NBA Sweeps Student Housing at the 2023 Multifamily Executive Awards
Out of nearly 240 nominations, just 12 grand winners and 11 merit winners were selected for the 2023 Multifamily Executive Awards, and NBA claimed both spots in the student housing category! Inspire Atlanta was nationally recognized as the 2023 Student Project of the Year with the Grand Award, and Flamingo Crossings Village won the Merit Award. Keep reading to learn more about both projects…
Category: Student, Grand
Project: Inspire Atlanta
Development Team: Capstone Collegiate Communities and Integral
Close to the Georgia Tech campus and across from Bobby Dodd stadium, Inspire Atlanta is a stylish, off-campus housing development filled with all the comforts and conveniences students need for an engaging educational and community experience. The two-building, 239-unit complex offers 750-beds and a four-story podium parking deck with 280 spaces. Outside of fully furnished apartments, residents have access to a series of layered amenities that follow the natural grade of the site and carry a cascading theme throughout the entire building, culminating with an entire rooftop level of indoor and outdoor amenities with 360-degree views of Atlanta. The imaginative façade features a pattern of glass and masonry that’s distinctive yet in keeping with nearby architecture, which includes the North Ave Apartments (aka Olympic Village) that was designed for the 1996 Olympic Games.
From an entry sequence, campus buses and ride-share services queue at a transportation lounge at the low-side of the building. Amenities within the property gradually slope up to the main lobby providing transparency at the ground level and activating the edge of the street. Internal to the building, this condition provides a creative “cascading effect” where residents access at the low-end and traverse through a variety of study spaces to a monumental stair that takes one up to reception and leasing. While there is continuity in the amenities, it also separates functions so that the quiet, study area is separate from what can be noisier a level-and-a-half above. The stream of amenities follows throughout the structure, with the more social-focused spaces designed on the upper levels and the academic-focused spaces below.
The lower-level amenities are connected into a large, outdoor courtyard. At level five, an amenity deck with active greenspace overlooks the courtyard at grade below. Study pods are located on every level near the resident elevators and every third floor features a multi-height outdoor balcony which provides visual relief to the building elevation and can be shared by residents. At the top level, the team took advantage of the location and provided another series of cascading amenities, this time sky decks that feature a rooftop pool and panoramic views in all directions.
Completed in August 2021 and currently occupied at 100%, Inspire Atlanta has been wildly popular and offers all the luxurious accommodations and stunning views a student could want. Being able to provide a project at an advantageous location to campus, coupled with the common areas on the ground floor, rooftop, and all levels in between truly makes Inspire an amenity-rich community that fosters a setting for students to create their own lasting memories.
Thank you to the project team: Capstone Communities and Integral (Development Team), Niles Bolton Associates (Architect), Hoar Construction (General Contractor), Jordan & Skala Engineers (MEP Engineer), PES Structural Engineers (Structural Engineer), Lorberbaum McNair & Associates (Landscape Architect), Niles Bolton Associates (Interior Designer), J. Lancaster Associates, Inc. (Civil Engineer)
Category: Student, Merit
Project: Flamingo Crossings Village
Owner, Manager and Developer: American Campus Communities
With 154-acres in two parcels and 3.8 million square feet of programmed space, Flamingo Crossings Village (FCV), designed as student living for Walt Disney World’s new home for its College Intern Program, is itself the scale of a small college. The site plan, inspired by the best qualities of campus design, creates a pedestrian-oriented experience for the 10,440 residents by pushing 5,247 surface parking spaces and vehicular traffic to the periphery, and centering a Quad on each site, to which all neighborhood pathways lead.
Both Flamingo Crossings Village campuses had to solve macro scale design issues (vehicular circulation, pedestrian movement, hierarchy of open spaces) and the more intimate elements of design (sense of arrival and placemaking). While each site had a different context to respond to, using the same exterior material palette unifies the properties. Taking cues from Disney Parks and Resorts, where the entrance is the magical point of immersion into the guest experience, the FCV East Education (Apprentice Hall) and Community Center buildings sit united under one gestural roof. The space between them is transformed into an open threshold ‘main street’ that serves as the passageway into the Disney collegiate experience. This ‘building as threshold’ architecturally signifies the students’ movement into the next phase of their lives. It opens itself with its transparent interiors, the dynamic slash of its skylight, and the predicted Floridian breeze created in its sheltering porch.
FCV West’s Community Center takes a different form. Where the East amenity buildings feature a skylit breezeway, West has an open porch, a colonnade where residents can escape a sudden downpour or shelter from the sun. The form acts as a contemporary front door for the project. Facing the pool, the streamlined south elevation is broken by a glass ‘iceberg,’ a fritted glass shard that allows the inside to pop out in a playful way.
The housing design uses a courtyard prototype with the neighborhood city grid: it is inherently efficient at both maximizing four story density and providing openness and a sense of community. The buildings’ exteriors were designed along a changeable spectrum within the DNA of its plan: from flat roofed, clean modern forms with faceted insets, to a more Floridian vernacular that breaks up its massing into a group of enjambed ‘houses’ with steeper gables. Color is used throughout the campuses to identify collections of buildings as neighborhoods. A hierarchy of pedestrian walks combined with outdoor gathering areas at pergolas, outdoor kitchens, and gardens encourage residents to meet and share their semester ‘abroad’ experience.
With all phases complete in December 2022, every aspect of the new live/learn/play community strives to surprise and delight residents while reflecting the client’s unique history, culture, brand, and commitment to distinctive placemaking.
Thank you to the project team: American Campus Communities (Owner, Manager and Developer), Niles Bolton Associates (Architect), FaverGray (General Contractor), Jordan & Skala Engineers (MEP Engineer), Veitas Engineers (Structural Engineer), Niles Bolton Associates (Landscape Architect), Niles Bolton Associates (Interior Designer), Kelly, Collins & Gentry, Inc. (Civil Engineer), PLANNET (Low Voltage/Security/Audio-Visual Engineer), Morrison Hershfield (Waterproofing Consultant)