Looped In

Office buildings in the South can be notoriously cold in the summer months – or at least that’s what a majority of women would say who jokingly refer to offices in the summer as “women’s winter.” This year as more companies return to the office amid record heatwaves and requests by ERCOT for Texans to reduce electricity usage, we ask why office buildings temperatures can feel out of line with the outside temperatures. We talk to Stefano Schiavon, professor at UC Berkley’s Center for the Built Environment, about his research into gender disparities in thermal comfort in the office and what can be done to make more employees feel comfortable. Later in the episode interview John Myers of the real estate firm JLL who oversees a property management platform in Dallas about what Texas building owners do to try to balance tenant and employee comfort while reducing energy use. 

Links:

Related stories:

Meet the man everyone’s call in a heatwave

Houston’s public housing residents react to news that AC is on the way

Texas Power Outage Tracker

More reading:

Study: Overcooling of offices reveals gender inequity in thermal comfort

JLL: Why office buildings are so cold (or hot)

Study: Energy savings and thermal comfort in a zero energy office building with fans in Singapore

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A group of volunteers that, for nearly two decades, has offered free meals four evenings a week outside Central Library has recently started getting fined for breaking city law. The 2012 law, which limits giving free meals to those in need, has been deeply controversial and had gone largely unenforced for over a decade. Food Not Bombs volunteers say the ordinance goes against their morals and hope it will be deemed unconstitutional in federal courts. Mayor Sylvester Turner says giving free meals outside Central Library is problematic because it leads to those without homes lingering outside, which he believes deters other members of the public from using the resource.

 

Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz discuss the history of the group, the law, and the area where the battle is taking place. They also take a look at how the cases are unfolding in court and what might happen after a new mayor is elected this November.

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Description: The recent demolition of a $24 million historic home by Astros owner Jim Crane renewed conversations about the preservation of the iconic River Oaks neighborhood. Since its founding in the 1920s, the high-income Houston enclave became a quiet retreat from the rest of the city where the wealthy invested in building beautiful, architecturally significant homes. One by one though, many of these historic mansions are getting demolished and replaced with more modern designs. A handful of owners have renovated and preserved some vintage houses, but at great cost and effort. In this episode of Looped In, co-hosts Marissa Luck and Rebecca Schuetz talk with architectural reporter Diane Cowen about Crane’s home, another $13.5 million mansion previously owned by billionaire Fayez Sarofim and why some preservationists are wary about changes underway in River Oaks.

Related stories:

History of Houston’s iconic River Oaks is disappearing with tear downs

Astros owner Jim Crane demolishes $24 million historic River Oaks homes

1937 River Oaks home owned by late billionaire Fayez Sarofim hits the market for $13.5M

Renovation of River Oaks home that others owners gave up on

Related podcasts:

Could Turner's plan for conservation districts give residents more say in a city famous for no zoning?

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After much political wrangling and not one, but two special legislative sessions, the Texas legislature has finally agreed on a property tax relief bill. It has something in it for all property owners -- not only homeowners, but also investors and businesses -- and legislators argue that it will trickle down to renters. Austin bureau reporter Jasper Scherer unpacks the bill and what comes next to Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz.

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Master-planned communities are playing an increasingly important role in housing families priced out of urban cores. How do designers and developers go about planning the future of these massive mini cities to respond to the growing risk of climate change and housing affordability concerns – while also making these communities pleasant places to live?

In this episode of Looped In, host Marissa Luck interviewed John Saxon of Howard Hughes, Robert Acuña -Pilgrim of TBG Partners and Nate Cherry of Gensler at the National Association of Real Estate (NAREE) conference in Las Vegas in June 2023. Experts discussed major demographic shifts and migration are driving changes in these communities, how remote work patterns are altering how residents interact with these communities and even how a herd of goats is helping with trail management in a development near Dallas.

Related stories:

Houston’s top-selling master-planned communities https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2022/houston-top-selling-master-planned-2022/

Mass timber office, H-E-B planned in Bridgeland https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Cypress-project-will-have-new-H-E-B-store-and-one-17538557.php

Gensler marks 50 years of making Houston architecture more ‘human’ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/gensler-architecture-design-houston-anniversary-17729027.php

New Houston master-planned community to have ‘car free’ zones https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/agrihood-indigo-17804425.php

More about NAREE:

NAREE Las Vegas 2023 video recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLijDb4rxgzdMOznJt_Oe9ZwHTpvlc1puQ

National Association of Real Estate Editors https://www.naree.org/

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Living with roommates has long been a way to save money on housing. In the past decade or so though, a new class of professionally managed roommate housing has emerged called coliving – think of -up version of college dorms. Coliving providers take the typical hassles out of roommate living while giving residents a quick way to meet new people and save on rent. While coliving in the U.S. emerged first in pricey real estate markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Bay Area, coliving providers have been expanding in the South as way to diversify their portfolios and fulfill a demand for more affordable housing. In Houston, a couple of upscale coliving providers are adding new communities, alongside Atlanta housing startup PadSplit that uses coliving as a way to increase the supply of affordable homes.

