A few thoughts on housing

Recently I’ve worked on a couple of re-zoning applications for clients seeking to build more densely than the existing zoning permitted. A higher density helps a developer realize a better return on their investment of course, but there are many community benefits to thoughtfully increasing density that may not be obvious so I thought I’d share a few of my observations on the subject.

Housing affordability

Increasing density is the single most effective lever to pull to lower the cost of new housing. Spreading the cost of land across four homes lowers the land cost for each by 75% and since land is usually the single biggest line item in the overall cost picture it can have a huge impact.

Housing diversity

Increasing density can help to provide housing for different kinds of households who aren’t served by the suburban single family house. In my work this has been a frequent theme. At Sculpture Flats, for instance, each 11 unit building contains 3 live/work units, 4 one bedroom units, 2 two bedroom units, and 2 studio apartments which means a variety of options in arrangement and price. On Hickory Street in Highland Park, I converted an old daycare into nine accessible condominium units four of which had a small attached mother-in-law suite which provides for all sorts of multi-generational living arrangements from the mother-in-law, to the live at home caregiver, to the adult child living at home.

Neighborhood walkability

It may be obvious but small commercial enterprises depend on healthy foot traffic to survive and thrive and even the large chain grocery stores plan their new store locations on the basis of the number of bedrooms within a certain distance of the store location. If the density of a neighborhood falls below a certain threshold that neighborhood doesn’t get a neighborhood coffee shop or local restaurant and hangout. And the farther those residents have to walk or drive to get to a grocery store. So density is crucial to having local neighborhood services.

Buffer for gentrification

When a historic neighborhood becomes a desirable location for a new generation of homebuyers prices will rise. Smart, dense, infill development can temper price escalation by increasing the supply of homes in a neighborhood. By putting four townhouses on a lot that would previously have held one house, for example, three new homes are added to the community.

Bonus

If you read this far congratulations! I recently put together a summary guide to the zones in the City of Chattanooga that support multi-family, townhouse, and mixed commercial and residential developments. Email me at my regular email address wayne@workshop.net and I’ll send it to you. If you have a particular flavor of project in mind and would like more specific guidance than is found in the guide we can schedule a call.

Shop Talk - April 2025

Hi!

We’re nearing the start of construction and I thought I’d share some of the details around this very special house. The client is a former college classmate and another architect. She approached me about designing a home to retire with after trying unsuccessfully to buy the Jones Residence when it went on the market.

North Chattanooga House

The home we’ve designed is small at only 2,209 square feet but still packs in some really exciting spaces. Functionally it’s 3 bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 bathrooms, and a small studio. AND it’s been sited and detailed to be net-zero with the addition of a small solar array.

Even with so much happening we were able to include a double height dining room, a small, private screened porch, and courtyard.

Shop Talk - March 2025

Hi!

It’s been some time since I published any evidence of my work here at Workshop: Architecture - whether through social media or anything else. Since I know at least some of you like to know what I’m up to, I’ve resolved to do better. Don’t worry though, this is a small shop and architecture moves slowly, so there’s little chance that I’ll be flooding your inbox! Going forward, I plan to send out updates around once a quarter. And if for some reason you want to look something back up later and you deleted this email, don’t worry. I’m going to post each of these updates on the blog so just you can always find it again on the company website.

workshoparch.net

I thought I’d start by summarizing the breadth of my work from last year and then mention a few projects I hope to cover in more detail in later posts.

Looking back on 2024

My files show that I worked on 16 projects during the last year. The reality is a little more complicated of course since some projects can gestate slowly and even span a calendar year but 16 will do as a rough cut. It’s a lot. As a point of comparison I worked on 9 projects in 2023 and 14 in 2022.

The Outpost completed construction

The project was 24 townhomes near the Black Creek subdivision. The project website can be found at https://theoutpostchatt.com/ There’s no photography yet, only floor plans and renderings which don’t really do it justice. I’ll do a piece on it at some point soon.

Broads Lounge was completed and opened

Broads is a woman owned cocktail lounge that opened last March on 10th Street in downtown. If you haven’t been please go. The cocktails are excellent and the space is gorgeous. This is easily one of my favorite projects of the last few years. As soon as I get professional photography done I’ll do a deep dive into the project. They have a website but the best way to check them out is through their Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/broadslounge

The Buck Residence started construction

Started way back during Covid, this project went though a couple of adjustments before beginning construction. The clients are a professional couple retiring to Chattanooga from the Chicago area. They started their own construction company and are building the project themselves. They both have a background in project management, are passionate about construction quality, and they’re doing a great job.

What about new work?

There’s plenty on the boards too.

• Design on a new custom home for a former classmate of mine from architecture school.

• Design on a new multi-story apartment building.

• Design on a new multi-story office building.

• Design on a new townhome development.

I’ll cover these in more detail as they evolve.

It Goes Without Saying

photo by Lan Nguyen @iamlanimal via Unsplash

As designers, we are acutely aware of systemic injustices. Everything man-made that you see and interact with was designed by people who are inherently flawed and who, both unintentionally and intentionally, project their own lived experiences and biases onto the systems, products, and structures they design. And because white bodies still comprise the majority of leadership positions, it’s inevitable that biases of design favor those of the white experience. As long as that is the case, the systems in place cannot benefit everyone equally.

We at Workshop have certainly benefited from our societal privileges and advantages. And we recognize that, with our knowledge and skill set, we have a responsibility to dismantle existing inequitable power structures and build a better world for everyone. While design has been part of the problem, it can also be part of the solution. We believe design should be a collaborative practice outside the office as much as in it. We work with individuals, neighborhoods and communities to not only meet their design needs but to also educate them about the development process. By fostering a culture of stewardship in which design and development happens with neighborhoods rather than to them, we hope to empower individuals and neighborhoods to advocate for more inclusive and equitable development in Chattanooga.

We realize that we have A LOT to learn, a long way to go, and that change will take a collective effort, which is why we stand behind the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the local, I Can’t Breathe Chattanooga and Concerned Citizens for Justice movements (each of which has different agendas). Protest is a rational response when the system of justice is deeply unfair. Given that protest is built into our American society and democratic process, it is a patriotic duty when the system is broken. So we lift up protesters everywhere, stand with them, and support their demands for change because changes that benefit the most disadvantaged and marginalized of our communities benefit everyone. We wish we lived in a time in which it went without saying, and, until that day, it must be said every day: Black Lives Matter.

