Depot and Main | Pre-schematic Design | 2020
With the goal of obtaining investors as well as public interest, this project visions how a large lot occupying an existing warehouse can be infilled with both an 11 story apartment building and a smaller four story residential building. Besides the two new proposed buildings, the public space surrounding the buildings integrates the old with the new. On the site, sidewalks, roads, and gardens blur to create a shared street.
This project was designed by ODP Architects. The project team includes Lead Designer: Christian Steixner.
The concept for the feasibility and concept design come from information gathered about the client and the site. Pertaining to the client, Gainesville.com writes that “Hoch Shitama, principal and CEO of Akira Wood in Gainesville, proves that form and function can go hand-in-hand with his company’s approach to architectural woodwork". For the architectural massing language, inspiration was taken from woodworking joinery.
To inform the way we designed public space and building use, we learned that the "Porters community" where this property is to be developed within was said to be "a place where residents have been more than neighbors to each other: They’re family.” -Gainesville.com
Additionally, beyond being hospitable, “If you had a garden, you would share and if I had a garden, I would share” she recalls. “It was like a village.“
-Gainesville.com
