Davis Hammer; Emily Axtman; Will Lambeth 

Location:

'River Arts Row' reimagines Murray Hill Park and the ‘Missing Middle’ to provide a sustainable future for medium-density infill housing on Asheville’s hilly terrain by deploying three specific site intervention strategies:

1) Urban Network: by providing the missing link to the Clingman Forest Greenway, our site offers the opportunity to strengthen connectivity among both Asheville's vibrant urban areas such as the River Arts District, Murray Hill and growing system of recreational parks and greenways. “Missing teeth” such as the area north of Pizza Pura have the potential to be filled in with cross-programmable activities such as outdoor theater performances and farmers markets.

2) Hill Weave: taking cues from both the vernacular hill towns of Appalachia and densely built cities such as San Francisco, we organized the site in an orthogonal grid-like overlay to the existing topography, while allowing for informal gathering spaces between apartment units. To minimally disturb the land, the 4-5 unit row houses shift vertically and horizontally depending on where they are sited. A series of layered decks and walkways glues the clusters together, creating an internal network of collective spaces, vegetable gardens and recreational areas.

3) Light Timber Footprint: to both preserve the existing site hydrology and minimize construction waste, we propose a hybrid structural system of stepped reinforced concrete foundation walls and panelized cross-laminated timber. CLT, an emerging sustainable building technology, maximizes the abundant natural resource of small growth pine through efficient production techniques and offers the opportunity to expose a natural finish material.