It's a building every residential property manager dreams of: cost-effective, uses less energy, is quiet for residents, and is nearly unburnable and bug free. But it's not made of new building material. In fact, it's quite the opposite, using the ancient method of compressed earth. Alternivest just used the technique in San Antonio. Owner David Komet (snapped on site at 14-unit 3050 Eisenhauer) tells us it's similar to the adobe techniques originally used to build San Antonio and is market competitive to construct. (As they say, good earth makes good neighbors.) Temperature changes are very minimal, so they use less HVAC and needs fewer ceiling ducts.
So why isn't everyone building this way? David tells us it's not easy to do, especially since it's so rare in the US. He had to develop some technology for the property, and the City of San Antonio hadn't worked on such a project before. The biggest struggles were with navigating the code and fire safety (fire will burn you, but paperwork will bury you alive)—although the materials essentially cannot burn, the City requested a fire rating test for the walls and required commercial-grade sprinklers. Alternivest is developing a compressed earth building in New Braunfels, Texas, designed for seniors, and David's always working to improve the technique—next on his list: vaulted ceilings.
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