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What We Do
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Tiny Home living is about a lot more than just downsizing and simplifying your life. It’s about community. We build – and help others plan and build – tiny home villages to meet the growing need for small homes, but big life! We've done it before, and we can help you build your dream community.
(Eric Dickson Photography)
Cottage Courts & Bungalows
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Let’s be honest, not everyone wants to live in a tiny home. But many yearn for a more community oriented lifestyle within walkable, bucolic neighborhoods. These innovative smaller-footprint homes provide a quality of life that simply can’t be found in most modern neighborhoods.
Micro Units & Co-Living
Tiny Homes & Tiny Home Villages
Micro Units & Co-Living
There is a growing need for quality housing at an affordable price in communities across the nation. Well designed small-footprint apartments provide a great option for those starting out in life, or looking to explore new opportunities. A great and affordable options for downtowns and high land cost areas, too!
Neighborhood Scale Mixed-Use and Commercial
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Not every development has to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes the best answers are rooted in history. People love well-planned, nice looking walkable neighborhoods with shops, restaurants, work spaces, office spaces and a variety of residential units. Our experience working with traditional neighborhood design positions our team perfectly t
Not every development has to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes the best answers are rooted in history. People love well-planned, nice looking walkable neighborhoods with shops, restaurants, work spaces, office spaces and a variety of residential units. Our experience working with traditional neighborhood design positions our team perfectly to help plan, design, and build neighborhood scale mixed-use and commercial buildings. Each city is different and we can help design just the right development for you.
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Have a structure that needs a new life? We can help you take old structures including commercial, industrial and residential and breath new life into them. We have experience in taking some rough structures and carefully and painstakingly making necessary repairs and renovations to allow these old structures to be put into service again.
Have a structure that needs a new life? We can help you take old structures including commercial, industrial and residential and breath new life into them. We have experience in taking some rough structures and carefully and painstakingly making necessary repairs and renovations to allow these old structures to be put into service again. In many locations, there's a great need for commercial spaces, loft apartments. restaurant locations, micro apartment units, co-working spaces and co-living spaces.
Pocket neighborhoods and pocket courts
Building and large home renovations and retrofits
Pocket neighborhoods and pocket courts
Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of territory and shared stewardship. They can be in urban, suburban or rural areas. Pocket neighb
Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed alley — all of which have a clear sense of territory and shared stewardship. They can be in urban, suburban or rural areas. Pocket neighborhoods are a great addition to any city, large or small. They can fit into many areas of a city to bring quality residential in an architecturally pleasing way.
How We Do It
Initial consultation
We'll send a questionnaire to fill out so we can review before our first meeting or phone call.
Tour of The Village
A detailed tour of the Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village is an important part of the process.
Site selection
We can provide assistance on choosing a site for your village.
City/County government
We can assist in working with your county or city government.
Project layout and design
We can assist in helping to design the layout of your project and provide design assistance. This would include lot and parking layout, water and sewer layout, electrical layout, washateria design, etc.
Cost & Revenue Projections
We can assist in setting up cost estimates, a pro-forma, monthly budget and can assist in providing necessary paperwork for financing.
Systems design
We can assist in setting up the daily systems and operation of your project.
Marketing & Publicity
We can assist in getting the word out about your project and can assist in setting up a website.
Project Portfolio
Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village
The Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village is a 13-lot tiny home on wheels community and is the first tiny home village of its' kind located within a city limits. During a three-year process Urban-Retro painstakingly tackled each part of the process. While the process was challenging we ended up with a beautiful small village of amazing homes and nice people. The village has a common courtyard made of grasscrete, a treed back yard with picnic tables, old school metal chairs and a popular fire pit, a community garden area and a cute washateria.
Lake Dallas Bungalows
The Lake Dallas Bungalows is a four-phase project by Urban-Retro made up of one and two bedroom units with striking curb appeal. Phase One was completed in 2019 and includes four extremely popular and colorful rental units, each with nice upgrades and quality materials. Some of those materials were reclaimed from other structures, including historic homes and buildings. When Phases Two through Four are completed, the Lake Dallas Bungalows will include 14 individual residential units with courtyards. There were 50 applicants for the four units.
Johnson House
Parts of the Johnson House date back to the late 1800s. The home was purchased by Homer and Eva Johnson in the 1950s and expanded over the years. The home was scheduled for demolition due the poor overall condition but a last minute decision was made to rebuilt the home into a cute cottage. After an 18-month renovation and rebuilding by Urban-Retro the home looks as good as new. The home has been used for both commercial and residential uses since 2006. This property has had an occupancy rate of 95 percent since the renovation.
Main & Market
Main & Market is a seven-unit mixed use project built in 2006 by Urban-Retro that includes four commercial spaces on the first floor and three loft apartments upstairs. The facade designs herald an old-school Main Street motif and were designed primarily by our student interns. The commercial spaces were built to accommodate all types of businesses including offices, retail and food services with large front windows and a large open space. Two of the loft apartments have private entrances and private stairways up to the second floor. One loft has a nice outdoor stairway. All have outdoor decks. Large windows bring in plenty of light. Occupancy on these units has exceeded 95 percent since built.
Woodman Building
Dating back to 1908, the Woodman of the World Building originally housed a old-time general store with the community's post office in a back corner. The upstairs was a lodge hall for the Woodman of the World organization. At some point the upstairs became residential units and the downstairs housed retail businesses and housed a church in the 1980s. Urban-Retro purchased the building in 1991 and completely gutted the structure rebuilding it with many of the original materials. Three loft apartments are now upstairs and the downstairs is used for commercial purposes. This property has had an occupancy rate of 95 percent since the renovation.