Some photos below the fold.
It's hard to get a panoramic view of Mueller; the whole developoment is, well, flat as an airport. But here are two I took from the low ridge at the southern end of Lake Park:
The brightly colored houses with the tin porch roofs in the center of the shot are Muskin Company garden-court homes:
Mueller's first phase includes one block of "garden court" homes. The homes front a court of green space owned in common. The homeowners sacrifice a private yard (not much of a sacrifice at Mueller, really), but they get a mini-park in front of their homes rather than a street.
Here is a closer view of Muskin Company's "garden court" homes:
The Saldana homes on the oppose site of the court:
The garden court is an attractive idea. I hope the owners enjoy the sound of little children's laughter, though: With open space at a premium at Mueller, I'm sure it will be a kid magnet.
Row houses (70' deep) along Zach Scott:
Row houses (90' deep) on the opposite side of the street:
The same row houses from the rear:
(Note to builders: Don't put down the roof liner when the weatherman warns you that 40 mph gales will be blowing in.)
Mueller is reviving the garage apartment (technically, a "carriage house" when attached to a $500K+ home). Here's the Standard Pacific version:
The one I toured had a separate bedroom and bathroom and a kitchenette. A good place to stash in-laws.
The next few shots are of finished-out streets. I think Catellus got enough variation in builders and floor plans to avoid the cookie-cutter look.
Lawless Street:
The west side of Lawless:
By the way, I like the whole "Let's-use-only-last-names-and-not-first-names-and-middle-initials-too-like-they-do-at-UT" system for naming streets. It's retro. And the right name insinuates that you live on an old street. "Lawless," for example. It oozes authenticity. We all know a developer would insist on the full name -- "Peter Lawless" -- rather than giving the street a criminal brand that might scare off conservative homeowners. So "Lawless" must be an old street, platted in the days when the city consisted of earthy, hearty folk who couldn't have cared less about the social signals emitted by their street signs.
I digress. Here is Emma Long Street:
(Emma Long and Zach Scott are acceptable exceptions to the "last-name-only" rule, but only because "Emma Long" and "Zach Scott" are so well known that it would have been weird to use just the last names.)
McCloskey. David Weekley wanted me to tell you that it has sold its homes:
Looking south along Sahm:
A house at the corner of Comacho and Emma Long:
The side view illustrates the "articulation" standards that apply to homes on corner lots:
Most of the corner-lot homes have this kind of dramatic articulation. (You can see another example in a Muskin Co. corner-lot home in the second photograph above.) It's a "New Urbanist" design principle: Articulate long, flat walls to keep the streetscape visually interesting and more inviting for pedestrians. Frankly, I haven't seen any older neighborhoods with this kind of dramatic articulation on the "off-street" side; this must really be "new" urbanism. I admit it is more attractive visually, but it's awfully expensive, both in construction costs and sacrificed space.
Note that there is a different design principle that says homes on corner lots must address both streets. That can be done without articulation, via a wrap-around porch:
By the way, if you've heard that the yards at Mueller are small, that's just not true. I haven't shown you any yards, so let me pick one out at random . . .
(The Streetman rep told me that they could not fit another home at the end of the street due to street's curve. The land got added to the adjacent lot. Naturally, it was the first lot sold.)
Moving on. The pool at the "amenity center":
More importantly, the playscape:
Lake Park is coming along. They've done an especially good job with the lake:
In the background you can see the large steps leading down to the water. These will turn out to be a very good idea, I think. I've seen people milling around on them every time I've been out there. It's an inviting place to just sit and watch the ducks.
The park landscaping has a long way to go:
This was taken from the south side of the lake, looking south/southwest. I like the way they created a swell in the grade to screen the homes from view.
The lake on the southern greenbelt:
It's actually three ponds, dammed off from one another by blocks of limestone, all for the purpose of creating this water feature:
One last parting shot:
Note the large "For Sale" sign in the upper right quadrant. A portent of Mueller's long-term effect on the surrounding environment, I suspect.
