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 Source: RARE Magazine, November 2007
Written By: Tolly Moseley
Sometimes it feels like the green lifestyle has two chief representatives:
Hollywood A-listers who drive luxe hybrids, and dreadlocked co-op
residents who ride bikes. These days however, more mainstream
folks are flirting with the green lifestyle but don’t know
where to begin. Buy organic? Wear Stella McCartney? Fortunately
for eco-curious Austinites, environmentally-conscious products,
clothes, and restaurants are fairly abundant in our city –
this is home of the flagship Whole Foods, after all – and
now, we can add “green condos” to the local list
of eco-friendly resources.
AKOYA Austin is the brainchild of Stuart Thomajan, CEO of The
Chameleon Group, a local investment organization. “The
whole feel that we’re striving for at AKOYA is the ‘understated
elegant’ look,” says
Thomajan. “I’m a huge fan of the French West Indies,
and St. Barts specifically. We wanted to re-create that feeling
because we thought it would do well in Austin – that
whole warm and clean, laid-back and cool environment.”
So how did Thomajan channel St. Barts here in Central Texas?
The Chameleon Group first searched for a property that would
accommodate both a central courtyard and a pool, but was still
located in the heart of the city. “It was a priority to
use a property not too far out, because we wanted to retain that
fun, hip energy of downtown Austin,” says Thomajan. His
company purchased the Barton Court apartment complex at 2200
Dickson Drive, just off South Lamar Boulevard – “about
a mile away from Whole Foods,” Thomajan
explains. The company then approached Michael Hsu Design Office,
the design team behind Uchi, to develop modern, intimate living
units. Some of the green highlights? Think bamboo flooring, energy
efficient and Euro-style washers and dryers, and double-pane
windows for effective insulation.
But the best kind of green? That which you will not be spending.
While the average price of a home in south Austin hovers around
$300,000, units at AKOYA start at $140,000. Of the property’s
64 units, half are one bed/one bath, half are two bed/two bath. “Most
of our buyers tend to be young, professional couples, and this
is their first home purchase,” says
Will Steakley of Urbanspace Realtors, the marketing team behind
AKOYA.
AKOYA’s shiniest accolade to date is its pending 4-star
green rating, to be granted by the City of Austin. “We
are currently the first and only 4-star green condominiums in
town,” says Thomajan.
Since the project is an extensive remodel/conversion – a
thorough overhaul of an existing property, rather than starting
from scratch – its construction materials were selected
mainly based on their green friendliness, low maintenance requirements,
recycled content and potential
for future reuse and of course an important source of materials
was from the site itself. For example, “There are approximately
ten 40-foot palm trees at AKOYA that were there already on the
existing site,” says Steakley. “We dug them up, trimmed
them, and replanted them on the property in different patterns.” Oh,
and those bricks to build the barbecue pits at the outdoor community
kitchen and the walls surrounding portions of the pool? Re-used
from the original building’s exterior walls.
Much like AKOYA’s green island-oasis feel in the middle
of bustling 78704, both Steakley and Thomajan feel the project
is only an extension of Austin’s
charmingly “different” status in the middle of Texas. “I
love this city. I love visiting New York, Vancouver, cities we
enjoy for fun and research for potential Austin projects,” says
Steakley. “But we have our own little culture here. Whenever
we leave for a week or two, I always came back saying, ‘thank
God!’”
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