5 Beers 1 Coke: Assignment 3: Planning “Local” Development

The Capitol Arch Apartments building downtown is home to a complex program that includes residential, office, and retail front spaces, pulling from the local context and history of Columbus. From the massing to the material choices, the building distinguishes itself from other buildings around it, while abstracting what it is to be a part of Columbus and using that information to generate a building form-work.

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The strong history of Columbus flows like the raging Scioto River. Traditional districts like the German and Italian Villages are reflected in the peaking roofs and simple use of brick material. A courtyard weaves, in reflection of Columbus’ rivers, a way through the center of the building creating green space. A walking path decorated by local artisans incorporates the rejuvenated art scene from places like Franklinton Park and a post-modern abstraction of the Columbus’s infamous arch adorns the pedestrian entrance. Columbus is a big city with a small town feel and the sprawling building layout makes the apartments a retreat from the hyper urbanity of the downtown. However, while Columbus is proud of its history and traditions, it has always been and continues to be a forward looking city.

 

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The early industrial side of Columbus has been replaced in recent years with jobs in the technology and consulting fields. Columbus has year after year been considered among the top cities in the country for those in the technology, and the abstract nature of both the form and carbon fiber make Capitol Arch Apartments a building that, like Columbus, is at the forefront of design sensibilities, while making a mark in the city. The scale of heavy brutalism as seen in parts of the city’s skyline is seen in the sprawl of the building and points on the building which are over-scaled, such as the pitching of the roofs.

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Columbus as a city and the nature of the program are diverse and Capitol Arch Apartments attempts to consolidate these differences into a cohesive whole.

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The Chair of Pierre Activity 3: Designing/Planning “Local” Development

GreenPlex 

Our sign is made of Limestone with the lettering and designs chiseled in. The designs represent GreenPlex's core values which are to be clean, sustainable, and to honor Ohio's history.

Our sign is made of Limestone with the lettering and designs chiseled in. The designs represent GreenPlex’s core values which are to be clean, sustainable, and to honor Ohio’s history.

Columbus has been spearheading its downtown urban development with a theme of preserving the historic buildings that are in existence and merging the surrounding buildings with progressive green innovations. The town has enormous pride in itself and the new development around High, Gay, and Long Street are reflective of this due to the quality of thought that has gone into the area. We believe that the buildings should display Columbus’s desire for a more sustainable and green model of design of buildings by having efficient passive and active HVAC systems, using sustainable and long lasting building materials, and having a green space and solar panels on the roof. Our GreenPlex multi – use building will attempt to cover all three of these desires in a pleasing way that fits in the existing area and also encourages similar development in the future.

The arches on the front façade of the building facing east serve two purposes. First is for the aesthetic property of Columbus being the ‘City of Arches’. We like keeping this theme going along because it makes Columbus stand out from other cities and even if it is not anything astounding, it is still something Columbus can call its own. The arched windows are also grouped in three to represent Long, Gay, And High Street. The second purpose is that the windows will be set back in the arches at a scientifically determined depth so that it provides optimal shading from the sun at the peak hours of the late morning in the summer reducing the energy needed to cool the building, while also allowing some light in for the winter to help heat the windows.

The materials we are planning to use are brick, limestone, and energy efficient glass. The brick ties the building to the road that will be going underneath the building and connecting the access roads to the parking garage. It is symbolic of how this building will try to tie the existing area into the new building. The use of limestone in the arches and columns will show how this building will be built to last a long time and exemplify the solidarity of the structure. The two large columns bordering the side extremes of the front façade will be symbolic of supporting the green space on the terrace and the solar panels on the roof that will reduce the carbon footprint of the building over a long time. The main goal of GreenPlex is to create a long lasting structure the will tie into the existing area while creating the least amount of disturbance on the environment as possible.

 

Front View: High Street

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The front side of GreenPlex will face High Street. With multiple stories used for retail, the bottom portion of the building will be made with brick along with glass doors and windows. The upper half of the retail section will be used for apartments also being made out of brick. We have created tall pillars made out of limestone to separate the retail sections. The center of the first floor will have a tunnel entrance to the underground parking area.

North Side: Long Street

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South Side: Gay Street

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The north and south view facing Long and Gay Street will give the tenants’ and the people of Columbus additional access to enter our GreenPlex. We wanted to reassure the tenants that no matter how busy the retail stores became, they should not have any issues entering their apartments; also creating a better flow for the retail stores and eliminating a clutter of people entering and exiting the stores. We really focused on creating a symmetrical perspective for each side of the building. We strategically placed our variety of windows all around so all the occupants could gaze at downtown Columbus at any given time.

