By Dennis Killian


College Houses Inc., a nonprofit student housing co-operative, is planning to demolish the Laurel House Co-op at 1905 Nueces St. and build a new $10.9 million residential complex, said Alan Robinson, general administrator for the group.

"We saw that the property was aging, and we thought we could do better," Robinson said. "A lot of the new development going up in West Campus is very expensive, so we wanted to make something new that's affordable."

Robinson said the seven-story building will have a steel and concrete frame, ground-level parking and office space, and six stories of living space for its 160 future residents. The Staubach Co. is the developer of the project, he said, and they plan on breaking ground in May 2007. The project is expected to be completed in Fall 2008, he said.


Robinson expects rent for a single room at the new building will be 15 percent higher than the current $605 monthly rate at College Houses' other co-ops. Rent includes 17 meals per week, utilities and internet access, he said.

Cotera+Reed, the company handling the architecture for the new co-op, said it welcomes input from students who currently live in the other six co-ops owned by College Houses Inc. A committee of students from each of the co-ops has met with architects to make suggestions on the design and planning of the building, said Matt Catterall, a Cotera+Reed architect and project manager for the new co-op.

"One of students' goals is for this to be a model for co-ops around the country, since there aren't many buildings that have been specifically designed as co-ops," Catterall said. "We're trying to make a building that responds to their needs and embraces their sense of community."

The Austin City Council passed sweeping zoning changes with the University Neighborhood Overlay initiative in Sept. 2003. UNO allows developers to build denser residential complexes in the West Campus Area near the UT campus and Robinson said UNO helped the project expand its capacity without buying more land.

One feature that might differentiate this co-op from others would be the inclusion of more "community space up in the air," because the building will take up the ground floor, Catterall said. Building sun decks and patios might be some ways to recreate ground space, he said.

Jake Sam, senior geological sciences and geography double major, is one of the students on the committee that meets with the architects. Planning for the project is still in its initial phases, he said.