In this episode of Looped In, hosts Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz talk about the rise of coliving in the Houston, with insight from coliving expert Susan Tjarksen of Cushman and Wakefield as well as the founder of PadSplit, Atticus LeBlanc about the future of the growing niche housing sector.

Related stories:

Communal living is on the rise in Houston as coliving residents embrace flexible, cheaper leases

New cohousing development in Houston aims to turn neighbors into extended families

PadSplit launches shared housing option in Houston

From Looped In’s archives: Texas’ first cohousing community is coming to the East End. Here’s what it’s about.

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R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck discuss a tax break meant to create affordable housing that's in the center of some controversy. Public Facility Corporations have drawn scrutiny both in Houston (we'll hear about some tense words between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the housing authority) and in the state Capitol, where the Texas legislators are battling over how to reform the tax break as the session hurtles toward its end.

Links:

Big tax cuts for not-so affordable housing draw scrutiny in Houston and the Texas Legislature: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/pfc-houston-housing-authority-state-bills-18074104.php

After backlash in high-income Tanglewood, Houston pauses affordable housing deals across city: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/houston-affordable-housing-tanglewood-17762281.php

How a tiny Texas government is scoring big tax breaks for developers across the state: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/How-a-tiny-Austin-area-government-is-scoring-big-17491395.php

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The real estate sector is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally – and it’s not just because of the power used to electrify or cool a building. Creating and transporting all of the materials that go into a building is a huge source of carbon emissions that the industry is now trying to reel in by tracking what’s known as embodied carbon. In this episode of Looped In, we talk to Skanska USA’s Houston lead, Matt Damborsky, about how the developer is reducing the embodied carbon in its office skyscraper 1550 on the Green in downtown Houston. We also get an in-depth look at how more real estate firms and construction suppliers are tracking embodied carbon using an online database called EC3 tool, talking with one of its creators, Stacy Smedley. The good news: it’s not as expensive or time-consuming as you might think to significantly lower embodied carbon emissions, and Skanska is hoping more real estate firms follow suit.

Check out Building Transparency’s Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool

Related articles:

In downtown Houston, a prominent developer’s new officer tower is breaking ground on carbon emissions

5 things to know about $225M skyscraper rising near Discovery Green

Our obsession with new buildings, McMansions is driving up emissions

Hines’ ambitious net zero carbon goals could impact 27 million square feet of Houston real estate

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Mayor Sylvester Turner is seeking City Council support for a conservation district program he and city planners say could help lower-income neighborhoods preserve their character and fend off gentrification. Critics say it may end up causing gentrification.

Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz speak with Yilun Cheng, City Council reporter at the Houston Chronicle, about what conservation districts would entail, why some neighborhood advocates have been requesting them and why others are nervous.

The ordinance, which could offer neighborhoods an easier path to preservation than a historic district, is up for discussion at City Council the first week of April.

Learn more:

Turner wants to fight Houston gentrification with conservation districts. Critics say it won't work. 

Acres Homes, Freedmen's Town among 6 areas Houston is considering for conservation districts 

Houston delays vote on conservation districts for 6 areas, including Freedmen's Town, Acres Homes

Proposed Riverside Terrace historic district has longtime residents fighting for their neighborhood 

Turner withdraws plan for Riverside Terrace historic district, citing lack of neighborhood support 

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There’s a new project proposed in the site of The Ashby high-rise, a contentious apartment tower first pitched 16 years ago that set off one of the most intense land-use battles in Houston’s history. We dive into the history of The Ashby, and provide an update on The Langley, the revised version of the project, which developers say is close to breaking ground in Houston’s Boulevard Oaks neighborhood.

HoustonChronicle.com subscribers can learn more about the Ashby and Langley high-rise projects here:

City approves key permits needed for revised Ashby high-rise to break ground

 What to know about The Langley, the high-rise proposed in The Ashby site

 Plans unveiled for 20-story high-rise, The Langley

 From the Looped In archives: Talk of the Ashby and Houston’s lack of zoning

 From the Looped In archives: Developers talk the Ashby 10 years later

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