The Metropolitan is a unique mixed-use, mixed-income development that includes apartments, condominiums, retail, commercial, and community program space, as well as two levels of underground parking and a public garden. Of the 251 residential units, 46 percent are reserved for affordable housing - an unusually high proportion, and a model for future urban mixed-use developments.
The urban design challenge was creating a development that helped create a graceful transition between the neighborhood's historical low- and mid-rise residential buildings and the newer, somewhat more imposing forms associated with the adjacent vibrant medical campus.
The ultimate design integrated a 23-story tower element within the core of the approximately one acre development parcel, juxtaposed within two mid-rise, six-story "pedestal" building elements along the street, keeping in scale with the adjacent structures and overall street wall of the main fronting street.
The resulting U-shaped design further created space for an open, south-facing public courtyard, thereby creating additional visual relief along the lower pedestrian scale secondary road. The 8,000 square foot professionally landscaped courtyard creates an intimate oasis in the middle of the busy, dense urban neighborhood. The design includes black bamboo, wisteria, gingkoes, and a trellised seating area overlooking a reflecting water basin.
The 430,000 square foot development includes 118 for-sale condominiums and 133 apartments, most of which are located in the 23-story tower, and retail, commercial, community program space, and a few apartments in the mid-rise buildings.
Photos by Bruce T. Martin
