After having looked at the row-homes being built in and around North Park I wanted to design something to see what I could come up with. There are many requirements from the city zoning and building codes. My goal was to give each row home an outdoor area, a view of something—not a neighbor’s window, cross ventilation, no common/shared walls and comfortable and usable living spaces. There had been a lot for sale zoned for multiple units located one lot in from the corner of University and Louisiana. These lots are a transition between the commercial/multi-family zoning along University to the single family homes south toward Morely Field in Balboa Park.
The upper floors would have a view of Florida Canyon to the southwest to Bird Park to the southeast. The garage is in the basement with 3 floors of living above. The master suite is on the top floor overlooking all. The views are oriented to the south and not to the north since at some point a 4 to 5 story building will be constructed on the empty lot to the north. The row homes have 1,500 square feet each. A row-home contains 2 bedrooms, 2-1/2 bathrooms, kitchen/dining/great room, laundry and a living room/office.
This is the latest design for the site. The style could be called a row-loft.
I first designed at a 5-apartment building. Then I tried out 4-row-homes with large out-door areas. The third design was for 3 row-homes. I liked them but they didn’t price out right in today’s real estate market. I don’t think people would pay $600,000 given the location. So I came up with this 4 row-home plan. They could be built and sold for around $449,000.
“Paper” architecture refers to make believe projects. It should be “generated-on-a-computer” architecture since most of it was done on the computer.
