Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1521219
A heritage oak shades the RO central lawn A ttempting to create a unique new village in the heart of Houston requires a boldness, an audacity of belief. To pull it off, Transwestern Development Company ultimately decided it needed a dream team of architects on its side. These architectural visionaries working in harmony is what will define The RO, a new 17-acre mixed-use development coming to the intersection of West Alabama and Buffalo Speedway with the first Auberge Resorts Collection hotel in Houston. "We could have done this with one or two architects," Transwestern president Carleton Riser says of the project that breaks ground RO THE A DREAM TEAM OF ARCHITECTS CREATES A NEW PEDESTRIAN PARADISE WITH HOUSTON'S FIRST AUBERGE HOTEL, A 28-STORY RESIDENTIAL HIGH-RISE, RESTAURANTS, AND LEAFY CORRIDORS. MEET By Chris Baldwin this June with a 2027 projected opening. "We wanted different architects because we wanted the buildings to have their own personalities. The only way to do that is to get different people to do it. Cities weren't designed by one architect." The dream team includes New Haven, Connecticut-based Pickard Chilton — known for designing some of the world's most striking skyscrapers around the world, including the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Four Seasons Place in Kuala Lumpur — as master planner on The RO, which will have a 28-story residential high-rise (317 units) and a seven-story boutique office building with a single tenant. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, with offices and projects around the world (Atlantis The Royal in Dubai, Rosewood Bangkok, Park Hyatt Suzhou, Aman Tokyo, 20 Hudson Yards), is designing The Birdsall, the Auberge hotel and private 34