When Austin Tunnell announced that he'd broken ground late last year on Townsend, a "pocket neighborhood" he developed to fill 1.1 acres of space in Edmond, a town on the northern edge of Oklahoma City, he framed it as the start of a new chapter for everyone involved in the project.
The development, which will take several years of phased construction to complete, is an ambitious jump in scale for Building Culture, Tunnell's development firm. And when it's done, the 18 townhouses, two live-work buildings, and suite of commercial spaces, all anchored around a central courtyard, will serve as a proof of concept for Tunnell's vision of the ideal urban neighborhood: A cohesive and walkable space that fosters human connection. Built using loadbearing, hand-laid brick, the homes and shops should not only be incredibly durable, but also warm and human. If all goes to plan, Tunnell hopes, Townsend will not only empower his company to build more pocket neighborhoods in the Oklahoma City area in the near future, but inspire other developers to follow his simple yet elegant vision for neighborhood design as well.
Yet while Townsend could be the start of something new, it's also the end of several chapters in Tunnell's life: His difficult journey from a nebulous feeling of discontent with the way things are to a clear vision of what they could be. His gradual shift from ideological purity towards a practiced pragmatism. And his progression from sketchbook dreamer to full-fledged developer.
