Project Description
For this project, the site drove everything. A jumble of properties cobbled together to span a full block – touching each street yet controlling only one corner – the architecture needed to create urban passages to be a cohesive development. To that end, our designers turned the project inside out, developing two internal, public, mid-block connectors, north/south and east/west, lined with live/work, commercial, residential entrances and focused retail, all destined to draw residents and passersby through the project and become a new gathering, shopping space for the greater neighborhood.
On Pike Street, the south connector entrance is the former BMW Showroom, a brick and timber structure from 1926 that features a curved entry re-purposed as a focal point for the entire project. Incorporating this structure into the development largely made the project possible by allowing the building to rise an extra story above what the existing zoning would allow.
Crafting a fairly large development around this significant, yet comparatively small, building took respect for both the exterior brick façade and the interior volumes which designers took advantage of to create a high, transparent passage for residents. Rising from the base of the brick structure is a subdued, seven-level building with a quiet, controlled palette, designed to mitigate the size of the project and help the mass recede into the background allowing the complex, engaging pedestrian experience to shine.