This condo building houses 5 residential units stacked vertically on the 25 x 100 foot urban lot. Each unit occupies an entire floor and is served directly by a private elevator entrance. While this use and program is not unusual for the area the client wanted the exterior expression of the building to set it apart. The challenge for the architects was to try and create a visually interesting façade design that not only gave this building a distinct individual identity while respecting its context, but also served repeated typical floor plates equally while not itself appearing ‘typical’.
The solution that emerged early on in design development was both simple and elegant. By taking alternate floors of a standard historical brick façade and shifting them so that the openings and piers no longer align vertically, the result is both modern and dynamic. This checkerboard pattern offers the same amounts of solid and void on each floor but at alternating locations. While the proportions and the use of brick as the main material are directly influenced by the its historical counterparts this building has a definite modern feel. Western red cedar railings and two tone metal bay cladding compliment the rustic brick.