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East Austin Apartment Project Will Fit 7 Units Into a Tiny Plot, Tetris-Style

As Austin’s inevitable growth chugs along, one of the more interesting side effects of the city’s sky-high land values is a need for clever, compact architecture, in order to maximize the value of small and challenging pieces of property. These are scraps of land you wouldn’t necessarily, as a developer, choose to build upon if you had more choices — but it’s Austin, so you often don’t.

1212 East 7th St.

Designed by local firm Mark Hart Architecture, which is perhaps better known for its student housing projects in West Campus, this 5-story development finesses seven apartment units and a ground floor commercial space into a 0.146-acre plot comprised of addresses 1210 and 1212 East Seventh Street.