Top View

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For the rooftop of Greenplex, we first and foremost wanted to make sure we could supply our apartments and retail stores with renewable and clean energy. To achieve this, we covered the roofs of the apartments with solar panels, and decided upon this so they can be on the highest point of our complex to capture the most direct sunlight. For the balcony experience, we wanted to try and capture a sense of community for our tenants, and did so by creating a community garden, as well as an individual garden square per apartment, and a greenhouse to access year-round. As well as the gardens, we have created a washing station for the tenants to have easy access to wash their fresh food without having to worry about making a mess in their own kitchen. Lastly for recreation, we made an outdoor kitchen space, infinity pool to overlook scenic downtown Columbus, as well as a park for kids and families to enjoy.

Explore Nation A3: Designing/Planning “Local” Development

Columbus Local can be described through aspects such as

Arches

Elegant, distinguished, prominent, classic, notable, significant

 

Rivers

Flowing, converging, meandering, beautiful, peaceful, serene

 

Brick and Mortar

Stable, unwavering, steady, secure, sturdy, firm

 

Art

Artistic, creative, innovative, imaginative, expressive, alluring

 

“Old Meets New”

Refined, historic, converging, mixed, contemporary, evolving, traditional

 

Community

Accepting, positive, diverse, united, complex, spirited

 

Government

Strong, unwavering, structured, important, powerful, symbolic

 

Little Big City

Comfortable, sizable, reassuring, intriguing, inviting, opportunistic


 

doc2Design aspects from Columbus preexisting buildings are prevalent in the sketch ups that we were able to do. Specifically, arches in the former “Arch City” are important to making Columbus have its own personal sense of style again. Columbus feels generic and doesn’t need to if it is able to utilize existing features and incorporate them into original design – you won’t need “New York Style” living advertisements, you’ll want “Downtown Columbus Style” living.

 

 

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Incorporating these designs into the Edwards Development Company’s building, as we have called it “The Confluence,” is simple. If trying to stick closer to the design, only simple alterations have to be made, such as adding arches over windows or adding a more aesthetically-matching ridge that most historical buildings in Columbus have. The sign would be a great contrast, Imageutilizing copper letters and a giant glass “e,” showing off the arch design in a modern, elegant style. The “e” would be able to light up with LED lighting theoretically and change colors.

The Confluence’s northern half, near doc3the intersection of Long and High, appears to be built in a more luxury, traditional building style that reflects the buildings over the I-670 cap, according to the sketch. We chose sandstone and dark brick as building materials because of the Scan_20150914Ohio sandstone quarries, particularly the one in Amherst, and the dark brick which reflects many of the buildings in Columbus that have dark brick, whilst providing a clean, modern contrast. The “x” between the arched retail fronts signifies where the lights, based on the arches from the Short and Old Norths would go. The lettering on this half of the building would be a more sleek, elegant design that reflects and is in tune with the

14southern half of the building, but would provide that formal and luxury living aesthetic. Trees in front of the buildings would be replaced with the native red buckeye tree, an Ohio favorite that blooms beautiful flowers and matches the theme of “red” that people think of when thinking of Ohio. To continue the theme of arches, the red buckeye tree’s leaves naturally curve, making a succession of them appear as arches down the street.


 

In conclusion, the city of Columbus was founded at the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto Rivers; similarly, the plot between Gay St. and Long St. sits at the confluence of downtown and the rest of the city. Due to this very important aspect, we decided to name the new apartment complex The Confluence. This name not only sounds interesting and compelling, but it also symbolizes many different features of the city itself. As has been said before, Columbus has many notable characteristics, one which has a heavy emphasis on arches. Anyone can see that the arches throughout the city are a very prominent feature; therefore, we designed the windows, storefronts, signs, and landscape to include this classic, elegant, and well-known structure, bringing the city back to its original nickname “The Arch City.” This aesthetic design allows for an original, less generic feel to Columbus.

Additionally, Columbus is filled with a mixture of old and new buildings. We decided to include the convergence of traditional and modern architectural elements in the design, allowing us to incorporate minimalist details alongside more traditional features. We have both modern and traditional materials in our design of the apartment complex. Some traditional materials used, including limestone and sandstone, are found in Ohio, along with our use of the Red Buckeye Tree. These intricate details give the apartments more of a unified and local design.

Art is also a major part of Columbus’s identity, so we’d also like to point out that the location of The Confluence would allow its residents easy access to a variety of cultural and artistic events, such as the Ohio and Palace Theatres, the Short North, and the night market located on Gay Street. This converges the artistic and practical parts of Columbus, putting more of the city’s creative features in the spotlight.