Uptown Oaks at The Hallmark, Houston: 2023 EFA Design Showcase Award of Merit
Slated to open in April 2025, Uptown Oaks at The Hallmark in Houston is a $140 million, nearly 500,000-square-foot addition to an existing continuing care retirement community that offers a modern interpretation of urban, high-rise senior living.
The in-progress luxury project is a solution for owner and operator Brazos Presbyterian Homes to expand its reach to the area’s active adults as it also provides a dynamic piece of architecture to the city skyline.
The expansion, which will house 113 independent living apartments, enhances the overall campus, as well, thanks to amenity spaces designed to offer areas where residents can connect. Those include an art studio, theater, putting green, library, game room, and pool deck boasting panoramic views of Houston.
Not only offering residents easy access to the surrounding neighborhood, the project works to draw residents outside on the campus, as well, thanks to integrating the site’s mature oak trees into the new landscape design and providing a series of courtyards to explore.
The jury noted the project’s thoughtful design to integrate the tower within a tight urban context, even conducting a master planning process that considered how the addition would work with a vision for future campus growth.
Additionally, its hospitality-forward design recognizes how and where senior living is different than a hotel—for example, requiring a grand reception desk to manage everything from deliveries to valet services.
Meanwhile, the aesthetics of the project were lauded for both modernizing and fitting in with the existing exterior context of the campus. Inside, a light-filled design was introduced that freshens and contemporizes the community.
Here, lead designers Jeremy Whitener, associate principal at Perkins Eastman (Chicago), and Nicole Hill, senior project manager at Faulkner Design Group (Dallas), offer insight on some of the jurors’ favorite features that earned the project an Award of Merit.
Environments for Aging: This addition will bring a modern, luxury option to the campus. But it also has to blend in with the existing buildings, all within a tight urban site. Tell us how you’ve navigated these challenges.
Jeremy Whitener: We began the project by speaking with the client and end users to discover what was missing from their current spaces. There was a real desire to create amenities and spaces that would enhance not only the Uptown Oaks property but also the whole campus of buildings. This led us to explore ways to create a new “heart” of the campus, centered on gathering and dining venues.
Furthermore, we needed to craft a new main entry for the entire campus to create a real sense of arrival that knits together old and new. The only free land area left on campus was a corner zone that is currently a parking lot. No other location for this project had the land area large enough to support parking with residential above. The team took an approach of sliding an amenity form into the existing Hallmark building, connecting horizontally, and stacking the new building on top of those amenities.
When land area is at a premium, going vertical is your friend. Future phases plan to remove and replace current buildings that will eventually become outdated, so the team laid the groundwork early with horizontal connections, creating a network of corridors that would link existing and new structures as Hallmark grows.
A notable piece to the campus plan is the integration of the existing mature oak trees, including resident-favorite “Big Al.” How has the design evolved to manage that?
Whitener: We did a series of master planning studies that prioritized saving as many of the large oak trees as possible. It became our mantra to not remove any of them but work around them as much as possible. To that end, to help ensure the survival of these trees, the design of exterior spaces was of huge importance. We are fortunate that most of these large oaks are around the drop-off area of the existing Hallmark. When we relocated the arrival point, it created more space for most of the existing trees to thrive.
As for “Big Al,” we will work around him delicately, keeping the additions as far away as possible. The structural engineers will use helical piers to create the least amount of impact on the root system, and rather than supporting the structures nearest “Big Al” with grade beams or large footings, they will float beams above the surface to act like a bridge.
Aesthetically, this project introduces a fresh, contemporary design. What inspired the overall aesthetic approach and what are some key elements?
Whitener: One of our mandates from the client was to create a building that looked contemporary and fit in with the surrounding skyline. The client desired a product in the market that was indistinguishable from other high-end residential towers in the area. The team took cues from the existing Hallmark tower to create a façade language for the new building.
For instance, in studying the existing building, there’s an outer layer of vertical brick piers with a layer underneath of glazing. Once “dissected,” the brick piers were reconceived [on the addition] as the podium wrapper around parking, while the glazing became the wrapper of the tower above. This allowed us to be contextual with our surroundings while also providing a modern building to suit the client’s needs.
Nicole Hill: The overall aesthetic took hold from the Uptown and Post Oak neighborhoods of Houston. To draw from these affluent areas, the design needed to appeal to the high expectations residents would bring with them from their existing homes. While the overall aesthetic takes a modern approach to the architecture and design, a traditional palette of materials and finishes still resonates with this demographic of residents.
The new tower will feature a fresh approach to familiar finishes like wood paneling and custom fixtures reminiscent of crystal chandeliers. The exterior design integrates forms and materials from the [existing] buildings into a modern tower and podium that unites the community as one.
In the renderings, the light-filled nature of the interiors is notable while outdoor courtyards are plentiful. But that also required extensive solar studies. What research was conducted, and what did you learn to inspire the façade, glazing, courtyard placement, etc.?
Whitener: The team did a series of solar shading studies to understand the amount of sunlight that would reach the exterior courtyards at different times throughout the year. Some of our early design ideas looked at creating larger courtyards, but that actually proved to be less ideal because that would result in excessive heat gain. These studies helped us to focus on a series of smaller courtyards, which could be mostly shaded by the buildings around them, creating a more comfortable and intimate environment.
Each courtyard became themed around the amenities directly inside, creating a slightly different character for each space. There are three courtyards: a lush courtyard centered around “Big Al” anchored by a bocce court at one end; a courtyard more focused on al fresco dining, adjacent to internal dining areas and art rooms; and a final courtyard that acts like a small pocket park with an integrated dog run.
For more on the 2023 Design Showcase award winners, go here.
Jennifer Kovacs Silvis is brand director for Environments for Aging and can be reached at [email protected].
