Office buildings in the South can be notoriously cold in the summer months – or at least that’s what a majority of women would say who jokingly refer to offices in the summer as “women’s winter.” This year as more companies return to the office amid record heatwaves and requests by ERCOT for Texans to reduce electricity usage, we ask why office buildings temperatures can feel out of line with the outside temperatures. We talk to Stefano Schiavon, professor at UC Berkley’s Center for the Built Environment, about his research into gender disparities in thermal comfort in the office and what can be done to make more employees feel comfortable. Later in the episode interview John Myers of the real estate firm JLL who oversees a property management platform in Dallas about what Texas building owners do to try to balance tenant and employee comfort while reducing energy use. 

Links:
Related stories:
Meet the man everyone’s call in a heatwave
Houston’s public housing residents react to news that AC is on the way
Texas Power Outage Tracker

More reading:
Study: Overcooling of offices reveals gender inequity in thermal comfort
JLL: Why office buildings are so cold (or hot)
Study: Energy savings and thermal comfort in a zero energy office building with fans in Singapore
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Texas summers, women’s winters

A group of volunteers that, for nearly two decades, has offered free meals four evenings a week outside Central Library has recently started getting fined for breaking city law. The 2012 law, which limits giving free meals to those in need, has been deeply controversial and had gone largely unenforced for over a decade. Food Not Bombs volunteers say the ordinance goes against their morals and hope it will be deemed unconstitutional in federal courts. Mayor Sylvester Turner says giving free meals outside Central Library is problematic because it leads to those without homes lingering outside, which he believes deters other members of the public from using the resource.
 
Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz discuss the history of the group, the law, and the area where the battle is taking place. They also take a look at how the cases are unfolding in court and what might happen after a new mayor is elected this November.
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Breaking down Houston's battle over feeding the homeless

Description: The recent demolition of a $24 million historic home by Astros owner Jim Crane renewed conversations about the preservation of the iconic River Oaks neighborhood. Since its founding in the 1920s, the high-income Houston enclave became a quiet retreat from the rest of the city where the wealthy invested in building beautiful, architecturally significant homes. One by one though, many of these historic mansions are getting demolished and replaced with more modern designs. A handful of owners have renovated and preserved some vintage houses, but at great cost and effort. In this episode of Looped In, co-hosts Marissa Luck and Rebecca Schuetz talk with architectural reporter Diane Cowen about Crane’s home, another $13.5 million mansion previously owned by billionaire Fayez Sarofim and why some preservationists are wary about changes underway in River Oaks.

Related stories:
History of Houston’s iconic River Oaks is disappearing with tear downs
Astros owner Jim Crane demolishes $24 million historic River Oaks homes
1937 River Oaks home owned by late billionaire Fayez Sarofim hits the market for $13.5M
Renovation of River Oaks home that others owners gave up on
Related podcasts:
Could Turner's plan for conservation districts give residents more say in a city famous for no zoning?
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Is River Oaks losing its history as homes are razed?

After much political wrangling and not one, but two special legislative sessions, the Texas legislature has finally agreed on a property tax relief bill. It has something in it for all property owners -- not only homeowners, but also investors and businesses -- and legislators argue that it will trickle down to renters. Austin bureau reporter Jasper Scherer unpacks the bill and what comes next to Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz.
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Texas' new property tax relief explained

Master-planned communities are playing an increasingly important role in housing families priced out of urban cores. How do designers and developers go about planning the future of these massive mini cities to respond to the growing risk of climate change and housing affordability concerns – while also making these communities pleasant places to live?
In this episode of Looped In, host Marissa Luck interviewed John Saxon of Howard Hughes, Robert Acuña -Pilgrim of TBG Partners and Nate Cherry of Gensler at the National Association of Real Estate (NAREE) conference in Las Vegas in June 2023. Experts discussed major demographic shifts and migration are driving changes in these communities, how remote work patterns are altering how residents interact with these communities and even how a herd of goats is helping with trail management in a development near Dallas.

