ALCHEMY—URBAN DWELLINGS ON DALLAS' KATY TRAIL

This project began life as an aspiration of an individual client who is not a developer by profession. He is in the finance business, and in the course of buying some property for an investment, began studying how he might develop it. So he embarked on a mission to examine some small multi-unit properties to learn about how they fared in the current Dallas market.

After a two-year search, he had become frustrated with the lack of modern townhomes on the market, or for that matter, the number that had ever existed in a city that doesn't treasure architecture as a part of its heritage. The few modern townhome projects that do exist were over-designed or full of gimmickry—nothing that could even remotely claim art status. He decided to build his own project and move into one of the units because he wanted to elevate the Dallas townhome market.

The site that he ultimately selected was a 90′ × 140′ parcel located about ten minutes north of downtown Dallas. The added attraction of the site was that it was bordered on the backside by the Katy Trail, an unused railroad line converted into a very popular hike and bike trail. The trail today connects Southern Methodist University to downtown Dallas and is planned to expand throughout the city. While this location was excellent, there were some strings attached. At the time, the property was being used as a parking lot for a neighboring business because it had been rezoned for that purpose some years earlier.