Reuter House - historical memo — original pdf

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MARIPOSA DEVELOPMENT The Mariposa Development is a collection of three Single-Family Homes and two Accessory Dwelling Units on three contiguous lots in the heart of Travis Heights. The three vacant lots that make up the development appear to originally be a part of the property associated with the Louis and Matilde Reuter House located at 806 Rosedale Terrace. The lots are designated as SF3-H-NP; a designation believed to exist because of the lot’s previous association with the Reuter house. The lots were sold off by the owners of the Reuter house in 2012 as best we can tell. The Reuter House was built in 1934 for local entrepreneur and grocer Louis Reuter and his wife. Placed on the property in an unusual, rambling “U” shape, the house forewent typical planimetric sensibilities in favor of protecting and preserving the numerous oaks on the lot. Architecturally, the home exhibits elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival movement – a clay tile roof, Palladian windows, arched porticos, and limestone cladding feature prominently. The Stacy-Tate House pictured below, another historic home in the Travis Heights neighborhood, further exhibits some of these architectural features; the arched windows punched into smooth white stucco being of note. MARIPOSA DEVELOPMENT With these and many other homes in the neighborhood, we have identified a kit of parts that we believe make up the architectural character of Travis Heights. For our kaleidoscope of homes, we wanted to capture the essence of Travis Heights while maintaining a modern sensibility and the dynamism of South Austin. Some of the contextual features that we felt were important to include in the Mariposa development are: • Arch top windows • Arched porticos • Steep pitched, forward facing gables • Swooping rooflines • Stucco, stone and brick facades • Colonnades • Single window, gabled dormers • Federal, Spanish Colonial and Tudor architectural stylings The following images provide a glimpse into the context of Travis Heights and identify some of the above-mentioned elements that our project seeks to draw from. Through this we are taking the deep architectural history of the neighborhood and furthering it into the future in rich new ways. MARIPOSA DEVELOPMENT