Related stories:
Houston’s top-selling master-planned communities https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2022/houston-top-selling-master-planned-2022/
Mass timber office, H-E-B planned in Bridgeland https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Cypress-project-will-have-new-H-E-B-store-and-one-17538557.php
Gensler marks 50 years of making Houston architecture more ‘human’ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/gensler-architecture-design-houston-anniversary-17729027.php
New Houston master-planned community to have ‘car free’ zones https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/agrihood-indigo-17804425.php

More about NAREE:
NAREE Las Vegas 2023 video recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLijDb4rxgzdMOznJt_Oe9ZwHTpvlc1puQ
National Association of Real Estate Editors https://www.naree.org/
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Not your average subdivision: How master-planned communities are rethinking development

Living with roommates has long been a way to save money on housing. In the past decade or so though, a new class of professionally managed roommate housing has emerged called coliving – think of -up version of college dorms. Coliving providers take the typical hassles out of roommate living while giving residents a quick way to meet new people and save on rent. While coliving in the U.S. emerged first in pricey real estate markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Bay Area, coliving providers have been expanding in the South as way to diversify their portfolios and fulfill a demand for more affordable housing. In Houston, a couple of upscale coliving providers are adding new communities, alongside Atlanta housing startup PadSplit that uses coliving as a way to increase the supply of affordable homes.
In this episode of Looped In, hosts Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz talk about the rise of coliving in the Houston, with insight from coliving expert Susan Tjarksen of Cushman and Wakefield as well as the founder of PadSplit, Atticus LeBlanc about the future of the growing niche housing sector.

Related stories:
Communal living is on the rise in Houston as coliving residents embrace flexible, cheaper leases
New cohousing development in Houston aims to turn neighbors into extended families
PadSplit launches shared housing option in Houston
From Looped In’s archives: Texas’ first cohousing community is coming to the East End. Here’s what it’s about.
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Adult dorms? Why coliving is growing in the South

R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck discuss a tax break meant to create affordable housing that's in the center of some controversy. Public Facility Corporations have drawn scrutiny both in Houston (we'll hear about some tense words between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the housing authority) and in the state Capitol, where the Texas legislators are battling over how to reform the tax break as the session hurtles toward its end.
Links:
Big tax cuts for not-so affordable housing draw scrutiny in Houston and the Texas Legislature: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/pfc-houston-housing-authority-state-bills-18074104.php
After backlash in high-income Tanglewood, Houston pauses affordable housing deals across city: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/houston-affordable-housing-tanglewood-17762281.php
How a tiny Texas government is scoring big tax breaks for developers across the state: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/How-a-tiny-Austin-area-government-is-scoring-big-17491395.php
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Landlords can save $1M with this affordable housing tax break, but what's in it for renters?

The real estate sector is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally – and it’s not just because of the power used to electrify or cool a building. Creating and transporting all of the materials that go into a building is a huge source of carbon emissions that the industry is now trying to reel in by tracking what’s known as embodied carbon. In this episode of Looped In, we talk to Skanska USA’s Houston lead, Matt Damborsky, about how the developer is reducing the embodied carbon in its office skyscraper 1550 on the Green in downtown Houston. We also get an in-depth look at how more real estate firms and construction suppliers are tracking embodied carbon using an online database called EC3 tool, talking with one of its creators, Stacy Smedley. The good news: it’s not as expensive or time-consuming as you might think to significantly lower embodied carbon emissions, and Skanska is hoping more real estate firms follow suit.
Check out Building Transparency’s Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool
Related articles:
In downtown Houston, a prominent developer’s new officer tower is breaking ground on carbon emissions
5 things to know about $225M skyscraper rising near Discovery Green
Our obsession with new buildings, McMansions is driving up emissions
Hines’ ambitious net zero carbon goals could impact 27 million square feet of Houston real estate
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Here's the next frontier in real estate's battle against climate change

