I’ve received a handful of inquiry about MetroHouse in the past few weeks. It seems their website has gone MIA. Anyone know something more?
I know the zone changes really changed Dean’s business model, along with the reduced availability of urban infill lots at semi-reasonable prices. He did some of the better multi-house work in central Austin over the years so I’d hate to see him no longer building.
I know, listings have me bored a bit too. So many stale listings. Sitting here looking at a lease renewal, and think I’m going to sign it. I’ve bid on stuff, but seller’s still in la la land. All the stuff I have bid on is still unsold.
Oops, meant to be a response to your passing the time post.
No insight, but Dean was at the presentation Travis Young gave a few weeks ago at the Umlauf. He was recently marketing a few of his properties as hotel space – I hope all is well!
We were looking a few Metrohouse properties recently and had the pleasure of meeting Dean at one of the showings. We could tell that he takes great pride in his work and even though the properties we looked at weren’t quite what we needed, we walked away very impressed. A friend of ours recently purchased one in north-central and it’s probably our favorite Metrohouse. Open, airy, with a loft space that overlooks the entire first floor.
This is 2nd hand information (from my Realtor) so fair warning, but I don’t believe Dean is in the building business anymore. I do know that the empty lots he owns are for sale. I think he’s still doing design work but like many builders, are pulling out of the spec home market.
I sincerely hope that when the housing market turns around, he’ll get back into building spec homes because they’re unique, well thought-out spaces. We’ve seen some ‘modern’ homes around town that don’t even come close to anything he’s done. His absence will be a loss to Austin housing.
If you appreciate Metrohouse, i was the in-house architect for Metrohouse from late 2005 to the close of the office in 2009. My designs, in collaboration with Dean, are shown on my website gparc.com. I am an active architect in Austin and welcome the opportunity to discuss future work. Thank you, Guido Porto.