Construction began in May on 1,500-acre Austin Ranch,

Construction began in May on 1,500-acre Austin Ranch, the latest in a series of projects in or near Dallas, Texas, using new urbanist principles. The master plan for the 5,000 home project was designed by RTKL and the first neighborhood, called Magnolia, was designed in detail by Calthorpe Associates of San Francisco, California. The neighborhood “combines apartments, townhouses and retail space in a tight urban neighborhood of landscaped squares, boulevards and parks,” according to the Dallas Morning News. “The concept is more akin to in-town Dallas’ McKinney Avenue district (a downtown redevelopment) than the usual construction on the North Texas Prairie.”