Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.
Last week at the Jordan housing committee meeting, CommonBond Communities presented their design proposal for the apartment building to be constructed at the West Broadway curve. There was a lot to like, and a few changes that they will hopefully make. The project was presented as "West Broadway Crescent," which is a rather good name. It sure beats plastering the name a non-profit everywhere, especially if you're going for something that looks like it would be market-rate housing. Which this is not, it's workforce housing subsidized by tax credits.
The footprint of the building mimics the curve of the street, so that's good. And there is enough variety in the facade to keep things visually interesting as well. Where the design starts to lose me though, is in its bland color scheme. It seems like just about every proposal I see incorporates the same three colors: a burnt orange, brown, and eggplant or creme. And the northwest segment has the all-too-common design of first floor brick and a few segments of brickwork up to the third floor. A building on our most prominent street deserves something better, or at least bolder.
Those, however, are minor concerns compared with my biggest departure from CommonBond's proposal. Even though they are building workforce housing, they kept on stressing that this was going to be just like a market-rate apartment complex. But a market-rate building located here would have amenities like...
