Pairing data analysis and design thinking, “A Taxonomy of Vacancy” will examine how San Antonio policymakers could accelerate multifamily housing production by reimagining the potential of vacant or underused commercial parcels.
Ian Caine
Esteban López Ochoa
Wei Zhai
University of Texas at San Antonio
School of Architecture + Planning
Rudy Niño, Jr.
City of San Antonio
Planning Department
Christine Quattro
Appalachian State University
College of Arts and Sciences
The research team will create a taxonomy of vacant or underutilized parcels, establishing parameters related to size, cost, zoning, location, and use. © Ian Caine, J. William Arch, Melanie Bartholomew, Devon Duffin, Phuoc Luu, Diana Rodriguez, Evey Santillan, and Michelyn Smith.
Jury
Carlos Bedoya
Iker Gil (Chair)
Johanna Hurme
Lorcan O’Herlihy
Irene Sunwoo
This research project seeks to counteract the geographic expansion of San Antonio, Texas, by quantifying vacant or underutilized parcels along commercial strips and proposing their redevelopment with multifamily, infill housing. The evolving landscape of retail and office developments, influenced by the rise of e-commerce and remote work, provides possibilities for extensive land redevelopment. Additionally, the advent of shared mobility, automated vehicles, and bus rapid transit is diminishing the significance of parking lots, further expanding the availability of land along arterial roads. This research project coincides with current efforts to accommodate an expected influx of over one million people into Bexar County over twenty-five years, requiring the creation of 500,000 new housing units. [1]
Building upon a diverse and growing body of research into urban infill and retrofitting from architects like Peter Calthorpe, Nicholas De Monchaux, Ellen Dunham-Jones, and June Williamson, this project simultaneously leverages data analysis and design thinking to explore the following research question: To what extent can San Antonio policymakers accelerate multifamily housing production by encouraging residential construction along underutilized commercial strips? The research will proceed in two phases. First, the team will utilize quantitative methods to create a taxonomy of vacant or underutilized land parcels, focusing on seven commercial strips that align with future transit lines in the City’s SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan and VIA Metropolitan Transit's 2040 Long Range Plan. Second, graduate students in architecture will utilize design methods to generate new, affordable, sustainable multifamily housing prototypes that respond to evolving economic, programmatic, and demographic conditions along the seven commercial strips.
Notes
[1] City of San Antonio, “Background and Vision: Introduction,” SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan, August 2016.
The taxonomy of vacancy will focus on seven commercial strips that align with VIA Metropolitan Transit's 2040 Long Range Plan for BRT and LRT. © Ian Caine.
Thank you to the SOM Foundation for providing our team with a timely opportunity to reimagine the future of San Antonio’s ubiquitous commercial strips. These aging and underutilized automotive landscapes remain an untapped resource, badly in need of a new future. The emergence of e-commerce, remote work, and new transportation technologies provides a unique opportunity to begin infilling the vacant land with housing. This research project applies the power of data and design thinking to the grand challenge of housing, which spans scales and disciplines. Ultimately, we aspire to significantly expand policy discussions about solutions to San Antonio’s escalating housing crisis.
Ian Caine
Just how much space is available along aging commercial strips in San Antonio, Texas? This project leverages data science to count and categorize vacant and underutilized parcels. © Ian Caine.
Once the taxonomy of vacancy is complete, graduate students will generate new multifamily housing prototypes for aging commercial strips throughout San Antonio, Texas. © Ian Caine.
Ian Caine
University of Texas at San Antonio
School of Architecture + Planning
Esteban López Ochoa
University of Texas at San Antonio
School of Architecture + Planning
Rudy Niño, Jr.
City of San Antonio
Planning Department
Christine Quattro
Appalachian State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Wei Zhai
University of Texas at San Antonio
School of Architecture + Planning
is an Associate Professor, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Principal in URBAN PLATFORM, and Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). His research explores the forms, processes, and impacts of urban growth, appearing in journals like MONU, Scenario, Log, Housing Studies, and popular press outlets like The Discovery Channel, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Texas Public Radio. His design collaborations have received awards from the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, and international competitions including Rising Tides, Build-a-Better-Burb, Dry Futures, and Modular Home Edition #2. Caine is a dedicated educator, having received the 2017 ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award, 2017 UT Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award, and selection for the Architecture 2030 Pilot Curriculum Project, which highlighted a curriculum developed with Dr. Rahman Azari as one of seven nationwide that “transform the culture of sustainable design education.” He holds degrees from MIT (SMArchS) and Washington University (MArch), where he received the AIA School Medal.
is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Associate Director of UTSA’s Center for Sustainable Pervasive Urban Resilience. His research seeks to take advantage of the wider availability of “bigger” data to examine housing, labor, and education issues that contribute to the unjust burden of spatial inequalities in our communities, both in the US and Latin American contexts. Before joining UTSA, López Ochoa was an Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow of the Center of Economics and Regional Policy (CEPR) of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI) at Viña del Mar, Chile. He graduated as a Fulbright Fellow in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, obtaining an M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics, and a Ph.D. in Regional Planning. He also obtained a Master of Science in Regional Science from the Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile) in 2010.
is the Interim Director of Planning at the City of San Antonio. He has served as the Assistant Director for the City of San Antonio’s Planning Department since 2016. Niño began his career with the City of San Antonio following five-plus years working with the North Central Texas Council of Governments in the environmental planning field. Since joining the city in 2005, he has worked in a number of progressively responsible roles in both the Planning Department and the Development Services Department (land development). His position in the Planning Department has included oversight of the City’s Comprehensive Plan update: SA Tomorrow; Annexation; Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) programs; long-range community and neighborhood planning, current planning, urban design reviews, corridor planning, and zoning.
is an Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning at Appalachian State University and holds a doctorate in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Their research studies the environmental justice, social equity, and ecological implications of land development regulations. They previously served on the Zoning Board of Yeadon, Pennsylvania, and was Director of City Planning and Development for San Antonio City Council District 1. Additionally, Quattro currently works as the Lead Land Development Researcher for a law firm based in San Antonio.
is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Associate Director of UTSA’s Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research. He received his PhD in Urban and Regional Planning and a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida. He was trained as an urban designer and planner in China before moving to the United States. His current research agenda is twofold: he leverages emerging big data and advanced quantitative methods to study issues of environmental resilience; and he is also developing and applying geospatial data science methods to better sense human behavior, social equity, and urban dynamics. He teaches Urban Planning Methods I, Environmental Planning and Assessment, and Urban and Regional Sustainability at UTSA.
