Posted Feb 15, 2008, 8:56 AM
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Loving SA 365 days a year
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 3,897
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Quote:
BALTIMORE, MD, Jan 10 (MARKET WIRE) --
Peter Fillat Architects (PFA), a nationally recognized, award-winning full-service architecture firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is designing 11 key buildings in a new, high-end sustainable community in one of the nation's fastest growing cities, San Antonio, Texas. eilan (pronounced a-lon) is described by owner Wereldhave USA as the region's most dynamic lifestyle community.
PFA is designing five multi-family residential buildings with a total of 540
luxury rental units, a gourmet grocery store, two mixed-used residential/retail buildings with 20,000 square feet of retail space, a boutique hotel and spa
with 200 rooms, a restaurant, ballroom, and meeting, banquet and fitness
facilities, a marketing center that will later be converted into a restaurant and a power plant facility. The firm will handle the schematic design through the production of construction documents for these 11 buildings.
The community will also include additional residential space, 200,000 square
feet of office space, an outdoor amphitheater, chapel, hiking and biking trails,
resort-style swimming pools, sporting facilities and approximately 25 acres
of undisturbed green space.
"Situated in the rolling hills outside downtown San Antonio, the site brings to mind the Tuscany region of the Italian countryside and that echo is what inspired our design," explains Principal Peter A. Fillat, III, AIA, LEED AP. "An important element of the design is making the community a lively, interactive environment that helps people connect with each other and with the natural world that surrounds them. It will stand in sharp contrast to the drive-by lifestyle of the typical suburb. We're creating a town that harkens back to the more personal, smaller scale way of life so many of us seek. There is an emphasis on walkability and a wide variety of outdoor gathering places where people can come together."
Sustainability is another important aspect of the new community. "All buildings will include sustainable components and materials to save water and energy and reduce waste. Some of the buildings will be LEED certified. eilan brings
together many of the key elements that exemplify how communities are evolving to create places that return us to a more engaged, communal life that strives to respect and protect the landscape in which it takes place," Fillat adds.
Ground was recently broken on the site, with site work expected to begin
inspring 2008. The community opening is planned for the spring of 2009.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/press...008+MW20080110
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