Wildwood Gables is an example of the creative redevelopment of a 421-unit, Class D garden apartment property that was substantially vacant. The project, which involved renovation, demolition, and new construction, now includes 546 luxury rental apartment and townhouse units. Though the existing units were in need of repair, they were large with good layouts, and the site was underdeveloped, thus offering opportunities for increasing the number of units. Meticulous landscaping and new amenities–swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness center, clubhouse, and elegant leasing office–were also added. Unit sizes range from 700 square feet to 2,200 square feet, and rents range from $565 to $1,400.
A 417,000-square-foot retail center located in the Cascades Town Center. The Center features five grids of neotraditional design that offer regional, community, and neighborhood retail shopping. Local officials’ flexibility permitted the developer to create a center that offers the ambience of a pedestrian-oriented small-town Main Street while satisfying the pragmatic requirements of modern retailing, such as convenient access and parking.
A 90-bed, middle-income assisted living facility located in a western suburb of Baltimore. The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) defines such a residence as a combination of housing, personalized supportive services, and health care designed to meet the needs of those who need help with the activities of daily living. At Brightview of Catonsville, three floors are dedicated to physically frail assisted living residents, with a fourth lower level designated for the care of seniors with Alzheimer’s disease. The square footage in assisted living communities is typically divided between residential units and common spaces. Common spaces at Brightview of Catonsville include a full commercial kitchen, three dining rooms, a living room with a fireplace, a library, a beauty salon, activity rooms, and outdoor patios. The lower-level Alzheimer’s wing comprises its own activity, dining, and outdoor spaces. The project’s developers had to overcome significant community opposition and design challenges, but the project now serves as a gateway to a well-established surrounding community. The project preserved much of the wooded site and the facility’s design reflects the architectural character of the site’s historic structures.
Wild Sage, a 34-unit, mixed-income, environmentally friendly cohousing project, is one of several small communities being developed in the Holiday Neighborhood, a new urbanist, sustainable, and affordable neighborhood rising from the site of a former drive-in movie theater in Boulder, Colorado. Wild Sage’s construction incorporates many sustainable features and all of the homes in the development are rated Five Star Plus, the highest score given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Residents are expected to drive an estimated 30 percent less than the average American, pay 50 percent less in utility bills, and use 40 percent less water. Designed to encourage interaction among residents, the homes resemble tightly grouped townhouses.
An 90-unit multifamily rental community located adjacent to one of Portland’s MAX light-rail train stations. Significant public participation and financing were involved. Parking in the transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly project is concentrated in the interior courtyard, the building’s facade faces the exterior streets.
The renovation and expansion of a historic and architecturally significant 500-room resort hotel. The $32.6 million repositioning initiative combined new construction and value-added rehabilitation, including refurbishment of the hotel’s guestrooms, lobby, and kitchen, as well as the construction of a new pool complex, a banquet facility, and 78 resort condominium villas.
The Boulders is a cluster of nine single-family homes built around a hillside garden court located on an infill site ten minutes from downtown Seattle in the Greenlake neighborhood. Environmentally friendly wool carpeting, Marmoleum bathroom flooring, and low-VOC paint are intended to enhance the development’s appeal to environmentally informed buyers. A manmade stream takes advantage of the site’s slope while helping mask traffic noise. With houses originally priced between $750,000 and $800,000, the project has attracted affluent buyers–a mix of empty nesters, childless professional couples, and part-time parents.
Located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, ASQ Center is an adaptive use of one of the Midwest’s first department stores. Since the store’s opening by Gimbels Brothers in the 1890s, the three-acre (1.2-hectare) site had been occupied by a major department store. With the closing of the most recent department store, Marshall Fields, in 1997 and the slumping retail market in downtown, a new development concept was needed to rescue the deteriorating building. Williams Development Corporation and Irgens Development Partners LLC, teamed up with a local architect and the city to create a successful mixed-use project that includes a 131-room extended stay hotel, 220,000 square feet (20,438 square meters) of office space, and 40,000 square feet (3,716 square meters) of retail space. The redevelopment plan called for preserving an important landmark by rehabilitating the exterior, replacing the interior after demolition, and maintaining the historic property’s connection to Milwaukee’s skywalk system and the Riverwalk.
Glenwood Park is a new urbanist community located two miles (3.2 kilometers) from downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The 328-unit residential development contains single-family homes, townhouses, and condominiums along with 50,850 square feet (4,724 square meters) of retail and 21,000 square feet (1,951 square meters) of office space. Built by Green Street Properties on a site once used for industrial purposes, Glenwood Park lies between reemerging Atlanta neighborhoods and Interstate 20. The 28-acre (11-hectare) project includes a number of sustainable and green building features such as construction waste recycling, graywater irrigation systems, and Energy Star-rated appliances in the homes.
The Tower Building is a Class A speculative office building in suburban Rockville, Maryland, ten miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C., along the I-270 high-tech corridor. Completed in 2001 and designed before the release of U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for commercial projects, the ten-story, 276,000-square-foot (25,640-square-meter) Tower Building demonstrates environmental innovations in the speculative office sector.