Buildings Have Relationships Too

Architecture is often associated with how something looks, and while the shape of a building is what people see, architecture serves a greater purpose than making something aesthetically pleasing, outstanding, or invisible. Architecture, like “design” in its most general sense, is about how something works. What is the function of a building? What happens inside it, around it, or both? What relationship does it have to the things around it, if any? Could it have a role or be engaging? How do we position it to make it more engaging? These are the kinds of questions we ask when we perform a site analysis and study the opportunities and constraints of a site for a potential building. To better understand the relationships buildings have to their surroundings, we can look at these historical examples of the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt and monuments in Washington, D.C.

Map of giza, by wesser moland via wikipedia

…going back at least as far as the Pyramids, sacred structures have been grandiose, dramatic, and the focal point around which life develops and organizes

Our nations capital, Washington, D.C., is another great example of how monumental buildings organize the environment. Large, distinct structures, are often utilized as navigation points in dense urban environments.

The lawn is also a consequence of a relationship between architecture and landscape. While lawns have a storied history of indicating status, the intention behind creating lawns in America was somewhat of a digression from our European counterparts. In Europe, having a lawn was exclusive to the aristocracy. It created distance from main roads and allowed the elite to see who was approaching. It also meant one could afford the labor required to maintain the lawn and/or gardens. While the same things can be said of any American lawn, the “front yard” came about as a consequence of suburbanization. The yard was meant to be a scenic view for passers-by in automobiles as well as a contribution to more public space. And we like to focus on the latter - the idea that communal space has the ability to connect buildings to their environments and to facilitate relationships among the people who inhabit and use them.

In one of our recent projects, a developer envisioned converting an old daycare into multifamily residential units. The old daycare is located in the heart of a neighborhood that prides itself in being a “porch community” of residents who value relationship building. So adapting the building into more - and different types of - housing is the perfect way to capitalize on a perfectly good structure that has been vacant for years. The difficult part, besides the obvious challenge of converting classrooms into residences, is figuring out how to open up the fortress-like building so that it engages the neighborhood it’s in.

The daycare is in the heart of a single family residential area

apart from the doors, the building has no windows, and the entryways are alcoves that retreat into the building instead of engaging the street

In order to create a sense of individual units and to allow more light into them, we designed a series of cuts into the building, which opened up the interior, created a private courtyard for each unit, and gave us the necessary wall space to add windows and allow more light into each unit. While this gives the building a more residential feel from the inside, it didn’t do anything to connect the building with the street or neighborhood. To make matters worse, because of the building’s zoning status, it was already at its limit for how far it could be setback from the street, meaning attaching a covered porch was not an option because it would extend into that setback limitation.

After calling our local zoning official, we learned that knee-high walls would be interpreted as fences rather than porches and would not be subject to the setback limitation. So we placed a patio at the front of the courtyard and extended it forward into the yard. The patio wall is two levels. Part of it is about 30 inches tall to create the classic porch feel that provides some security while still being friendly to the street. The other part is only about 16 inches tall and is more of a transitional space, ideal for sitting on and conversing with passers-by.

To connect the depth of the courtyard to the patio and street, the walls were offset to one side so that the sidewalk and views from the street would continue directly into the courtyard. We also designed a light-weight awning over the threshold from the patio to courtyard to define each entryway; however, in order to stay within the setback limitation, the awning has to live between, and not surpass, the existing building overhangs. 

Top: new residential front facade Bottom: aerial view of of new residential layout with interior courtyards

rendering of new residences with interior courtyards and porches

In another adaptive reuse project, we are transforming an old daylight basement into Pre-K classrooms for the Chambliss Center for Children. Similarly to the above daycare to residential project, not only does the basement we are renovating lack a relationship to the outside but also, the building it’s in sits on the edge of the property, hidden behind other campus buildings and has little relationship to them or the surrounding area. Additionally, the one wall of the basement that actually opens up to the outside, faces a downhill slope into a semi-wooded area.

One of the positive features of the site, however, is that there is just enough level ground outside the basement before it drops off to the west that we’ve been able to incorporate an outdoor play space and create a relationship from the classrooms to the wooded area it faces. We began with a low wall again, this time to keep toddlers from tumbling down the hill. The wall loosely mimics the existing topography to get the most from the available level ground. We also added a canopy, which we designed to be concentric with the wall. And while the building is comprised of a slick surfaced brick, the canopy and wall are comprised of a rugged brick to make them feel as though they are more a part of the site than the building.

sketch of proposed low wall and canopy

North-facing rendering of play area and canopy

The relationship between buildings and their context is influential in the development of communities, and incorporating public and communal spaces into our projects - especially in a town that prides itself on being a place in which people can live, work, and play - creates opportunities for people to connect to each other, their environment, the structures they inhabit, and other places.

Out of Office, In My Element

Architecture can be an all-consuming profession. Part of why I started my own firm was to create a different culture in our industry, one in which life isn’t only about work. Turns out, it’s been easier to preach than practice. For example, we won this year’s Outstanding Emerging Professional Friendly Firm Award for creating a healthy and helpful work environment; meanwhile, I was working 10+ hour days for six or even seven days of the week. I realized I needed a change.

So I recently took some much needed vacation time to pursue my other passion - rock climbing. Although my interest in climbing came late in life, to my surprise, it had a lot of parallels to architecture, and so I quickly took to it. Both practices require intense focus, mental stamina, and problem solving. And because each new climbing route or design project can be approached and accomplished in infinitely many ways, both disciplines provide endless opportunities for experimenting and learning. Applying my architectural skills in the context of climbing over the years has invited valuable perspective and been a great compliment to my architectural practice. My fall vacation was no exception.

Where are the holds?!

You see, my climbing experience consists mainly of Chattanooga mountains, which are mostly sedimentary - limestone, shale, and sandstone. My climbing excursion, however, involved a trip to Brevard, North Carolina where all the rocks are granite, a type of rock I had no experience climbing. Granite is igneous. And while sedimentary rocks erode into ridges and pockets that create places to grip, igneous rock weathers to an almost impossibly smooth surface. With nothing to actually grab, granite climbing is a matter of friction, distributing weight, and maintaining balance. And strategizing is as much about tactility as it is about envisioning or planning. Experiencing this was a great reminder to inhabit and test the spaces I design and, thus, to get out from behind the desk more often.