Mayor Sylvester Turner is seeking City Council support for a conservation district program he and city planners say could help lower-income neighborhoods preserve their character and fend off gentrification. Critics say it may end up causing gentrification.
Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz speak with Yilun Cheng, City Council reporter at the Houston Chronicle, about what conservation districts would entail, why some neighborhood advocates have been requesting them and why others are nervous.
The ordinance, which could offer neighborhoods an easier path to preservation than a historic district, is up for discussion at City Council the first week of April.
Learn more:
Turner wants to fight Houston gentrification with conservation districts. Critics say it won't work. 
Acres Homes, Freedmen's Town among 6 areas Houston is considering for conservation districts 
Houston delays vote on conservation districts for 6 areas, including Freedmen's Town, Acres Homes
Proposed Riverside Terrace historic district has longtime residents fighting for their neighborhood 
Turner withdraws plan for Riverside Terrace historic district, citing lack of neighborhood support 
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Could conservation districts give residents more say in a city famous for no zoning?

There’s a new project proposed in the site of The Ashby high-rise, a contentious apartment tower first pitched 16 years ago that set off one of the most intense land-use battles in Houston’s history. We dive into the history of The Ashby, and provide an update on The Langley, the revised version of the project, which developers say is close to breaking ground in Houston’s Boulevard Oaks neighborhood.
HoustonChronicle.com subscribers can learn more about the Ashby and Langley high-rise projects here:
City approves key permits needed for revised Ashby high-rise to break ground
 What to know about The Langley, the high-rise proposed in The Ashby site
 Plans unveiled for 20-story high-rise, The Langley
 From the Looped In archives: Talk of the Ashby and Houston’s lack of zoning
 From the Looped In archives: Developers talk the Ashby 10 years later
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Why we're still talking about the Ashby high-rise 16 years later

After the pandemic’s housing boom, which spurred bidding wars and drove up home prices to dizzying highs, the market has shifted. Interest rates have risen, inflation has eaten away at budgets and some economists have forecasted a recession. As many would-be homebuyers have been priced out of the market, fewer people are competing to buy. What does it all mean for Houston’s housing market in the upcoming year? Looped In co-hosts Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz sit down with Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at the personal finance site Bankrate.com, to discuss. 
 
Related stories:
Houston home sales tumbled at the end of 2022. Here's what's in store for 2023.
Home prices head higher as shortage of homes on the market persists
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What to expect for Houston’s shifting housing market in 2023

Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the country with a large population of Chinese residents who have helped to contribute to thriving commercial corridors such as Asiatown near Bellaire and Asiantown near Katy. How would SB 147 -- a proposed law barring citizens and companies from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying real estate in Texas-- impact the Chinese population in Houston? What effects might we see on residential and commercial real estate? Looped In co-hosts Marissa Luck and R.A. Schuetz discuss the proposed law and other related legislation with investigative reporter Mike Morris.
Proposed Texas law could drive away Chinese immigrants who thrive in southwest Houston, Katy https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/chinese-investor-ban-ding-texas-business-17744879.php
Houston leaders, Asian groups decry Abbot plan to ban Chinese others from buying land in Texas https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/chinese-investor-ban-ding-texas-business-17744879.php
Amid protest, senator promises change to bill banning Chinese land in Texas https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/article/texas-senator-china-land-buys-17741458.php
Texas Take Podcast: Who are they coming for next? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-are-they-coming-for-next/id1122884023?i=1000596997544
Forbes: Why a secretive Chinese billionaire bough 140,000 acres in Texas https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2021/08/09/why-a-secretive-chinese-billionaire-bought-140000-acres-of-land-in-texas/?sh=79a2972b78c3
Pluribus News: Restriction on foreign ownership of farmland gets renewed push https://pluribusnews.com/news-and-events/states-renew-push-to-ban-foreign-ownership-of-farmland-other-property/
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How a proposed Chinese investor ban could impact Houston real estate

Nearly five months after a Houston Chronicle story about a retired couple's battle with their HOA over feeding the ducks gets picked up by outlets around the globe, the reporter gets a call from the couple's daughter. While Mrs. Rowe and her lawyer said that they had begun feeding the ducks after the loss of their daughter, the Rowe's daughter is in fact alive. How to correct a story that's gone viral, and the surprising prevalence of family estrangement. 

