St. Elizabeth Place

About

St. Elizabeth Place is a key catalytic project in the redevelopment plan for Lyons Avenue in Houston’s Greater 5th Ward. Phase 1 includes the adaptive reuse of a historic hospital building into 85 units of workforce housing, and a future phase will add an additional 94 units, for a total development of 179 affordable units.

Challenges: The property has been abandoned for years, and is crumbling due to vandalism, theft, and flooding. As the project is both a registered historic building AND being turned into affordable housing, it was a constant challenge to find solutions that preserve the historic character of the building (and comply with State and Federal Historic Preservation requirements) while at the same time sticking to an affordable housing budget (and TDHCA LIHTC program requirements.)

What makes it special: The hospital is a significant fixture within the community. This development represents a special opportunity to preserve a place that has touched so many lives, while re-purposing it so that it can fill a pressing community need for affordable housing.

My Role: Job Captain to Project Manager

Task		Part of a team	Personal focus area
Schematic Design
	Visited the site to take as-built measurements	x
	Modeled the existing building	x
	Unit design	x
	Ensured compliance with the Texas Accessibility Standard and the Texas LIHTC program requirements.		x
	Renderings	x
	Preparation of visuals for the client’s marketing use	x
Design Development
	DD level design documents	x
	Consultant coordination via BIM model exchange		x (Lasted through CDs)
	Value Engineering	x
Construction Documents
	CD level design documents	x
	Coordinated all jurisdiction submittals, comments, comment responses, and resubmittals.		x