This trip also involved “trad” and “multi-pitch” climbing, which I’d never done before and which require more attention and cooperation than is necessary for “sport” climbing. While “sport” involves clipping into existing, permanently placed anchors, “trad” (short for “traditional”) means there are no anchors, which adds a few precarious challenges. First, the climber must carry gear (read: more weight) to insert into cracks and crevices along the route to create temporary anchors. Second, there’s the extra responsibility and difficulty of trying to find and place a piece of equipment into a crack while balancing on the side of a smooth granite cliff. And third is the “multi-pitch” aspect. When the route is so long that it extends beyond the length of the rope and must be broken up into multiple sections, each with its own belay station, or “pitch.” 

Climber and Belayer resting at a pitch

One of my buddies lead CLIMBING’ and setting anchors.

In order to accomplish a climb with multiple pitches while inserting temporary gear, the belayer has to climb up behind the lead climber, removing gear along the way. The tremendous amount of trust, communication, and cooperation demanded for multi-pitch climbing, undermines any notion that climbing is not a team sport. One’s performance is instrumental in the success of others and, likewise, one’s success is critically dependent upon the performance of others. This is also true in architecture, but it’s easy to forget because you’re not tethered to your collaborators and no one’s life is at stake, at least not in the moment.

the team, the “old man’s club,” is comprised of carpenters, an artist, a jailhouse nurse, an acrobatic pilot, a school teacher, and at least one architect - That’s me on the left.

Unlike architecture, the danger involved in climbing brings an immediacy to it. There’s just no room for everyday worry or stress. Survival mode kicks in, and undivided attention and presence are critical to safety. In contrast, the all-consuming nature of architecture is a choice. Architecture tends to attract perfectionists and obsessive personality types who will obsess over details, lose sight of the bigger picture, and must be pried away from work.

I am guilty of fulfilling the stereotypes. And climbing has helped me tremendously in gaining perspective, both by stepping outside the office and especially outside of myself. There’s nothing quite like clinging to a rock face to remind you of the bigger picture, the beauty and frailty of life, how we only get one shot, and how important it is to slooooow down, remember the bigger picture, and enjoy the process.

beautiful brevard, nc, and Me (not missing the forest for the trees)

 

6 Ways to Save on Your Project

The status quo for saving money on a construction project is to cut out non-essentials at the end when you’ve run out of money. But by understanding that where and how to save on a project often happens in different areas than you think, you can strategize about where you want your money to go. So you’ll have some homework to do, but until then, we’ve bought you some time by outlining six big ways you can save.


Overestimate and underbid

Do research on current construction costs and the many aspects of a project that also require your money and time (which is just more money). Recognize that there will also inevitably (not always, but quite often) be unforeseen costs, and allot a large enough budget to cover what you know to be true as well as the unpredictable variables. When it comes to hiring a designer, you can shoot low in what you have them design for, knowing full well that you have accounted for extras and allowed yourself wiggle room. For a heads up on what to budget for, we’ve created an expense guide that lists the various potential costs involved in design and construction. That way, you can plan ahead and rather than having to deduct finishes or design features from your project to save, you can potentially add them in. 

Example budget breakdown (not including soft costs) for a building that was being renovated into apartments

Reduce your square footage

The best way to save on a project is by keeping your project small and tight. Land, labor, and materials are the greatest expense in a project, and these days, they cost a pretty penny. So the larger your structure, the more it will drain your bank account. There are, however, fixed variables that do not shrink with the overall size, such as kitchens and bathrooms. So while shrinking footprint reduces your overall cost, your cost per square foot goes up, meaning that the money you didn’t spend on a larger footprint allows you to have nicer finishes.



Keep your designs simple

Like square footage, the shape or complexity of your design will also affect its price. Design features such as bay windows, dormers. or balconies while they don’t add square footage, do add material, design time, and can be complicated to execute, all of which will increase cost. It’s still possible to accomplish an interesting aesthetic with simplicity; it just requires capitalizing on materials and color to add texture, depth, and a sense of space or light.

Stick with basic finishes

Finishes can significantly increase cost, depending on their level of quality and extravagance; however, there are plenty of affordable options that are nice and can be durable, such as IKEA flatpack cabinets and storage units. But do understand that unless you’re going for extra extravagance, such as marble countertops, the price differences among durable standard finishes are small compared to how increasing or decreasing square footage moves the needle on cost. 

Ask all the questions

Speak up early and often throughout the process - to identify wants and needs, to ask questions about the process or costs or designs, or to say you don’t like something. Whatever the thought, don’t hold back. The earlier you point things out, ask questions, and make changes, the less likely you are to incur additional costs down the road. 

Choose your team wisely

The architect you choose will be working closely with you to not only design something that reflects your wants and needs but to shepherd you through a sometimes complicated process involving many different personality types, from start to finish. So you want to make sure the person you choose is someone with whom you get along and with whom you can be genuine and entrust your vision. If you’ve never worked with an architect before, we’ve outlined what to expect so you can start out ahead of the game. Similarly, when you choose a contractor, you want one that cares about quality and craft and not simply completing the job as fast and efficient as possible. Choosing partners who are also thinking proactively will prevent misses and backsteps, again, saving you money in the long run.


If you’d like to talk to us about other ways to save on your project, contact us here.

Grid-Faced: How Sculpture Flats Got its Shape

Ever wonder why a building looks the way it does, where the inspiration for the design came from, and how materials were chosen? It’s not always someone’s harebrain idea or fever-dream-inspired drawing. Actually, the majority of buildings you see are shaped by many, greater external forces. A lot of thought and strategy goes into problem solving size, form, function, and materiality within a limited budget. And there’s also the site’s location and geography: the landscape, climate, plot shape, and its relationship with the surrounding environment or community, not to mention zoning codes and ordinances. You get the point. To keep from getting too snoozy, we’ll stick to the project and budget because, in this case, those are the greatest forces driving this design.

