NAIOP 1/6

NAIOP 1/6


2015 NICHE DEVELOPMENT

NAIOP’s third design competition in 2015 featured Niche Development the Future, recognizing three firms for outstanding submissions. The winning companies presented their concepts at the Commercial Real Estate Conference 2015.

 

2015 Winning Concepts:

KGD Architecture: Aria

Aria is an urban-infill 1 million-square-foot development that serves as a multigenerational, mixed-income and mixed-use community. A vibrant one-acre public courtyard at the center of three buildings forms the heart of the project. The concept redevelops an existing multifamily building into a combination of market-rate and affordable housing, with areas that showcase art and technology uses, as well as medical offices. Sustainable and high-tech elements are employed throughout Aria, from the roof garden terrace, where residents can cultivate herbs, vegetables and fruits, to exterior and interior green walls that help maintain air purity and reduce demand on mechanical HVAC systems. Rooftop photovoltaic panels and microturbines capture solar and wind energy.

Meyer: Continuing Care Urban Community

Meyer’s Continuing Care Urban Community features independent living apartments that are located close to the fitness center, the indoor pool and an Amenity Center, which houses a bistro and community room. It redevelops and revitalizes an existing three-story garden apartment complex in an “urban-suburban” location to support lower- and middle-class seniors’ desires to “age in place.” The reuse of well-located older buildings does not require land development, zoning or municipal approvals, which increases speed to market and reduces development costs. The addition of elevators, active courtyards and community spaces throughout each floor can transform sturdy, older garden apartment complexes into affordable housing for seniors.

Ware Malcomb: Nexus

Ware Malcomb’s mixed-use medical campus includes four primary components: the Mind Nexus, Heart Nexus, Spirit Nexus and Body Nexus. The components can be built using a phased approach and can operate autonomously. The concept’s holistic view of health care delivery envisions “more health, less care,” and brings together a variety of high-tech spaces for learning, healing and wellness in a single destination. Space needs will shift as patients receive care remotely through technology and less in dedicated medical facilities. Medical professionals will provide virtual consultations to patients through apps and microclinics/kiosks, and storage needs will change, as sterile case goods like stents and tools as well as custom molds and other products are made on-site as needed with 3-D printers.

NAIOP’s annual design competition generated creative and cutting-edge, yet practical, ideas that are based on user needs and trends in the industry.

Building of the Future 2015