Cypress couple was sued for up to $250K by their HOA for feeding ducks. Now they could lose their home:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/A-Cypress-HOA-sued-a-couple-250K-for-feeding-17292935.php 
Daily Mail UK’s version: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11002295/Texas-couple-began-feeding-neighborhood-ducks-sued-250k-HOA.html 
Washington Post’s version: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/09/hoa-ducks-foreclosure/ 
Business Insider India’s version: https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/a-texas-couple-could-lose-their-home-after-feeding-ducks-in-their-yard-thanks-to-a-lawsuit-from-their-hoa/articleshow/92764108.cms
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What it's like to learn the internet thinks you're dead? A HOA duck feud's latest twist

A nationwide, $47 billion effort to prevent evictions during the pandemic is winding down, leaving tenants to cope with higher rents amid inflation. How well did emergency rental assistance, which funneled aid through local and state programs, work? Looped In hosts R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck interview Erin Hahn, a researcher from a tenant advocacy group called Texas Housers, who compared Houston's local rental assistance programs with several others across Texas, and then they talk to Stephanie Graves, president of the Houston Apartment Association to get a landlord's perspective on how the program went.

Houston-Harris County rental assistance program to suspend new applications indefinitely Nov. 1:https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/Harris-County-rental-assistance-status-closing-17541457.php

Texas Housers report comparing how Emergency Rental Assistance rolled out in Texas: https://texashousers.org/2022/12/06/emergency-rental-assistance-in-texas-report/

Montgomery County gives up $7.1 million of its rent relief funds: “There’s just not that many people needing assistance”:https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Montgomery-County-gives-up-7-1-million-of-its-16630147.php

County approves $4 million to help renters facing evictions access legal help: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/County-approves-4-million-to-help-renters-facing-17470895.php

 

 
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Houston's biggest eviction prevention effort is ending. What lessons can we learn?

Some homeowners in Houston are dealing with a host of unexpected environmental issues - from discovering years after purchasing their homes that their land was sinking underneath them to learning there are still cancer risks tied to old school industrial developments nearby. As Houston Chronicle’s environmental reporter Emily Foxhall departs, we sit down to discuss a few of her biggest stories impacting Houston real estate.

Neighbors contend with rail yard after decades of contamination

Fifth Ward residents insulted by EPA tips to avoid rail yard contamination: ‘What’s in us is in us’

Homes in The Woodlands could sink by more than a foot over decades under new groundwater guidelines

BRACE FOR THE STORM: The Ike Dike will transform Galveston. See how in a fly-through tour.
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Sinking homes, toxic soil: Why the ground under your house matters

An ambitious $310 million transformation of the eastern side of Buffalo Bayou gets underway this week as Buffalo Bayou Partnership -- which developed the 160-acre Buffalo Bayou Park between Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive -- breaks ground on the first piece of its decade-long plan to transform the stretch of the bayou east of downtown.But the groundbreaking isn't for a project normally associated with parks and trails, for which the Buffalo Bayou Partnership is best known. The partnership on Saturday will begin the construction of an affordable housing development, called Lockwood on Buffalo Bayou. In this episode of Looped In, Rebecca Schuetz interviews Buffalo Bayou Partnership's president Anne Olson about the nonprofit's transformative plan and talks with Marissa Luck about the broader changes taking place in the East End.

Read more:

Buffalo Bayou East breaks ground with affordable housing project.

Kinder Foundation gives $100 million to fast track Buffalo Bayou East.

