The remaking of Lexington Terrace, formerly a severely distressed public housing development, was a team effort involving the developer, the architect, a community facilitator, financiers, realtors, and prospective residents. Following New Urbanist principles, the project tries to fit with its red-brick surroundings and form a mixed-income, mixed-use, neighborhood. Baltimore-style stoops mediate between private and public spaces. Some units have porches; all have private backyards and access to a park and public transportation.

In designing the new homes, Torti Gallas used the scale, proportions and massing of old Baltimore rowhouses as a guide. In order to prevent them from looking like typical barracks-style public housing, the buildings were stretched upward by 60 inches, raising the floor slab by 30 inches and adding height to the attic.

The result is a new neighborhood that is totally integrated with and indistinguishable from its surroundings.

Services

Architectural Design
Code Analysis
Community Meetings
Comprehensive Planning
Condition Assessment Survey
Construction Phase Services
Design Charrettes
Design/Build
HOPE VI
Landscape Architecture
Master Planning
Neighborhood Planning
Programming
Public Hearing
Public/Private Venture
Site Plan Approval
Sustainable Development
Urban Design

Project Data

19 acre site
203 rental rowhouses
100 for-sale rowhouses
88 unit midrise building for seniors
40,000 sf Business Center
community center

Sustainable design elements:
accommodates housing, office, senior living in a walkable community
HOPE VI, providing subsidized and market rate housing opportunities
reconnects development with existing city fabric
utilizes local building styles and traditions

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