N&E Apartments

N&E Apartments provide a feeling of sophistication and luxury in the Historic Northeast Arts District. Located adjacent to the Grain Belt Apartments and Historic Brewery, N&E Apartments completes the square of public plaza located at 13th Avenue NE and Great River Road. The 5-story building is home to 93 units and space for a commercial or restaurant tenant at the street level.

The building is clad in bold blocks of corner to help establish the corner. Light colored brick, cream, and Harvest Gold colored panels are used to complement the neighboring buildings. To contrast the light colors, Rich Espresso Fiber Cement lap siding and panels were used.

A strong driver to the design of this building was the site location and its constraints. The client sought a building that could hold charge of the corner, while providing an open space for patio seating adjacent to the commercial space on Marshall Street. The site slopes North, creating an elevation change great enough to allow the parking garage to be split into two levels and be accessed from both Marshall Street and the alley to the East, off 13th Avenue.

Besides having a significant elevation change across the site, it also posed other design challenges. Prior to the construction of N&E Apartments, the site was formerly home to a gas station, which posed additional prep and remediation of the site. Another challenge this site posed was having an oddly high water table level. This factor caused the design team to pursue several iterations to determine the best way to allow ground water to flow beneath the building, including a complex solution of crushed rock and an elaborate piping and filtration design.

The building is comprised of a mix of units, ranging from studios to two-bedrooms, and offers several amenity spaces for residents. The ground level includes an expansive lobby, fitness room and bike room. The roof of the building features a large deck space that provides sweeping views of the surrounding area. The roof deck is the perfect lounge space, complete with grill stations and planters to liven the space. The roof also has small areas of green trays surrounding the drains to help slow process of rainwater entering the storm sewer system.