This was a very unique site in a dense urban neighborhood with street frontages on both the front and back. Because of the way the existing building was designed, we had to get very creative with the unit designs and flex our extensive code knowledge to the maximum.

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Generally, bedroom windows are required to face a public street or rear yard with direct access to the street. Here, that would have put the bedroom windows on extremely loud, busy streets. But, we utilized our knowledge of the local fire code to make use of a little-known code exception. By making the interior of the building safer with higher fire ratings and more sprinkler coverage, we were able to locate the sleeping rooms in the middle of the building facing into small, quiet light wells. 

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As a result, this busy site has luxuriously quiet bedrooms that do not front onto a public street, but still meet all safety requirements.

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Outdoor space is always a key component of our designs, so we also converted the small light wells into cozy private decks for each unit. These (3) 1-bedroom units turned out beautifully and rented quickly.