flintysooner
12-05-2009, 05:13 PM
I enjoyed reading this article in The Oklahoman:
Brownstone project gave Oklahoma City builders a chance to expand their horizons
Heartland Homes takes expertise downtown
BY TIM FALL
Published: December 5, 2009
After putting 35,000 miles a year on his car, living in Edmond’s Oak Tree neighborhood, commuting to downtown Oklahoma City to work, Brent Beebe wanted to put car-related woes behind him.
That’s why in April he and his wife, Linda, moved to the Brownstones at Maywood Park on NE 3. Now they walk, bike or hop on their Segways to get just about everywhere.
Problem solved? Not exactly.
"I got in the car to go to the grocery store, and my battery was dead from lack of use,” Brent Beebe said.
The Beebes moved to Oklahoma City from Dallas in 2001, leaving a city known for creative, unusual infill residential redevelopment in its downtown area.
They had to wait a while before the aesthetic they found so attractive in Dallas began to catch on here.
In 2006, Garrett & Co., along with Triangle Development, broke ground on the first of several planned phases of an urban residential-commercial complex surrounding Maywood Park.
After a recent realignment of the interests controlling the development, Garrett & Co. has retained its subsidiary Heartland Homes to complete construction of the Brownstones at Maywood Park — the distinctive townhomes lining NE 3 and straddling Oklahoma Avenue.
How unusual was a luxury townhome assignment for the noted builder of single-family residential units?
"We’re working in this new, urban location and really liking that part of it,” said Dave Osborn, Heartland’s president. "But quality construction is what we do anyway, no matter where.”
Dave Watson, Heartland’s chief operating officer, pointed out that Heartland’s experience with the latest building technologies, especially insulating concrete forms — ICFs — and geothermal heating and cooling, made it a natural fit for the homes, all of which use those technologies.
Heartland, charged specifically with finishing seven townhomes along the north side of NE 3, is making the feel distinctively "less contemporary, more mainstream Oklahoma,” Osborn said.
Design highlights
Townhomes in the Brownstones at Maywood Park are built on three levels. The ground-floor’s two-car garage opens to a foyer and adjacent bonus room with closets and bath that could serve as a media room or additional bedroom.
Groceries and packages can be dropped in the built-in elevator and sent upstairs to the second-floor kitchen or third-floor master suite.
Upstairs, a chef’s galley-style kitchen is the center of a loft space that opens from north to south, with light cascading through the windows at both ends of the floor. Wide, chocolate-tone plank floors and thick, textured walls run from the dining room on one end to the living room at the other.
Another flight up leads to the master suite, a spacious room outfitted with a working fireplace and great views of the spire of the historic First National Bank building and downtown’s skyline.
The master bath is large and luxurious, with a room-sized walk-in closet to complete the owner’s cloisters.
On the same floor a few steps down the hall is a smaller room that could serve as a study, office or even as a nursery.
An alternate floorplan allows for a 300-square foot roof terrace, opening off the master suite to the full splendor of downtown.
"That’s what we love probably more than anything,” Beebe said.
Between the views from his terrace, the quick commute to work, and sports and concerts all within walking distance, Beebe quickly has readjusted to being based downtown.
He said he and his wife combined will save up to five figures yearly in automobile expenses.
He bemoans his former commute.
"I spent my life driving,” he said. "Now, our rule of thumb is: If it’s north of 23rd street, we don’t go.”
Read more: NewsOK (http://www.newsok.com/article/3422303?searched=brownstone&custom_click=search#ixzz0YrXh9oUy)
Brownstone project gave Oklahoma City builders a chance to expand their horizons
Heartland Homes takes expertise downtown
BY TIM FALL
Published: December 5, 2009
After putting 35,000 miles a year on his car, living in Edmond’s Oak Tree neighborhood, commuting to downtown Oklahoma City to work, Brent Beebe wanted to put car-related woes behind him.
That’s why in April he and his wife, Linda, moved to the Brownstones at Maywood Park on NE 3. Now they walk, bike or hop on their Segways to get just about everywhere.
Problem solved? Not exactly.
"I got in the car to go to the grocery store, and my battery was dead from lack of use,” Brent Beebe said.
The Beebes moved to Oklahoma City from Dallas in 2001, leaving a city known for creative, unusual infill residential redevelopment in its downtown area.
They had to wait a while before the aesthetic they found so attractive in Dallas began to catch on here.
In 2006, Garrett & Co., along with Triangle Development, broke ground on the first of several planned phases of an urban residential-commercial complex surrounding Maywood Park.
After a recent realignment of the interests controlling the development, Garrett & Co. has retained its subsidiary Heartland Homes to complete construction of the Brownstones at Maywood Park — the distinctive townhomes lining NE 3 and straddling Oklahoma Avenue.
How unusual was a luxury townhome assignment for the noted builder of single-family residential units?
"We’re working in this new, urban location and really liking that part of it,” said Dave Osborn, Heartland’s president. "But quality construction is what we do anyway, no matter where.”
Dave Watson, Heartland’s chief operating officer, pointed out that Heartland’s experience with the latest building technologies, especially insulating concrete forms — ICFs — and geothermal heating and cooling, made it a natural fit for the homes, all of which use those technologies.
Heartland, charged specifically with finishing seven townhomes along the north side of NE 3, is making the feel distinctively "less contemporary, more mainstream Oklahoma,” Osborn said.
Design highlights
Townhomes in the Brownstones at Maywood Park are built on three levels. The ground-floor’s two-car garage opens to a foyer and adjacent bonus room with closets and bath that could serve as a media room or additional bedroom.
Groceries and packages can be dropped in the built-in elevator and sent upstairs to the second-floor kitchen or third-floor master suite.
Upstairs, a chef’s galley-style kitchen is the center of a loft space that opens from north to south, with light cascading through the windows at both ends of the floor. Wide, chocolate-tone plank floors and thick, textured walls run from the dining room on one end to the living room at the other.
Another flight up leads to the master suite, a spacious room outfitted with a working fireplace and great views of the spire of the historic First National Bank building and downtown’s skyline.
The master bath is large and luxurious, with a room-sized walk-in closet to complete the owner’s cloisters.
On the same floor a few steps down the hall is a smaller room that could serve as a study, office or even as a nursery.
An alternate floorplan allows for a 300-square foot roof terrace, opening off the master suite to the full splendor of downtown.
"That’s what we love probably more than anything,” Beebe said.
Between the views from his terrace, the quick commute to work, and sports and concerts all within walking distance, Beebe quickly has readjusted to being based downtown.
He said he and his wife combined will save up to five figures yearly in automobile expenses.
He bemoans his former commute.
"I spent my life driving,” he said. "Now, our rule of thumb is: If it’s north of 23rd street, we don’t go.”
Read more: NewsOK (http://www.newsok.com/article/3422303?searched=brownstone&custom_click=search#ixzz0YrXh9oUy)