NEIGHBORHOOD BUILDING

The Sawyer Art Apartment building is sited along a commercial corridor with low-slung, flat-roofed storefronts on Detroit’s West McNichols Road. Its immediately adjacent residential context to the south and north, however, includes two-story homes with pitched roofs in an eclectic mix of styles. The project replaces a dilapidated series of existing buildings with commercial storefronts facing McNichols and a mix of walk-ups and upper-level apartments featuring roofline geometry similar to the adjacent neighborhood fabric.


STREET LIFE

The building encourages active street life, plugging in to the new biking and pedestrian streetscape improvements along McNichols with multiple landscaped exterior spaces. The walk-up portion of the building has active residential entries accessed through a public landscaped plaza occupying the set back along Prairie Street, and a second floor common amenity deck visible from McNichols and framed by Sawyer’s murals provides additional semi-private social spaces for residents. The project’s 29 parking spaces accessed under the building and through a rear alley are tucked behind active commercial frontages throughout.


HOUSING FOR EVERYONE

The project’s mix of residential unit typologies appeals to a diverse range of needs, budgets and lifestyles. The program includes 38 affordable apartments above modestly-scaled ground floor commercial spaces slated for local, small business tenants. A total of 2 studios, 24 one-bedrooms, and 12 two-bedroom units occupy two connected structures: an L-shaped 28-unit 3-story elevator building facing McNichols, and a 10-unit walk-up facing Prairie. The combined development area totals 37,700 SF, just exceeding the maximum FAR of 1.5 for the site.