says architect Carson Looney. Now, a number of manufacturers offer these types of doors, not just the high-end wood door companies. "With the garage mass being so large in comparison to the overall house, it makes sense that the garage doors should look as nice as other materials on the house," Looney adds.
New Towns
Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), or New Urbanism, has been one of the most influential planning trends in the last few decades. The concept is a logical response to rising land costs and the need for density. "You can take a very high-density plan and wrap it in a character that makes it delightful," says architect Bill Kreager. TNDs also address the 21st-century consumer's need for a greater sense of community involvement and human contact. "They are places which support peoples' true needs," says architect Carson Looney. "With a mix of housing types and price points, they're a departure from cookie-cutter developments."
But with the proliferation of TNDs do we run the risk of creating a new version of the cookie-cutter community across America? Wrapping every house in a colonial or farmhouse skin can get a bit routine for some architects, especially those who began their careers in the '70s and early '80s when contemporary styles influenced by legends like Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra were making their way into production housing. "The good thing about TNDs is they got the garages off of the street, but the tragedy was that they put an end to modern design," says architect Bill Devereaux. "We just sort of hit a brick wall on innovation and how housing looks, and it's too bad."