How is it April already??

Busy.  Busy.  Busy.  That has been the story of the Atelier for the past few weeks and somehow April happened! 

As senior housing has filled our minds and unseasonably cold weather has filled the air, we have been continually developing and refining our plans for the North Site—what we have started to call “Over-the-Rhine Senior Living.”  We have reconfigured unit plans and placements, shifted elevator shafts, raised and lowered parking, tweaked the entrance, and fiddled with ramps and stairs.  After all of these fine-tuned adjustments, we have decided on a fairly thought-out design for now (that is, of course, until something else changes… J).



Currently, our Over-the-Rhine Senior Living designs consist of a campus of 2 separate, but connected buildings.  On Race Street sits the East facility which is made-up of 47 HUD-202, 1-bedroom units.  This facility is raised from the sidewalk about 3 ½ feet with tuck-under parking that accommodates 27 parking spaces below.  This facility is also physically connected at all levels to the existing historic building located on Race Street.  At the street level, a ramp and several stairs make-up the difference in elevation of the existing building’s first floor level and that of our proposed East facility’s.  The main entrance of the campus is at the west-end of the green space at the corner of 15^th and Races Streets.  On the corner of 15^th and Pleasant Streets sit the West facility which, alternatively, consists of 34 Low Income Tax Credit, 1-bedroom units as well as a 2-bedroom manager’s unit. This facility provides street access to the manager’s unit on the ground level and a physical connection to the East facility on the upper levels.  In all, our designs encompass 81 affordable units.

With all of this in mind, we met with an Otis elevator consultant to discuss details about the number, type, and size of the elevator(s) to place in our designs for our project.  This was a very informative discussion, as we learned about two different types of elevators and how they each physically operate and the requirements that pertain to each.  We collectively decide on a G2S elevator which consists of a traction car with gearless drive motors and cables.

We also pulled out the hardhats and took a trip to one of CR’s current developments in Mariemont for a site visit of Emery Park.  This gave us a good taste of the type of construction that our own project would encompass—concrete structure and parking below grade with wood-framed construction of dwelling units above.  It was good to get out of the office and see first-hand the type of construction we are actually dealing with.



On Friday, none other than April Fool’s Day, was jb’s birthday, so of course we had to celebrate!!  We baked up a cake and decorated our little corner of the office.  Birthday hats were included!  I think we pulled off a pleasant birthday surprise.  Later on we took a tour of Over-the-Rhine’s St. Francis Seraph.  We explored many features of the church and even crawled up into the attic space to see the giant trusses and bell towers.  Check out the pictures!

Amidst all this excitement and commotion we even changed desks at the office along with everyone else in CR’s official “Office Refresh.”  We now have new neighbors and a new view out our windows.  And oddly enough, they put us close to the coffee J