Shore Thing

Just off Highway 361—the vehicular corridor that runs down Mustang Island, a thin barrier island situated along the Texas Gulf Coast—two clusters of white cottages emerge above a wood privacy fence. These cottage homes offer the first glimpse for those traveling by car of Cinnamon Shore, one of Texas’s preeminent beach home communities. Here at the south end of the development, completed houses with manicured landscaping are sprinkled among a collection of construction sites, vacant parcels just released for sale, temporary buildings housing staff, and a smattering of signage promising future amenities. Following nearly two decades of construction, Cinnamon Shore continues to grow and evolve.

Established in 2007, the project shares a design ethos with Florida’s Seaside and Rosemary Beach communities, with New Urbanism planning principles guiding the neighborhood’s development and growth. As in Seaside, walkability and connectivity are key, and realizing this requires a certain building scale, density, and infrastructure that permeates the project. Everything from the porch railings to the buildings’ size, shapes, and colors contribute to the community’s charming feel and style—a distinct Gulf Coast vernacular described by the project’s urban designer Mark Schnell as “Southern cottage writ large, on steroids.” 

The deliberate composition of the community’s image and identity is evident: A page on Cinnamon Shore’s website titled “Landmarks and Instagram Ops” recommends select architectural backdrops like the Dune Crossover, Splash Pad Wall, and Town Center as backgrounds for the perfect selfie. Pier and pavilion structures, amongst other public paths and shelters sprinkled throughout the development, are themselves a study in wood detailing, with a variety of rafter tails, trusses, brackets, and railings displayed. Such curated moments, framed by the architecture of Cinnamon Shore, illustrate carefully defined building scales and land use. “This sounds cold, but the right product mix is a really big deal,” says Schnell, referring to the combination of individual homes, condos, retail, and amenities like pools and open spaces that would be most appealing to the market.

Currently Cinnamon Shore is composed of two blocks of land: North and South. North, established in 2007, is now receiving its finishing touches. Most of the 225 home sites are complete, and the town center is now being filled in with mixed-use buildings to further activate the already popular common spaces such as the great lawn and numerous swimming pools. North’s most recent addition, Six Town Center, was completed in October 2024 and is a four-story building composed of luxury condominiums atop ground-floor retail. The building is constructed with materials less common at Cinnamon Shore—for instance, an aerated concrete panel structure and some exterior stone veneer—while it includes the expected wood trim details characteristic to  the branded development. South, the newer subdivision, is midway through construction. Homes started going up in 2018, and it will stand at nearly four times the land area of North when complete.    

Mark Schnell reflects on the initial need for strict design rules: “Eighteen years ago, it was kind of the Wild West,” he says, recalling some of the early home plans that crossed his desk. Once he put the design code firmly in place, it guided the design-build process toward a decidedly higher level. Schnell refers to the book Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid by Marian Cusato as one source of ideas he referenced for creating the guidelines; the publication outlines tips to improve the quality of architecture in simple, straightforward ways. The results can be seen in porches with openings centered in equal column bays, complementary massing and proportions, and prescribed locations for features like cupolas and towers. Since the community’s inception, Schnell has personally reviewed every home and other building design submitted for compliance with the guidelines. “People in the business kinda freak out when I tell them I’m just a lone guy doing this.”

The layout of streets, pathways, and views is also a key part of elevating the design quality of individual buildings. Strong axial views are established and accent the sense of connection throughout the neighborhood. Pavement patterns are used to define pedestrian paths and other areas. Though striving for walkability, Cinnamon Shore is still shaped by the management and flow of vehicles. Typical detached single-family home lots at Cinnamon Shore—some as small as 45’x45’—are required to accommodate two-car parking spaces on site, and while not required, many owners also want space for parking a golf cart. Architecturally this translates to ground-level parking structures oriented along the streetscape among the pedestrian-scaled front porches. To mitigate the negative effects of this, Schnell wrote design guidelines indicating that less-than-ideal front-loading garages should be pushed back from the street and tandem single-car-width parking incorporated with it. While this earned pushback from homeowners who didn’t want to have to shuffle their cars around, it helped preserve the design integrity that contributes to property value. 

The streetscape notably changes from North to South, with a reduction of sidewalk landscape buffers and the addition of more prevalent “shared streets.” Daniel Mazoch, the general manager of development at Cinnamon Shore, worked with the city to get the infrastructure approved. He explains that the city decided to “peel back” its previous approvals for lanes and alleys measuring less than 20 feet wide to allow more comfortable fire truck access. Mazoch has seen other New Urbanism communities maintain narrower streets by experimenting with smaller fire truck size but notes that compromising on roadway width addresses the city’s fire safety concern and allows for pedestrians and more parking. Homes on either side of the lanes and alleys still maintain close physical proximity, in keeping with New Urbanism principles. 

The axial views set up by the streets create places for what Schnell describes as “killer look-at-me buildings.” Destinations within the neighborhood are key to how it works. The Neighborly Square Pool is one such terminus, which Mazoch notes as a particularly successful project within the area. This recently completed amenity was designed by Sommer Design Studios, whom Mazoch met at a town building conference as part of the ongoing effort to expand expertise and elevate the quality of architects approved to work in the development. The pool’s minimal structures exemplify the design intent of the buildings to serve as a backdrop for activity while being differentiated by subtle detailing. Painted wood pergolas with decorative cut rafter tails provide shade for lounge chairs, and simple one-story rooms house restrooms and equipment while lending definition and privacy to the space.

Recent work at Cinnamon Shore juxtaposes the in-progress construction of South with the more fleshed-out section of North, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the community’s design and development processes. Ongoing expansion and iteration is in store by the developer Sea Oats Group, who owns 114 acres of land on the bay side of Hwy 361 and another parcel adjacent to North on the Gulf side of the highway. The development is ambitious—and successful, notes Schnell, in the sense that “people keep coming back.” It can be just that simple. 

Like its Floridian precedents, Cinnamon Shore invites easy critique as an exclusive community for the wealthy that, one could argue, commercializes and undermines the true intent behind New Urbanist philosophies. At the same time, the manufactured authenticity works here. Cinnamon Shore is and always has been intended as an exclusive vacation community. It reflects the desires of second-home buyers to have a place to escape, an idyllic environment in which to make family memories.

 In spite of that, the work at Cinnamon Shore includes notable efforts that are promising as true assets to the region moving forward. The developer and urban designers’ consistent effort to engage accomplished architects from around the state and nation brings new talent, thought, and attention to environmental and community design issues specific to the Gulf Coast. Insistence on continuously improving quality of construction, and ongoing work with governing bodies to develop codes that encourage a pedestrian-friendly street can have lasting positive impact beyond the boundaries of Cinnamon Shore.