The Madison Apartments will be a mixed-use building on an existing vacant lot on the corner of East Madison Street and 23rdAvenue East. The project hopes to successfully develop a challenging site that is currently a missing tooth in the urban fabric, provide housing and commercial opportunities that are scaled to the local housing and business needs, and to develop a high quality building that is authentic to its time and is responsive to its context.

We will be presenting the project at a Central Area Land Use Review Committee community meeting on October 15th, 6:30 pm at the Bullitt Center.

The project has been designed to respond to both the commercial nature of the Madison Corridor and to the residential nature of Denny.  Along the Madison corridor the project steps down the hill, creating multiple retail entries that can support small incubator retail businesses.  The façade design features large storefronts, projecting awnings, and a certain degree of visually dynamic asymmetrical composition.  Along Denny, the project uses similar materials, but there is no expressed storefront base, no continuous canopy, and the composition is more ordered and quiet.

The project has been specifically designed to step the lower levels of the building in order to adapt to the sloping public way.  This stepping allows for a more porous edge along the Madison commercial corridor and a minimization of the visual impacts of the parking and utility uses along the Denny façade. Placing the residential entrance along Denny Way creates pedestrian activity and activates all sides of the site.

At the corner between the Madison and Denny Facades, The project celebrates the corner with a façade that is more transparent, features a double height retail space, and expresses the geometry of the site by featuring a sharp prow that is typical of triangular sites in the Madison corridor. The transition from the corner prow to the Denny façade leaves a little space between the two masses to allow them to be visually distinct and resolve in a more successful fashion.

The project has been designed to accommodate narrow floorplates, multiple entries, and correspondingly small, more affordable apartments and incubator commercial spaces. All of these features are highly responsive to the needs of the neighborhood residents and businesses. The project massing has been designed to express the geometry and take advantage of the sloping nature of the site.

Parking is in an area behind the building, partially enclosed and partially open.  The portions of the parking enclosure that are open are screened by a green screen wall and an overhead trellis.

In commercial zones adjacent properties can be developed to the property line, so projects have to be designed to work both in their current form, and in a future condition with a neighbor built up against it. The NE blank wall features unit balconies that create depth and shadow, and a composition of colored panel siding to add visual interest.  The SE blank wall features a frame-infill pattern that echoes the Denny facade.  A portion of this wall has been set back three feet to allow for windows in the façade to increase visual interest.

The project features a number of high quality materials that are selected with durability and appropriateness to climate in mind.  Project materials include Integrally colored GFRC cement panel siding (OKO skin), Anodized aluminum storefront, powder-coated steel canopies and decks, vinyl windows, rainscreen installation of all sidings, exterior insulation of all roofing.

Permits are expected to be ready for a Spring 2015 start of construction.