Tactful Tangibles: Near Northside Adaptive Reuse

Samantha Garza
Rice School of Architecture, Rice University

“This project belongs to a growing lineage of practices that find architectural opportunity not in the pursuit of novelty, but in the careful re-reading of the existing residential landscape. Rather than scouring the earth to find the next commission that won’t come, it reminds us that an abundance of meaningful projects already surrounds us.” 

—Jimenez Lai

This proposal explores the adaptive reuse of a century-old house in Houston’s Near Northside neighborhood as a senior co-living residence. The program consists of five bedrooms, including one ADA-accessible unit, along with shared laundry, living, and kitchen spaces and an administrative office. Residents live together to alleviate the physical and financial burdens of home maintenance while remaining in the neighborhood. Across the street, an abandoned lot becomes a communal garden—a connective pocket for surrounding houses and a placeholder for future development. An adjacent carport, formerly a welding shop, is maintained as a shaded workspace. An attitude of care, maintenance, and repair is applied to vernacular architecture and reused objects, ensuring the community’s cultural richness remains a living practice rather than a static memory.