101 East 66th Street

Located at 101 East 66th Street, this new 5-story building is designed to align with Richfield’s ambitious goals for the city and their 2040 Comprehensive Plan. Currently on the site are two, small single-family homes and a small, vacant, multi-family building that is falling into disrepair. Located along the busy East 66th Street corridor, our new project aims to create much needed multi-family residential options, new commercial retail space, as well as public realm improvements around the site.

Once finished, the building will have 5 stories of residential units, an on-grade parking lot, and a below grade parking garage. The residential floors will consist of 80 spacious units and several amenities throughout the building, including a fitness room, yoga studio, sauna, first floor lounge, and a club room with amenity deck on the fifth floor. At the ground level, a commercial retail space holds the corner on 66th Street and 1st Avenue, facing the adajacent commercial district.

The building mass and location is designed in response to its context. Both the east and west ends of the building step down to a closer height of its neighbors, with single family homes to the east and a commercial building to the west. The surface parking lot behind the building provides a buffer between the new construction and the established single-family home neighborhood behind.

The primary exterior material will be black metal panels, that have alternating box ribbed profiles, with a reflective bronze panel used to accent the windows. A gray-toned brick is used at the ground level residential units and reflects similar brick colors that can be found around the neighborhood. The prominent design feature will be an illuminated metal band, sweeping across the cornice at the top of level three, and turns down to create the building entry canopy. As this element is illuminated, it will accentuate the reflective bronze panels intermixed among the darker panels. This feature ties together the varied materials used while creating an opportune location for a unique signage element that will be seen from East 66th Avenue.

The project will add a variety of benefits to the community and will strengthen Richfield’s mixed-use district. In addition to the new housing stock and a new commercial space, several elements are proposed to help improve the public realm. Residential units located at level 1 will include walk-up balconies, activating the streetscape. Surrounding the walk-up access will be clusters of native plantings, bollard-style sidewalk lights, and an improved design for the site corner at 66th and Stevens that is currently the location of a bus stop. Adjacent to the commercial space located on the corner, a patio with planters is proposed with the intention for the commercial space to be a new restaurant or café.