Front Facade of Sculpture Flats. photo by Morgan Nowland photography

THE PROJECT

The large, flat, and mostly open rectangular site that used to be the home of Mr. T’s Interstate Tire was underutilized and ripe for a mid-size development, given the lack of housing options on the Southside. The property was divided in half by the existing 3500 sq. ft. building that served as Mr. T’s commercial space, and the developer, Jay Martin, whose company Renew has made a name for themselves bringing new life to historic buildings, chose to keep the 1962 solid brick structure as a commercial space and clean up all the under utilized real estate around it to create a flexible, live-work community.

Mr. T’s interstate tire before, surrounded by tires and woods

sculpture flats site plan. The former mr.t’s interstate tire is in the middle and is flanked by new residential spaces.

THE BUDGET

Two words: severely restricted. This project was Jay’s first foray into both new and multi-family development, and since real estate development is a risky and competitive industry, being fiscally cautious was responsible for the long-term sustainability of his business and for meeting market rate rents, as keeping costs down would ultimately result in reasonable rents for a middle-class market.

completed sculpture flats. Walking by, the prominent features are color and edges. photo by Morgan Nowland photography

THE DESIGN

As with any task on a limited budget, designing requires being resourceful and creative with what you have to work with - fewer options, fewer materials, less space, and less time, none of which are mutually exclusive. So changing materials means designs have to be redone, which - you guessed it - costs more time and money. In order to capitalize on our resources and prevent having to redo any designs, we strategized around the question: What single, big Architectural move can we make that will withstand any changes in materiality?

Thus, the grid-face was born. By giving the building a strong geometry, its most outstanding feature was unaffected by factors like the type, size, number and placement of openings. Since neither the windows themselves nor their arrangement were anything spectacular, the matrix of boxes produce a window-like visual. And for the residents, the frame creates the added amenity of a protective, private stoop or balcony. Since there isn’t much directly across the street to view the project head on, the facade was constructed to be experienced by passers-by. So rather than have the buildings mirror each other, there is a continual pattern that creates a rhythm. As pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, we see the pops of color that reinforce the edges and pattern, even encounter a cadence as we pass, and we effectively overlook the materials themselves.

Original rendering for sculpture flats. note the envisioned colonnade in the middle.

completed sculpture flats. Note the gap in rhythm and density without the colonnade. Photo by Morgan Nowland photography.

THE END PRODUCT

Due to cost, many new construction projects you see in your day to day don’t reflect the original design. The process of eliminating materials, products, and even design features is called value engineering, or - if you’re in the know - “V.E." Because of our robust geometry approach, we were lucky that the only significant component that got “VE’ed” was the colonnade we envisioned between the two buildings, which served two purposes. It would have provided a buffer between the street and the patio of Handup Handle & Bar, and it would have created continuity from one building to the next, but it wasn’t financially viable, which we get. You can’t have everything, and designing some funky, colorful buildings were big wins in the first place!

Sidewalk Citizen, Model Developer

Laura Margaret Jones

Our friend and colleague, Thomas Connolly - a.k.a. Sidewalk Citizen - can be better at marketing our work than we are. He has web pages dedicated to each of his developments, many of which we’ve designed and which he always gives us credit for. He also frequently gives us shout-outs on social media when he posts our renderings.

But this isn’t about Thomas Connolly’s fantastic marketing. This is about why he’s a good developer and why we wish there were more like him. 

Thomas (center) and his site manager, Dan (left) discuss construction progress with Project Architect, Jared Hueter (right)

He’s Providing Options for a Neglected Market

It goes without saying that the Southside is a destination for food and entertainment, but one problem remains. Where do the people who work and play there live? Until a few years ago, the only housing on the Southside would have been a detached single family house, which exceeds the needs and budgets of the individuals and families currently trying to live downtown. Thomas is changing that.  

He saw that no one was building for the urbanists. No, that’s not synonymous with “millennials.” Yes, they do comprise a lot of the new urban population, but it’s also middle-aged single professionals, veterans, empty-nesters, childless couples, and single parents to name a few. Thomas noticed the housing gap, often referred to as “missing middle housing" and devised a plan to, in his words, “create a modern designed, space efficient home, while keeping the cost to purchase as low as possible.”

Renderings of the Layouts on Market, which are currently under construction at the corner of Market and 17th.

His Projects Build Density

“We've found that a lot of people are willing to give up extra space if they can live in the heart of the neighborhoods they love,” Thomas said. Thomas has responded by developing one bedroom, one bathroom townhomes that are a compact 930 square feet. But when you buy it, you also own the land it sits on. Oh, and did I mention that competing one bed, one bath apartments on the Southside cost more per month, you don’t get to own them, and they are smaller than Thomas’s townhomes?

So how does he do it? By building small and tall. He has to fit more units onto an acre of land to offset costs. The structures sacrifice surface area for a three story height and a yard for a private, rooftop terrace. Special attention is given to floor plans to ensure spacious rooms. The townhomes are efficient, dignified spaces for the person who otherwise would have been priced out of the Southside.   

But customers aren’t the only ones benefitting from the density. The health of the neighborhood is actually dependent on it. In order for there to be urban amenities, people have to be able to walk, bike, or take public transit to them. In fact, to warrant a bus stop with a frequency of one pass every half hour, a density of 7 units per acre is required. The Southside has lacked that level of density in the past, but with Thomas building 9 townhomes per acre, he is helping to ensure a vibrant future for the Southside.      

Renderings of the site plan for Layouts on Market

He Recognizes and Values Good Design 

Contemporary design is one of Thomas’s selling points. Modern spaces for the modern city-dweller. While square footage is sacrificed to offset cost, nothing is given up in the quality of the design or the amenities in each space. He does his homework on the subject and spends a lot of time in our office discussing designs and materials. From subtle brick patterns to perforated paneling, each of Thomas’s developments boasts current architecture with unique features.

Renderings of the Layouts on Underwood, which will be at the corner of 17th and Underwood.

The Takeaway

In order to truly be a city where people can live, work, and play, we need more “sidewalk citizen” developers. Thomas has proven that building at a human scale not only creates more affordable and diverse housing options but that it also facilitates a more liveable urban dynamic.  It’s a precedent we’d like to see other developers follow. 

