Envy Apartment

455 Eye Street NW, a new apartment building, incorporates three historic buildings . All images from Equity Residential used with permission. As DC grows, new buildings are often required to incorporate historic structures . That’s easier said than done, but the results can be worth the effort. Here’s how one new apartment building in Mount Vernon Triangle incorporated three historic buildings for new uses. Located within the Mount Vernon Triangle Historic District , 455 Eye Street is a 174- unit residential building that opened this June. It consists of a tower atop three historic buildings around a landscaped courtyard. The historic structures provide a focal point and now house the building’s amenity spaces and a future restaurant. Here’s how they did it The District of Columbia is home to 27,000 buildings in 60 historic districts, including 600 buildings designated as historic landmarks with the National Trust for Historic Preservation . DC’s Office of Planning reviewed m...

Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas . He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery . Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate . The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a city housing department , for a union, for a law clinic, and on a campaign that stopped a PVC factory from being built in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” For the last decade, he has served as executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (better known as t.e.j.a.s.). Part of his work is leading tours past the heaping piles of scrap metal along Houston’s Buffalo Ba...