I am a land fantatic

I am a land fanatic.  I love thinking about it, staring at it, imagining what it could be, or absorbing what it has become.  I love thoughtfully developed land.  I love how some buildings, landscapes, communities and  towns have thoughtfully evolved as if they were a work of art.  Some by the hand of artists, others purely by the hand of a more enlightened power.  When a building or landscape makes you slow down, pause, inhale the atmosphere of what you're experiencing- almost as if you can remember it better by using your sense of smell, even if flora is not an element of the layout... that is what i am talking about... that is art. That is land used as a canvas.
                                                     
                                              
                                                     
I had my first taste into designing a community when we lived in a neighborhood by Lake Conroe. My job gave me enough time off that i could build and remodel part time.  My job also allowed me to travel all over the world and take specific notice of old cities and how they were laid out, their community and public spaces.  It was fascinating to look at the gathering plazas or piazzas in Europe, South America, and Mexico-- and how they were still, after hundreds of years, enormous draws to the population for socializing, commerce, and artistry.  It was at this point that i began to envision a role that I could play designing and eventually building these communities.  I began looking up the plats of undeveloped or underdeveloped pieces of land that caught my eye and designed prototype communities on paper for fun. I probably designed and redesigned hundreds of versions of land use layouts just for fun.
                                                  Our home by Lake Conroe

  I had a part in either building or designing 4 homes along the same street in that neighborhood within the same block.  Included was a home that we moved from before moving to Cypress.  I didnt have to rip out the grass though, since i was the builder, I put bermuda grass  in straight away when it was built.  This was a beautiful gently victorian home with soft grass, a cottage garden and a great view of the lake

My kids made about $20 that day from some generous
older kids in the neighborhood who thought they were cute.













This house did not cost much more to build than any other 2300 sq/ft home.  It had a big porch and a few other touches that added a bit of expense, but when it sold, it sold for well over $50k more than i had in it, and not because the surrounding area had increased in value.  This was a home that people would drive past ,hit the brakes, then slowly drive by and stare.  It was simple, charming and very different than the typical homes surrounding it.  Two more of the homes that I built on this block fed off the vintage craftsman style and sold at healthy margins as well.  Upon building these 3 homes that to a degree "played" off each other, I was sold.  I did not just want to build houses, I wanted to build designer communities.

The house I built next door to mine that
our good friends Jason and Tiffany moved
into with their great kids, Faith and Jonah.
Now mind you, by designer community, I do not mean "master-planned" community.  Houston is full of those.  Master planned seems to mean "lots of good amenities, but also lots of tract homes." I mean where every home is thought out, how the streets lay, and provide views to the natural elements of the surroundings- woods, meadows, water features.  How a home interacts with other homes, and interacts with the community.  Homes in such a community have to be "custom" homes.  They cannot be tract.  But this costs more.  This will not make as much money as production building.  At least not initially...

So after completing these homes, and building other individual homes in various communities around Lake Conroe, I decided to go back to school and get a Masters Degree.  There seemed to be various degrees that would enlighten me in how to generate and enhance this skill for building neighborhoods-- land development, planning, landscape architecture, etc.  I chose one that seemed to cover bits and pieces of the aforementioned degrees, but also studied community revitalization, economic development, and non profit development.  I initiated and obtained a masters degree in Community Development from Prairie View A&M University.

This experience at PVAMU is a story in itself-- generally a VERY positive experience.  Plus it led me to my first community development venture-- Peninsula 19

But at this point the purpose of this post has been met-- To define my background in anticipation of defining my ideas for what I want to create.