To Build or Not To Build, Buy, or Sell in 2019:

Graph is courtesy of the urban land institute’s 2019 report on emerging trends in real estate report

Curious about what 2019 holds for the world of real estate development? Or what the predictions mean for developers, renters, and buyers? With whispers of another recession on the horizon, so are we. So earlier this week, we peered into the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) renowned annual report to get a prediction on this year’s trends.

While the majority of people surveyed by the ULI felt the market would be “Good to Excellent” this year, a closer look indicates the market is transitioning, which, for many, means that growth will slow and profitability will plateau.  

The Bad News

Nationally, there’s a decline in demand for real estate. The reasons are pretty straightforward. The fertility rate in the U.S. has been declining for years and is both at an all time low and way below population replacement. Immigrants have historically filled the population gap. But due to increasingly strict immigration policies, our population is growing old and steadily declining.  

Furthermore, the same generations that aren’t reproducing fast enough are the ones innovating the tech industry and disrupting, among many markets, real estate. Data transparency and accessibility have transformed the way people garner information and make decisions. Transactions are easier, faster, and there is more, keener competition. Building costs are increasing, and there’s a disconnect between industry jobs available and the number and caliber of workers to fill the needs. #makeconstructiongreatagain ? 

The Good News

So-called “18-hour cities,” or ones that are hubs of activity all day and into the night but not ALL night, seem to be experiencing less of a slump.  These cities often offer the same amenities and urban feel of a big metropolis but are smaller, more affordable, and economically diverse enough to be more stable during an economic shift - qualities that millennials value and that aren’t changing any time soon. Thus, steady growth is predicted over the next few years in these cities where people can live, work, and play.

So what does this mean locally? Does Chattanooga have what it takes to be an 18-hour city?

For Local Developers

Developers seem to have misjudged the rate of growth over the past several years as well as the demographics and needs of those incoming. Now Chattanooga’s urban core is left with an abundance of apartment units and not enough of the right type to suit those looking.

Chattanoogans apparently still have an optimistic outlook, as nearly three fourths of the developers, investors, and private, public, and non-profit stakeholders at the ULI presentation raised hands in expressed expectation that the market will be “Good-Excellent” this year. The only person who seemed aware of the fact that Chattanooga missed its mark was local developer, John Clark - who was a panelist at the presentation. He caught everyone’s attention with his remarks, “Our market isn’t as good as we think. We aren’t absorbing units as fast as we are building them, yet we continue to build the same types of projects at the same rate.” Clark suggested that while we wait for the demand to catch up to supply, we ought to be focusing more on boutique projects, such as housing for seniors or other, smaller-scale and site-specific projects. 

View of Southside, Chattanooga from 509 E Main St. Not pictured: the 584 (at least) other apartment units that are recently completed, under construction, or being planned in the Southside on Cowart, Broad, and Chestnut streets

Clark is right. There’s a missing market. But his recommendation isn’t novel. In 2016 Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise hosted a two-day workshop by the Incremental Development Alliance on small scale development to bring attention to this missing middle and to encourage local developers to consider building at a more human scale. The mid-size structures provide a variety of housing types while building density. Renters tend to be long-term tenants because the smaller building increases opportunity for residents to interact, facilitating relationships and enticing people to stay and invest in the community. Incremental development also creates a walkable environment, supporting more independent businesses and neighborhood investment.

For Renters

A November Times Free Press article reported that rental rates jumped five times that of wages in 2017. Consequently, it has been cheaper to invest in owning a home.  Fortunately for renters, we’ve reached a point in which the supply of units outweighs the demand. Multiple apartment developments downtown are suffering vacancies and are having to offer free rent for the first month. It won’t be long before a lack of demand drives rates down, meaning those who currently cannot afford to live downtown may soon be able to afford it.

For Buyers and Sellers

Because rental rates inflated significantly in recent years and interest rates remained low, homeownership has been a more affordable option than renting. However, prices have also been driven up by outside investors who are buying up multiple homes at a time and flipping them. By proxy, interest rates and property taxes are going back up and are also pricing out first time buyers. Some local developers are having to come down on prices in order to sell their newly constructed homes. With an over-saturated rental market and exorbitantly priced homes, we may see prices level out in the next year.  

Takeaways

The two main ULI-outlined concerns this year are job growth and quality of labor, and they say attracting talent will be the key to elevating productivity, profits, and urban vitality. Chattanooga has done a great job of attracting talent, continues to attract new jobs, and has a lot to offer in terms of play and living spaces, so we may just meet enough of the 18-hour city criteria to continue to grow through this transition. However, until the demand of rentals catches up with supply and housing prices reach a ceiling and/or drop, our approach to development will have to be rethought in order to be sustainable.

New Year's Resolutions

Most of us at Workshop don’t usually abide by the annual tradition of formulating New Year’s Resolutions. January for the firm, however, isn’t just about New Year’s. It’s also Workshop’s three year anniversary. Naturally, we spent some time evaluating how far we’ve come, what we do well, and what we can do better.

We excel at our craft, and our work continues to grow as a result. But there is always room for improvement, especially for a business in its adolescence. So here are a few of our resolutions that emerged from that discussion: 

Streamline Our Processes

Like many startups, we are a small team. Consequently, each of us has worn many hats and juggled tasks. At times this has made it a challenge for us focusing on and honing our craft. So in August, we added our first non-architect to the team to take over many of the administrative responsibilities. This year, the goal is for Wayne to step away from running the business and invest entirely in architectural and project oversight.  

Continue to Cultivate a Collaborative Practice 

Collaboration is a powerful tool. We do it often but not always within a framework. So we spent the last days of 2018 outlining an overarching timeline for projects. In defining specific phases when collaboration is necessary, we can implement it more regularly and at times when the entire team can participate. With a formal routine practice, we will all garner more from the process, and the quality of work will improve.

Celebrate One Another’s and the Firm’s Successes More Often 

Celebrating milestones internally is not a problem in this office. We go out to lunch regularly. Occasionally, we have mid-week office beers. And, without fail, every Friday, we go out to happy hour together. That said, we have not been in the habit of celebrating our achievements publicly. Our staff is incredibly talented, engaged in the community, and we work with a lot of outstanding people in this industry. So this blog post is step one in our 2019 resolution to share, include, and celebrate more with you - our friends, colleagues, and clients.  

