Eco-Oaks Apartments

Now Accepting Applications For Residents

Contact us at (813)238-8557 x700

About Eco Oaks
Eco Oaks was designed and built according to the strict standards of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® for Homes program, in order to provide homes that are healthy, safe, efficient and affordable.
From project inception, Tampa Crossroads, Architect SE Architecture, LLC, LEED Consultant REAL Building, consulting Engineers and Contractor Carlin Construction have incorporated green building principles throughout the project in order to help Eco Oaks exemplify a highly sustainable project, and to meet the requirements of LEED Certification.

Click Here to read more about LEED certification

Sustainability at Eco Oaks
In an effort to meet LEED requirements and provide, efficient, healthy, safe and sustainable housing, Eco Oaks incorporated many systems and features to ensure truly affordable housing. These include:

Innovation and Design Process

• The project team, including Architect, Engineers, Building Owner, LEED Consultant, Engineers and Contractor participated in multiple ‘Design Charrette’s’ aimed at discussing the project as an Integrated Project Team, in order to ensure an efficient approach to LEED Certification and implementing green building strategies.

Location and Linkages

• Eco Oaks is an ideal site for an affordable, eco-friendly, housing project. With a access to nearby community amenities, such as grocery stores, banks, parks and other shops, residents will be able to walk and bike to their daily activities, reducing vehicles miles traveled and the cost of car ownership/maintenance.
• Public transit access, including nearby bus stops, further reduces the need for a personal automobile, and promotes environmentally-friendly transportation.

Sustainable Sites

• Using a high-albedo roofing material to reflect solar heat and reduce solar heat gain, improving building envelope efficiency and reducing heating loads within the units.
• Utilized Florida-Friendly plantings, and creating a highly permeable site, to promote habitat and reduce stormwater runoff to reduce the environmental impact on local waterways. All plantings are highly drought tolerant, and low-maintenance, further reducing maintenance costs.
• Specified highly reflective hardscape surfaces and permeable hardscapes to reduce the heat-island effect.

Water Efficiency

• Designed and installed a rainwater harvesting system that not only serves to reduce potable water requirements for the irrigation of the property, but also is an artist inspired piece featuring scupltured Florida animals made from donated scrap materials by a local artist.
• Low flow fixtures in all bathrooms and kitchens, reducing water waste and operational costs, and conserving this precious resource.

Energy and Atmosphere

• Energy Efficient equipment and appliances to reduce energy consumption, decreasing utility bills for all residents.
• Installing dual pane, low-e windows insulate the building and reduce solar heat gain, improving building envelope efficiency, and reducing monthly utility bills.
• Tankless water heaters to reduce energy consumption to heat stored water, and utilizing natural gas—a more environmentally friendly and efficient energy source.
• Installed Castor Bean-based spray foam insulation to reduce heat gain from the roof, which will reduce utility bills and promote a more comfortable indoor air environment.
• Third-party testing of all mechanical systems to ensure that efficiency goals and performance goals are met, reducing call backs and maintenance issues, which will reduce operational costs.

Materials and Resources

• Recycling and salvaging as much construction waste as possible during construction, with a goal to divert over 80% of Construction Waste from a landfill.
• Materials featuring recycled and regional material content were specified and installed, reducing transportation costs and promoting local businesses.
• Each unit was designed to be low-maintenance, featuring materials that are easy to clean, are not fragile, and will help each resident maintain a healthy home.

Indoor Environmental Quality

• Each unit features an HVAC designed to provide filtered outside air into each unit, creating a very healthy indoor air environment, decreasing health problems for it’s residents.
• Each unit was designed and modeled to ensure proper airflows and exhausting, to further promote a healthy indoor space and create a comfortable home.
• Low-VOC paints and finishes, and urea formaldehyde free interior wood finishes, to improve the indoor air quality for installing contractors and building occupants to improve health and well being of all building users.

Awareness and Education

• Tampa Crossroads has vital knowledge of every building system, and feature, in order to properly maintain and ensure efficiency for every unit.
• As part of the project team’s approach to LEED, all public communication about the project has featured an educational component promoting green building and  LEED for Homes certification.

 



“From the Skies to the Depths”
by Jason Shiver

Artist Statement:

Water connects all aspects of life.  Even the largest of beast is lost in its vastness. All creatures in every community gravitate towards it and prolific communities of creatures live within its bounds. In the end, water will reclaim everything.

The subject of this work examines how water brings diverse types of creatures and communities together.  “From the Skies to the Depths” depicted in raw steel with a focus on gesture and scale, captures the nature of water and its importance to all creatures. 

Artist Description of the Project:

I was fortunate enough to know someone who does insurance work on motorcycles (The Chop Shop Inc. on Chancy Rd in Zephyrhills) and he donated numerous used/damaged motorcycle parts that I incorporated into each piece.  Additional material for the project was obtained from (Fabricated Products in Ybor City), junkyards and frankly, random discarded pieces of steel on the side of the road.

Tarpon - If you look closely at the jaw bone of the tarpon, it is part of a motorcycle chassis.  It's upper most scales are comprised of part of a recycled water tank and its fins are steel from a former exhaust stack from a ship.

Hawk - The bird of prey's body is made from a discarded motorcycle tank.  The birds head is a portion of a bumper from a 1973 ford van. 

Alligator - The alligator's rear and front legs are made from motor cycle chassis' parts. The skin is comprised of water tanks found at a local dump. Portions of the front and back legs of the gator were fabricated from drop pieces of schedule pipe. 

Shots (and video) of the sculptures being created can be found on Facebook on my artist page, Jason Shiver Art.  To view these progressive pieces, "like" the page and feel free to look around.

Link to Jason Shiver Art Facebook Page:

Link to Facebook Photo Album (featuring shots of the art in creation):