The Gramercy is the biggest self own on the negative design side imo. blank wall, and compare the strategic building corner design decisions on this to the Cameron Village one.
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Around the corner, the Devon is one of my favorite apartment buildings. STEEL and CONCRETE construction, no wood. Ground floor retail. Fluid design accents (sure itās all grey, but Iāll take a singular colored building over these weird ass hodgepodge designed apartments with brick for the first 3 floors, vinyl siding for the next 2 floors, then beige concrete for the top floor for some f*king reason).
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Gramercy is 100% fine with me. If we could get 100 more buildings of similar size and quality all over urban Raleigh, I would dance for joy. Non-descript, inoffensive design, with solid urban form, wins the day for me every time. Ever been to Paris, Tokyo, Stockholmā¦ the buildings there are very formulaic, extremely repetitive. Basically, due to building in the most economical way for the time in which the buildings were built. Demanding that every apartment be a unique and special snowflake is just another way to make it harder to build enough housing.
The blank wall is required because itās built up to the lot line. Those sort of blank walls were a dime a dozen in the early 20th century for the same reason.
The corner treatment on Gramercy is actually better than the one at Cameron Village - it handles the varying grade along Glenwood better than Berkshire handles the varying grade along Clark, by bringing the corner of the building to the exact same level as the sidewalk on the corner, making the retail feel much more āaproachableā from the sidewalk, compared with the Berkshire at CV. Berkshire has more architectural āinterestā at the corner, but the retail feels very disconnected from the sidewalk. Style over substance.
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I think the blank wall wasnāt the worst decision. could you image if they put windows on that wall and then the property next door decided to build their own 5-6 story building? It would be a window to another building.
On a separate note, Iāve normally seen projection showing on this wall at night. That adds to it.
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If I am being really honest, I pretty much like all of these because of how nice to live in they are and how they make retail and businesses in walkable places actually work. When I lived at the Devon the Gramercy was built and the market there was a game changer! That overshadowed any architectural issue for me.
But, I have just seen that large numbers of people donāt see these from the living in them perspective. They just see what they donāt like about them. So, I lean towards how could we make them little better architecturally if that could help a little bit.
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Iād be curious too as to which ones people like and donāt like. I donāt see a problem with the buildings as they do allow for apartment units. Iām not against the ones that donāt have retail as long as they have units filling the space.
I wouldnāt mind seeing what the video called the āLA Dingbatā. I was used to seeing similar complexes in Oakland. These are typically not as expensive as the complexes that have the luxury amenities.
I would like more apartments that donāt have the luxury amenities. An apartment could forego the gym and actually lease out a retail space or two for an actual gym. This could keep the housing costs low but would give the option of being part of a gym. I know a few people who are members of a gym, but live at a complex that also have a gym (which is a waste). Their reasoning is that the actual gym equipment is better.
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Devon and SkyHouse were the only two places I really considered when moving downtown and it was because they are concrete built, and actually have some character/style. I kind of dug the Link but it felt cheap.
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A little off topic, but for some reason we have like 10 Skyhouses that all look exactly alike in Atlanta so Iāve grown to hate how they look lol
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I think you actually have 2? But there are several buildings that look really really similar.
EDIT: Actually 3 as thereās one in Buckhead.
Dang it is 3! I guess by name but thereās the same tower also in Atlantic Station, one more Downtown and in Buckhead Village
I donāt know that that would solve anything here. People love to look to design standards as a solution to ugliness, but the reality is that itās really, really difficult to regulate the qualities that most of us dislike in these buildings without being overly prescriptive. You donāt want standards to become burdensome towards effective design that actually seeks to break the mold. What happens then is that you end up squeezing out any character/vision and end up with the same cookie-cutter buildings we see everywhere else. This proposed building in Durham would never make it past Caryās design standards, for example.
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Is this 5 over 1 construction? I simply donāt remember if itās wood or concrete.
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One more thing bouncing off that.
We all want this city to keep growing. If design standards are made too stringent, developers could just stop building here. Have to find a happy medium though. Would love to see a bit more variation but honestly the apartments never really bothered me.
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To be clear, it wasnāt a decision; it was a requirement. You canāt have windows if youāre building to the lot-line by code.
Thatās how we get these sorts of facades. Recess and stick in some windows.
I lived in the post apartment right behind the Skyhouse buckhead for a year. Looks like it is called the MAA Stratford now. That was my experience living in a 5 over 1 and really enjoyed it. Nice apartment with a nice pool. Could walk to the mall, Marta, and Buckhead. This was 2012 ishā¦ Cool big buildings views too. I will always remember when I needed to get a visa to go to Brazil and when I looked up the address to the embassy I realized that I could see it outside of my window.
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Iād rather they just put a mural on the blank wall until the neighbor can redevelop right up to the existing building!
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Agreed. Itās obvious thereās an expectation of an adjacent future building.
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How would you have any knowledge of this building???
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nightmares!!!