Inaugural Building Industry Candidate Forums

By Laura-Margaret Jones

Last month, AIA Chattanooga and the AGC of East Tennessee partnered to host Chattanooga’s inaugural candidate forums focused on the building industry and design professions.  Held at the AGC of East Tennessee’s headquarters, it was a two-night event, with each night dedicated to a different political party.

Workshop: Architecture’s own Sarah Page, who serves on both the local and state AIA boards, organized the event with Matt Lyle of Franklin Architects, also a member of the board of AIA TN, and Leslie Gower, Executive Director of the AGC of East Tennessee.  At the forum, the trio acted as the moderators of the discussions, asking the candidates about their views on policies and state initiatives that impact the building industry. Discussed topics covered a variety of issues including - but not limited to - small business regulation and policies; infrastructure maintenance, repair, and replacement; state preemption; and workforce development.

As important as it is to engage our civic leaders on professional matters, it is also imperative that we continue to work together to accomplish common goals for the building and construction industry.

All candidates running in Hamilton County for a state-level elected office were invited, and those who were able to make it included five Republicans - Sen. Bo Watson, Robin Smith, Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, Lemon Williams, and Sen. Todd Gardenhire, who is not actually running but has served since 2013 - as well as three Democrats - Randy Price, Yusuf Hakeem, and Joda Thongnopnua; both nights boasted a more or less balanced mix of seasoned politicians and rising hopefuls, providing for well rounded and insightful dialogue.

Having served many years at the state level, Rep. Hazelwood, Sen. Watson, and Sen. Gardenhire were able to provide a comprehensive overview of how issues are introduced, decisions are made, and projects are prioritized and funded at the state level, while the candidates new to state level office were able to speak to more local concerns and how they would like to address them in the state legislature. First-time candidates were also able to bring their experience outside of government to initiatives that they are particularly passionate about, from small business regulation and education to workforce development and healthcare access. Candidate Joda Thongnopnua’s experience in local government and policy research in particular has given him a lot of nuanced insight into the unexpected consequences of different state initiatives.

All of the candidates emphasized the significance of constituents personally reaching out to their representatives to express concerns and urged everyone to get out and vote.  Often, they reminded us, elections are determined by a small margin, and in this cycle, Hamilton County has a couple of districts that have close races.

Though architects and contractors do not always agree on every issue, we are proud of the collaborative efforts involved in manifesting this event and enthusiastic about the potential for future partnerships.   As important as it is to engage our civic leaders on professional matters, it is also imperative that we continue to work together to accomplish common goals for the building and construction industry.

PASSAGEWAYS 1.0 to PASSAGEWAYS 2.0

By Aaron Cole

For the last six months, we’ve been engaged in a design competition called Passageways 2.0 as part of a team composed of local artists and designers from multiple disciplines. Our team, Graffix Alley, was thrilled to be chosen as one of three semi finalists, along with two very talented teams from Syracuse, N.Y., and Boston, Mass. The winner will be announced this Friday. Of course we hope to be chosen to put our design in place, but even if we aren’t, we’ve had a great time working with such a diverse group of artists and professionals.

First came PASSAGEWAYS 1.0

In 2016, Chattanooga hosted the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Tennessee State Convention and, as host, the leadership team decided to make the convention more open and engaging to a broader public. This afforded the AIA Tennessee the opportunity to step out of its comfort zone and open up dialogues about Architecture and Design’s roll in the public realm, moving the conversation beyond an insular one between client and Architect. As part of that initiative, Passageways 1.0 was born. An open design competition hosted in conjunction with River City Company, the competition asked architects, artists and designers to envision ways to activate several underutilized alleys in Chattanooga. The inaugural Passageways Competition drew widespread interest; designers from around the globe submitted entries, and national and international design publications reported on the event, generating press coverage for the State Convention. But more important is the impact that the competition and resulting installations had on the local culture.

Passageways 1.0 proved a couple of points. First, that there was a desire for public spaces activated through art and architecture in Chattanooga’s downtown. And second, that the people of Chattanooga were willing to show up and put in the work to see projects like this be realized.

“We were out past midnight sitting at a folding table painting wooden blocks green or orange or blue for the Neural Alley; getting to know new friends and watching our kids get more paint on themselves than on the blocks. The experience really gave us a sense of ownership and pride in the project that we’ve never had in public art. A year has gone by and my children still ask, “Dad, can we go play in an alley?”

Passageways 1.0 showed us that we can can flip how we think of underused public spaces. We can experience them as places of unexpected enjoyment and fun, rather than as places to be ignored or avoided. Passageways 1.0 was conceived as four temporary installations in four downtown alleys, some of which have long outlasted their projected year-long life span, and one of which has been made permanent.

Then came PASSAGEWAYS 2.0...

The success of Passageways 1.0 gave way to Passageways 2.0, this time a single permanent installation in a much larger alley. We decided to submit a design for the 2.0 competition because: 

1. We loved the 1.0 project and wanted to be involved in 2.0, and… 
2. We also love all the quirky, weirdo spaces of a city that make each place unique, and…
3. We know a lot of talented and creative people, and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to all play together in the same sandbox. 

So GraffiXcollective was born...

Graffix Collective is composed of: Workshop: Architecture, Range Projects, Juncture, and The Artist Seven: four unique Chattanooga companies working in their own ways to use the art and craft of design to make better places.

In the initial phases of the our design process, a few key themes emerged:

1. The idea of a communal gathering place; how to provide a space within the city that addresses the democratic nature of a city. 
2. Recognizing the history of this particular alley as a significant place for street art and graffiti in Chattanooga.
3. We wanted to work collaboratively as a team to bring a unique vision to the alley; one that is authored through an honest reading and understanding of the significance of this particular alley AND similar spaces that exist throughout all urban environments.

GraffiX Alley

This very alley is fondly remembered by many in Chattanooga as Graffiti Alley, a place to discover and see an art form that was uncommon to Chattanooga. Over the years, as other parts of downtown have experienced a resurgence, this alley has deteriorated. Our plan seeks to revert back to that place of art and discovery through a curated process of bringing local and nationally established muralists to install high-quality street art in this alley. We want to take this alley from a state of neglect and make it a destination for art and community by celebrating and honoring street art within its native habitat.

