Camden Buckhead Wins Honor Award at AIA Atlanta Residential & Hospitality Design Awards
Camden Buckhead was announced as Honor Award Winner in the Multifamily/Mixed-Use – Over 50 Units category during AIA Atlanta’s 2022 Residential & Hospitality Design Awards! Designed as an urban edge and gateway into the West Village, Camden Buckhead is the follow-up project to the flourishing Camden Paces in Atlanta’s premiere Buckhead neighborhood. The community’s 366 units offer gracious floorplans, concierge level services, exceptional amenities, and luxury finishes with the potential for city street, wooded, and skyline views.
Congratulations to Camden Property Trust and the rest of the project team for this prestigious recognition! Read more about the project below, and check out the full list of winners here: AIA Atlanta Reveals Winners of 2022 Design and Honor Awards - AIA Atlanta
Camden Buckhead is the second phase of a multi-phase effort to bring housing and other mixed-uses to a 30-acre intown parcel of land. Prior to the completion of Camden Buckhead, the land parcel already included Camden Paces, phase one of the redevelopment delivered in 2015, Regions Bank, and space for offices, restaurants, and shopping. The guiding principle throughout the design process was simple: How can design evolve a large, insular piece of a city from a closed system into an open one? How can the site be integrated, where the client-directive is to design 366 apartments, into an integral part of the neighborhood? The design solutions were simple and elegant, though they led to complexities that only enriched the overall result. The key strategies were:
Add new streets to the site plan, emulating the surrounding Buckhead Village’s character of smaller blocks, better connectivity, and walkable scale. The new street’s necessary location divided the project in half; instead of seeing this as a negative, the team saw this as an opportunity to design the space between the buildings as an urban piazza, a hardscape for both vehicles and pedestrians.
Become the first test case and subsequent precedent study for Atlanta’s new zoning ordinance, SPI-9 (Special Interest District), that encourages the implementation of public elements such as parks, greenspace and wider sidewalks in order to create a more interconnected community. The project’s entry locations, overall massing, and pocket parks along Roswell Road all were shaped by working with the goals of the ordinance.
Architectural design that engages the senses: a building form that does not stand as a wall but is deeply articulated along its long elevations, and that also steps back in its upper floors to engage the sky; a building skin that rewards closer examination with its tailored, corduroy masonry, generous terraces, and playful fenestration.
Show how a project of considerable density can preserve the green canopy and protect existing waterways. The project’s considerations of environmental impact to the overall design is vital in demonstrating what is valued by a community; architecture can lead this responsibility and create positive, incremental change in our quality of life.
Camden Buckhead’s two buildings front Roswell Road and form the northern edge of the village. The structures include eight- and nine-story post-tensioned concrete frames and a new entry road between the buildings that leads to structured parking below street level. The architectural style of the community is timeless, striking and elegant, but at the same time offers a convivial, relaxing atmosphere in an urban environment. The team leaned towards a more contemporary design concept that is modern and streamlined compared to the traditional design of Camden Paces. White brick was used to break up the massing and make the buildings pop, the same red brick from phase one ties the two developments together, and recessed brick courses provide strategic accents in select areas. A ‘squared halo’ tower element at the main corner of each building anchors the Roswell Road façade and emphasizes the upper two levels’ exclusive townhome units with private terraces.
Along with a prime location and luxury units, Camden Buckhead provides a unique duality of amenities to be shared by residents. Each building was designed with a double-height lobby accessible from the street, with the front doors facing each other. Building 400 houses the leasing office and promotes an active environment with amenity spaces for social gatherings including a clubroom that opens onto a resort-style pool deck with lounge seating and private cabanas. Past the pool, reading hammocks and a yoga zone are located just outside the fitness center, and beyond is an active courtyard with lawn games and grilling stations. Building 500’s program offers a more business-oriented experience with smaller, boutique-style amenities that include private conference rooms, coworking space, a saltwater lap pool, and serene outdoor courtyard.
A picturesque, wooded area with a treescape and stream sits behind the development, which turned into a major design point for the project. The team not only complied with the tree and stream buffer but used the greenspace to their advantage. The natural amenity space provides a tranquil environment for residents, making them forget they are in the middle of a city.
