Pullman Parc

• location:
  Detroit, MI
• Date:
  2020
• client:
  Hunter Pasteur Homes
• collaborators:
  Structural Engineer: Engineered Structures
  MEP Engineer: Strategic Energy Solutions
• project_team:
  Principal-In-Charge: Elizabeth Whittaker
  Senior Associate-In-Charge: Soo Jin Yoo
  Project Manager: Robin Bankert
  Design Team: Eli Kruse Logan
• description:
  We are inspired by the design challenges of the townhouse building typology and how it can partake in the future of housing in Detroit. How can the interior layout maintain a small townhouse footprint for urban living simultaneously incorporate the desired comforts of a "house"? How can the exterior design offer individuality to each townhouse while working with an economy of means with respects to a multi-unit building? Our design of 25 units at Pullman Parc are a series of 16'-0" and 18'-8" wide units that allow for more intimate living with a single car garage, or more spacious living with a two car garage. The homes are defined by a playful composition of shed roofs that can be perceived from above as well as at ground. These roofs create double-height spaces inside and opportunities for patios, balconies, and roof decks offering city views. A unique feature of the Parc Homes units is the internal courtyard that divides each townhouse from its neighbor, providing outdoor space, cross-ventilation, and abundant natural light deep within the floor plan. Living spaces have access to air and light from two directions and most bedrooms can be naturally cross-ventilated with windows.
  
  The Parc Homes units are nestled around an open green space that is central to the Pullman Parc community and axially connected to St. Aubin Street, Dequindre Cut, and the Lafayette Park neighborhood of Detroit, which is home to the largest collection of modernist residential buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe. As a way of being part of the growing neighborhood and paying homage to the historical architecture of the multi-unit townhome buildings, our design proposes to reinterpret its material palette and massing in a contemporary way. Instead of dark steel and glass against brick, a more sustainable and high performance charred wood siding is utilized above the brick. Instead of simple rectangular forms punctuated by discreet white entry portals, the facade is treated with series of pocketed alcoves, balconies, and step-backs that are clad in cedar.
  
  In addition to the balanced relationship between continuity and visual variation surrounding the green space, the material palette and massing work together to provide a lively characteristic to the expanding Lafayette Park neighborhood that includes Pullman Parc. Front porches and integrated planters outside the unit entries reinforce the pedestrian scale of the units and activate the green space as part of a shared space that supports the City’s agenda for ‘20-minute neighborhoods’.