Our design for GraffiX Alley is an architectural intervention that serves to delineate space and set up a series of frames for large scale street art murals. Within the this large open-air gallery space, we set up a community table that serves the two-fold function of spontaneous community gathering place and organizable space for programmed events.

After the architecture and infrastructure is installed, five muralists will install their pieces in the alley in an event that will allow the public to meet the artists and watch them work. The consistent message that we hope to send with GraffiX Alley is that art and the city are open and available to everyone, and that when we build places that allow everyone to participate in the city, our city will prosper.

And then there were four...

This is all happening so fast. Once again, I have the pleasant task of celebrating our newest colleague, Sarah Page. Sarah joins Workshop Architecture as a recently licensed architect with four years of experience. As you'll see, she's bringing a lot of professional value and enthusiasm to Workshop, and we couldn't be more excited to have her on our team.

Sarah grew up in Chattanooga and went to Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. She graduated in 2012, with a dual degree in architecture and French, and minors in art history and global studies. After graduating, she decided to wait out the end of the recession in Paris, France, where she worked as an au pair. While living abroad, she took every opportunity to travel across Europe and Africa exploring her favorite passions: history, design, and food.

Upon her return to the states in 2013, Sarah started her career in architecture with gusto. Within a year, she was not only employed at a Chattanooga firm, but was pursuing her architectural license AND serving on both the local and state American Institute of Architects (AIA) boards of directors, where her main focus has been advocacy and professional development for young designers. During her time with the state chapter of AIA, Sarah started a program to recognize firms across the state that excel in developing the professional and leadership skills of their young staff. She also currently runs a program in Chattanooga to help young designers achieve their license. And with Extended Studio, AIA Chattanooga’s young design professionals group, Sarah organizes volunteer opportunities for design and construction in Chattanooga, including an annual partnership project with the local STEM school. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of AIA Chattanooga and is the Associate Representative on the AIA Tennessee Board of Directors.

Sarah remains a travel junkie, spending most of her vacations exploring new cities or hiking in the back country. When not planning her next travel adventure, Sarah splits the rest of her time between tennis, soccer, rock climbing, yoga, sketching, and cooking.

Three Men in a Boat

Workshop is pleased to announce the addition of our third team member, Jared Hueter.  Jared has worked with both Aaron and I at other firms and was eager join the team.

Jared attended architecture school at the Fay Jones School of Architecture of the University of Arkansas.  His interest in Public Interest Design led him to post-Katrina New Orleans to assist in the rebuilding efforts.  There he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA, a Design Corps Fellow, Co-Founder and Program Director of the CITYbuild Consortium of Schools, and the Dean of Design of the Priestley Charter School of Architecture and Construction.  Obviously, public interest design is a passion for him and we're really excited to have him with us.

Jared began his professional career began at Mathes Brierre Architects in New Orleans where his efforts were focused on education design. His prior work includes public schools and the National World War II Museum.

Jared is married to Courtney Hueter who is a 3rd grade school teacher at Normal Park Museum Magnet School and they have three children.  They moved to Chattanooga from New Orleans in 2013 to take advantage of the great outdoor culture.  

Jared has continued his efforts in Public Interest Design since moving to Chattanooga.  He was Co-Director of Passageways 1.0/2.0, Co-Director of Learn by Design.  He is currently serving as a board member of the Glass House Collective and Board President-Elect of the Chattanooga component of the American Institute of Architects.  Jared has had the opportunity and continues to be involved in many mission efforts around the world including projects in West Africa and South America. 

North Chattanooga Residence

This North Chattanooga Residence was completed in August, and after the clients were settled in, we went back in October to have the house photographed. The couple loves the way the house turned out, and so do we. Comparing the final building with the design rendering below, you can see that the project turned out almost exactly as planned. You can see the design process for this home in posts here, here, here, and here.

The house was designed for a couple with grown children who wanted a smaller home that would be comfortable and easy to care for. The living spaces and master bedroom suite are all on one level. The second level holds a guest bedroom and bath and a small reading nook in the stair landing. The couple are also artists and art collectors so the house had to be planned for the display of their art collection and include a small studio.

New Blue Construction did a great job with the project and the workmanship is just fantastic. The house is full of custom details--for example, the open riser stair and the deep counters at the kitchen sink which create a plant shelf. Without the attention of a masterful builder to such features, the outcome would not have been nearly as elegant. Even details that you can't see are designed and executed with intention. The house is built using advanced framing, which saves lumber and allows for more insulation in the walls. The crawlspace is sealed and insulated and the exterior air barrier is carefully detailed and installed to minimize air leakage. Fittingly, at the time of the blower door test, the house set a new record with the local testing agency for airtightness.

Morgan Nowland did the photography to record the project; the images came out beautifully. I spent a half day on site with Morgan to plan the shoot and help where I could (OK, I mostly moved furniture around) and it was truly enjoyable.

These images and others will get a permanent home on the website soon. In the meantime, The clients are enjoying their new home in North Chattanooga.

We're officially a We!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve hired my first staff member, Aaron Cole. Which means Workshop has grown by 100%. 

Aaron and I met at an architecture conference in Las Vegas in 2014. At the time, he was working in Rome, Georgia, but looking to move to Chattanooga. He interviewed at the firm I was previously part of, and we hired him then. When Workshop reached the point where it needed additional hands, I was able to bring him on.

Since then Aaron has been doing great work keeping our projects on schedule and keeping the quality of the work as high as it can be. He's constantly looking for ways to improve the look and feel of our drawings or speed up our work flow.

Aaron attended architecture school at Kennesaw State, where he met his wife, Theresa. (They now are proud parents of Elm and Og.) He started his career in Atlanta in 2003, and when the Great Recession caused many firms to shed staff, he pursued his second passion, organic farming. He worked at that for several years in West Point, Tennessee. Although he found he was successful and self-sustaining at farming, he and his family found the lifestyle too isolated for them. He moved back to Rome, Ga., farmed some family land there, and found work at a local architecture firm. In 2015, he and the family moved to Chattanooga and he fully committed himself to an architecture career.

He’s currently in the midst of registration exams to obtain his license. His interests outside architecture are organic farming, addressing food deserts, and creating obtainable and equitable housing for communities. To quote him speaking about a pro bono project he was engaged in, “I like working for people who need it, not just people who just want it.”

