Wellington Lofts Update

The Wellington Lofts project is finally complete. A couple years ago, we helped renovate the existing building, adding 6 six new units in the basement. The recently completed alley building provides 3 new studio apartments on top of a re-built 6 car garage structure. All told, we raised the unit count from 16 to 25 and brought the existing defunct parking back into service, all while preserving the existing building.

The alley building roof slopes and overall massing are designed to step down in scale towards the alley, creating a more harmonious composition and limiting the amount of wall area facing the apartments across the alley. The massing scheme allows the sleeping lofts to be placed away from the west building facade, which improves privacy relationships across the alley

The alley building cladding features painted cement panels painted with a range of colors that complement the brick of the original building so the new addition fits more comfortably with the character of its immediate context, while using contemporary forms and materials.

The building has a consistent design concept and a material palette. Garage doors and apartment windows are aligned from top to bottom on the facade in order to provide a orderly composition, similar to that of neighboring masonry buildings.

Each unit has a large sleeping loft above the kitchen, bathroom and laundry at the apartment level. The living area takes advantage of the double height space. The thin floor plate and simple shed form provide each unit with access to good natural light. High windows provide individuals within the units views to the sky and maintain privacy from neighboring buildings.

Wellington is a great example of the kind of work we have been doing on existing apartment buildings since the new multi-family code passed in 2011.  We have done renovations like this on a couple dozen apartment buildings, adding needed units to our housing stock while preserving and rehabilitating existing building fabric.  Prior to 2011, density limits and parking requirements prevented building owners from fully utilizing their existing buildings