The Trace gets all dressed up

Jamie Morton from Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast has taken some wonderful photos of The Trace, a 28-unit development built by Habitat in partnership with the GCCDS. The photographs show off the coastal architecture and excellent landscaping that help make this an extraordinary neighborhood. (See the full set on Flickr.)

The Trace – Building a Neighborhood

My updating has not kept up with the progress on The Trace. This is the 28-house Habitat for Humanity neighborhood that Kristen, Sam, Nadene, and I worked on from August through November of last year. Thanks to the effort Habitat has put in over the last nine months, the neighborhood is nearly complete. All it needs is some landscaping work and, of course, people! The certificates of occupancy have been delayed while Habitat waits for the City of Long Beach to approve the neighborhood plat, so nobody has moved in yet, but twelve families have already been selected for houses …

Dec. 2-6 Building at The Trace

Edit [12/26/08]: See these photos and more at my Flickr page. The main (only?) advantage of unemployment being the ability to do whatever you like, I spent last week building at The Trace. I worked on a 3-bedroom house called the Cypress. Thanks to the leadership of construction supervisors Bryce and Austin, an enthusiastic college group from Ohio, and a mix of other volunteers, we started from a slab and raised the walls, built the porch, and set about half of the roof trusses within the week. Here’s the Ohio group: The project is moving quickly. In the past 4-6 …

The Trace Work Day

Edit [12/26/08]: See these photos and more at my Flickr page. An office job means that I get to work on construction sites less often than I like. But Friday, I spent the day building out at The Trace along with the other Design Studio folks on the project, Kristen, Sam, and Nadene. We worked with Bryce, a construction supervisor with Habitat, on one of the eight houses currently being framed. Another eight or so foundations are going in, and the remaining houses are being permitted while the lots are being graded and readied. Alongside volunteers from Thrivent Financial, the …

The Trace, an Introduction

What has been your biggest project over the past month and a half, you ask? Why, I’ll tell you! It’s “The Trace”, a 28-house subdivision that Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (HFHMGC) is developing in Long Beach, Mississippi. This is the first collaboration of this kind between the GCCDS and HFHMGC, and it’s been productive for both sides. Their goal is to develop a high-quality neighborhood that’s not bland and has more appeal than a “typical” Habitat development, and we’re providing them with some architectural and planning assistance. We have some great progress so far. Eleven different …