Aaron is an old punk who is fond of quoting Joe Strummer from the Clash, and you’re far more likely to encounter him wearing a Ramones or Minuteman T-shirt than a button down and khakis.

He’s also a committed bicycle commuter, and very active in Bike/Walk Chattanooga, which fits neatly with his passion for healthy lifestyles and community networks. On Sundays, you can find him selling Velo Coffee cold brews from the Velo pedal-powered kiosk at the Chattanooga Market.

Sculpture Flats

I’ve been working with developer and contractor Jay Martin of Renew on this adaptive reuse project through the winter months and am excited about seeing it break ground soon. 

We’ve taken the site of a former Mr. T’s tire store at 1155 E. Main Street and redeveloped it as a live/work space. The original Mr. T’s will contain up to four spaces that can serve as offices or retail storefronts. It is bookended by two new matching 11-unit apartment buildings. The development’s name is a nod to its close proximity to John Henry’s sculpture yards and the Sculpture Fields at Montague Park.

In the new buildings, we configured the three units on the ground floor as live/work spaces. Access from the street allows the front room of each unit to be set up as a storefront or retail space, with a galley kitchen in the center and a bedroom and bath in the back. The remaining two floors have a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and studio apartments.

The new buildings are contemporary, but scaled to be friendly to the street, not imposing. They have a warm color palette and incorporate a covered stoop for the ground floor and balconies for the upper floor apartments. A grid created by projecting the walls and overhangs toward the street creates a protective zone for the apartments, especially the ground-floor units, by inserting some covered space between the units and the street.

The original Mr. T’s, now the commercial space, has an outdoor patio facing the street to serve as outdoor space for the buildings’ inhabitants and to interact with the street. 

I’ve been fortunate to work with a great team on Sculpture Flats, including Jay Martin at Renew, Glen Craig of Craig Design Group (landscape architecture), and March Adams & Associates (construction engineering).

A Home for Young Adults

Chambliss Center for Children one of Chattanooga’s oldest social institutions. Originally founded as Vine Street Orphan’s Home in 1872, it has been working to meet the needs of Chattanooga’s children for 145 years. Its mission is to preserve family unity and to help prevent the dependency, neglect, abuse and delinquency of children by responding to the community's childcare needs. The agency’s 24-hour Extended Child Care Program (ECE) provides affordable, accessible, quality child care for parents working or in school, helping them meet their complex childcare needs. In addition to the ECE program, Chambliss Center for Children also has a Residential Program, which recruits and trains foster families, operates a group home, and helps facilitate adoptions for children who have been taken in to state custody due to abuse, abandonment, neglect and/or delinquency.

I first formed a working relationship with Chambliss more than 15 years ago, when I was a young architect who had just moved back to Chattanooga. Since then, I have done several projects for them as I worked at various firms around town. I was pleased to be tapped again a couple of years ago as they conceived a plan to help youth aging out of state custody launch successfully into adulthood.

This latest project meets a crucial need that is not addressed in our current system. Financial support for children in state custody can end at age 18. Kids in the system are often on their own the year they graduate from high school, sometimes while they are still in high school, with no further funds or adult guidance to help them proceed at a very critical time. The state does pay for college tuition for former foster children, but they must maintain their grades—which is difficult to do if you are effectively homeless and without any adults to help you.

To help adolescents who are at this critical point in their lives, Chambliss decided to build new housing across the street from its campus. Kids who have just aged out of the system can live here independently, but will have a dedicated program administrator working with them. Chambliss did major fundraising to build the housing, and will receive some ongoing reimbursement funding from the state to keep the program running.

My challenge here was to create housing that provided these young adults with privacy, dignity, and the space to be independent—but that also created a framework for interaction with each other and the community. And of course it needed to be done on a tight budget.

Programmatically, I arrived at a matched pair of duplexes arranged around a common green. Each of the four one-bedroom units is only 550 feet, but contains a living room, kitchen, entry vestibule with a laundry closet, bedroom, and bathroom. Nine foot ceilings help the spaces open up, and each apartment has a large screened porch to extend the living space and give the houses—and their occupants—an on-going friendly interaction with the neighborhood. A projected window seat on the front porch creates a private, protected nook from which to observe the street. I designed a lifted roof over the front stoop of each apartment to add some height to what are otherwise small buildings.

We broke ground in spring 2016, and the units are close to completion now. Everett Warren of WLH Construction has done a great job shepherding the project and the process. And the Helen Maclellan Tipton and Kathrina Howze Maclellan Transitional Living Apartments will become home for four young adults in early 2017.

Making It Come Out Right

Back in August I posted about this project. It’s particularly important to me for two reasons. I really like the clients personally and want to make them happy. And I want to prove that you can design and build clean, modern residential homes for a price similar to what you would pay for traditional spec builder homes using off-the-shelf home plans.

So, we got our numbers back on this project as designed, and it came in almost $70,000 more than our original target budget. Ooof. We—my colleagues at New Blue Construction, the clients, and I—scratched our heads and came up with a set of changes we hoped would get the price down. 

The biggest move was to eliminate the garage altogether. In its place, I designed an arrangement of screen walls and an overhead canopy to make a sheltered parking place and define the courtyard space. Without the garage, the walls and canopy create a series of overlapping planes that are really more contemporary than the garage was. The clients and I both really like this solution better than the original garage.

Inside, we eliminated a powder room on the ground floor, but rearranged the master bath and closet so that the master bath can be accessed from the hall by guests. Upstairs, we simplified the upstairs reading nook, replacing a bay window with a regular window.

Those changes got us down to within $25,000, which was still too high. So next I turned to the exterior materials. On the parts of the house you can see from the street, I replaced some of the brick with metal siding and Hardie Plank. On the rear and side of the house, I used an integrally colored concrete masonry unit that matches the color of the brick. These changes got us to within 7 percent, of our original target. The client was willing to make the stretch, and the project is a go now.

In the end, I was able to protect the things that were the most important to the clients (and to me as the architect): the courtyard, art studio, a modern open riser stair, and the generous glass doors that open on to the screen porch with its fabulous view. The clients will have a gracious house designed around their preferences and habits, and it won’t cost an arm and a leg. It came out right.