The Ridge at Chenal Valley

2012 Grand Aurora Award: Rental Apartment Community – density less than 15 units per acre
2012 Grand Aurora Award: Recreational Facility – Community Clubhouse

The Ridge at Chenal Valley is a garden style apartment community positioned on top of a ridge. The challenge was to develop a design solution that took advantage of the views while working with the site’s topography. Under these conditions, buildings with large footprints would not have worked as well with these very steep grades. Our solution was to create split level buildings. By creating building configurations that placed three stories at the front and four stories at the rear, each building took advantage of its placement on the site to maximize the number of apartments, while minimizing the building footprint. An additional benefit was that fewer grading modifications were required, since the buildings were designed to work naturally with the topography.

The Ridge at Chenal Valley Clubhouse was designed to create an iconic initial statement as residents and guests arrived to the community. By studying the architectural vernacular of the region, a powerful clean expression was created.