Page 22 - ArchDC Fall 2018

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Views of the squash club interior.

section. The two-level fire station replaces a smaller and less- one along the front of the building that serves as an outdoor
capable 1960s-era fire station that previously occupied the site. The terrace for the squash court facility.
two-level squash court facility includes eight courts, a locker room The perforated, corrugated metal doors of the fire station
with showers, a pro shop, and a café on its lower level, and exercise are painted fire-engine red, clearly signaling the space’s use to
equipment and an overlook on its mezzanine level. The six-story the neighborhood. The box containing the squash court is gray.
apartment block comprises 61 apartments, including 55 set aside The simple rectangular form of the apartment block, which is
as affordable dwelling units for renters earning 60 percent or less enlivened by a staggered window pattern, is sheathed in white
of the area’s median income. A below-grade garage provides 24 fiber-reinforced concrete panels.
parking spaces—20 for the fire station, and four for the squash The exterior’s red, gray, and white color scheme is carried
court business. through to the interior of the squash court facility, which is a non-
The building’s exterior design exuberantly expresses the membership business open to the public. The facility’s café features a
project’s three uses through its stacking of rectangular masses and curvilinear service counter executed in stacked plywood layers,
changes in materials, colors, and window patterns. Although the echoing in miniature the building’s stacked-box design scheme,
design can appear at first glance to consist of three boxes, a closer and is located along the front window wall, giving customers a
look shows that the fire station is a combination of two rectangular view of the neighborhood and easy access to the terrace.
masses (one red, the other gray), and that the apartment block sits on The apartment units “were designed to be of the same quality
a pedestal that separates it from the squash court section, making and aesthetic that EastBanc has become known for [in other
for a total of five major rectangular forms. The interplay between all projects],” said Sean M. Stadler, AIA, LEED AP, WDG’s principal-
these boxes creates a variety of setbacks and projections, including in-charge for the project. “They have a similar level of finish and

20 BOXED UP AND READY TO GO