Concept Neighborhood’s 17-acre East End project could make cars obsolete with walkable, ‘micro’ living

Midway’s non-fussy take on golf gives Houstonians first glimpse of game-changing East End project.

Triten Partners’ trendy 6-acre mixed-use project could transform key entrance to East End

After years of attempts, redevelopment of former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital begins

More on Community Land Trusts in Houston

Whether Fifth Ward residents want it or not, East River is coming
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Buffalo Bayou East will transform East End. Why affordable housing is the first step.

Houston’s East End is in the midst of massive change as the neighborhood once dominated by industrial buildings and small bungalows is turning into a hub for mixed-use developments, apartments and adaptive reuse projects. A major catalyst of the East End’s transformation was sparked by East River, the 150-acre mixed-use development by Midway rising along Buffalo Bayou waterway. We sit down with Midway vice president Anna Deans to discuss how Midway’s game-changing project will start to transform how Houstonians interact with this part of Buffalo Bayou and how the project could spark further changes in the East End. Deans also gives us all the updates and details on what’s next for East River, one of the most highly anticipated real estate developments underway in Houston now.
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A behind-the-scenes look at East River, one of Houston's most highly anticipated projects now

Meyerland, built on former rice fields in southwest Houston, was one of Houston’s earliest master-planned communities promising to bring suburban life relatively close to the city. But the neighborhood has been repeatedly ravaged by floods, with some of the worst damage occurring in Hurricane Harvey five years ago. Even though Meyerland shows us the repercussions of building in the floodplain and many communities throughout Houston are still recovering from Harvey, real estate developers continue to build in floodprone areas with nearly 1 in 8 houses built in the floodplain in Houston now. Development continues to blossom in West Houston throughout the floodplain in areas like Katy Prairie, but this time with newer, better building standards than what was required 50 years ago when Meyerland was constructed. But are the new standards enough to protect homeowners? Looped In hosts R.A. Schuetz and Marissa Luck sit down with Houston Chronicle’s county reporter Jen Rice to discuss how Houston’s development standards could potentially be putting property owners in flood-prone areas at risk.

Read more about it:

Houston keeps paving over rain-absorbent Katy prairie, even after devastating Harvey impacts

How Harvey transformed resilient Meyerland from modest 1950s homes to raised mini-mansions

Post Harvey, 1 in 8 homes permitted are in floodplains

Harvey cost many their homes and their peace of mind. 5 years later, the damage lingers.

After 3 inches of rain shut down a Katy community, residents want to know what went wrong

 
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What Harvey did (and didn’t) teach us about building in the floodplain

In a city with virtually no official zoning, the ability to create a historic district over a particular neighborhood is supposed to be a key tool Houstonians can use to preserve the character of a place. But in the case of one historically Black community in Houston’s Third Ward, called Riverside Terrace, residents were convinced a proposed historic district would actually lead to more unwanted change – gentrification – not less of it. In this episode, Rebecca and Marissa talk to reporter Nora Mishanec about the controversy sparked by the now failed Riverside Terrace historic district proposal and how it shines a light on situations when these special designations may actually become instruments of exclusion rather than inclusion.

Read more on HoustonChronicle.com:

18 Houston homes could become a historic district. Some residents fear they're losing control.

Proposed Riverside Terrace historic district has longtime residents fighting for their neighborhood

Turner pulls plan for Riverside Terrace historic district amid opposition from Third Ward residents

A 2-year journey to remove racist deed language was finally solved thanks to new Texas law
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What a controversy in Beyonce's old neighborhood tells us about historic districts

A federal program is meant to give low-income families the freedom to choose where they live. But most landlords are not interested in participating, put off by requirements such as lengthy inspection periods and the prospect that the voucher might not meet them where the market is, relegating families with vouchers to the few properties that accept the housing subsidy. The Houston nonprofit NestQuest has set out to change that.

READ: Houston nonprofit tackles headaches with rent voucher program

Connect with Rebecca
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