TH
E CRESCENT
2344
Old Sonoma Road
Project Description
Th
e proposed project is an approximately 193,000 sq. ft. multi-family development on an 8.6-acre site located on Old Sonoma Road and Walnut Street in the City of Napa. The project is a mixed-income residential project with a total of up to 162 for-sale housing units, of which up to 154 will be condominium units and 8 will be single-family homes (labelled "E" on the attached Site Plan). The Developer is requesting approval to rezone the property from PQ-P, Public, Quasi Pubic to MP:CMU, Master Plan: Crescent Mixed Use in order to be consistent with the new General Plan designation.
The condo housing types include up to 40 stacked flats (labelled "A"), 101 courtyard condos ("B1", "B2", & "B3"), 6 townhouse units in the two historic Dormitory buildings (“C1” and “C3”), and 7 units in two new buildings adjacent to the historic buildings ("D1" and "D2"). The center historic building (“C2”), the former Infirmary Building, will be rehabbed and converted to community-serving commercial uses. Each of the residential condo units will have private laundry facilities and storage areas.
To the north of the project site is the playground for the Napa Christian School, a single-family neighborhood is east and south of the site, the County Juvenile Justice facility is southwest of the site, and multi-story residential buildings are across Walnut Street to the west.
The site has a number of distinct features, such as a crescent-shaped open space along Old Sonoma Road, and several tall mature redwood trees scattered throughout the site. The site also has three historic buildings dating from 1897 that face the curve of the Crescent; these buildings plus the Crescent open space are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The project is carefully designed to leverage the presence of these beautiful features.
The project is organized around a network of continuous open spaces. A newly configured Elm Street, with two travel lanes and curbside parallel guest parking, marks the site’s northern edge; Elm Street turns due south near the site's eastern boundary to intersect with the Crescent. Numerous pathways and greens, carefully located to preserve most of the existing redwoods, create diverse planted open spaces around which the various buildings are located.
The three historic buildings are reused and reprogrammed. The central structure ("C2") is a commons building with community-serving café, art studios, and event spaces. The two historic buildings on either side of the central building ("C1" and "C3") will be adaptively reused as residential units, with three units in each building. The units in the historic buildings will be parked in the semi-subterranean garage. Two new buildings extend the fabric of the historic buildings with more residential units. One of these (called the Crescent Building, labelled as "D2") is sited where the Crescent Drive intersects with Old Sonoma Road. The other new building (called the Carriage House, labelled as "D1")) serves as a transition between the historic buildings and the courtyard condos; this building serves as a reminder of the former Superintendent’s cottage, which was also sited behind the historic buildings at one time. The Carriage House will include three townhomes, and the Crescent Building includes three townhomes and one flat.
The Carriage House residents will park in the semi-subterranean garage, while three of the Crescent Building residents will have a separate driveway off of Old Sonoma Rd. that leads to private parking at the rear of each unit, one unit will park on the crescent drive.
The eastern edge of the project site includes eight new single-family detached homes (labelled "E"). The density, massing, and siting of these homes is compatible with the adjacent single-family neighborhood east of the project. These homes are parked in individual garages located at the middle or rear of these lots, with access directly from the fronting street. These houses are generally two stories tall. All of the ATTACHMENT 4
sin
gle-family homes have inviting porches, recalling the character of the finest single-family neighborhoods of the region.
Walnut Street to the west is lined with a new stacked flats residential building (called the Redwood Building, labelled "A"). This building has similar height and massing as the multi-family buildings across Walnut Street; the building's exterior shingles are compatible with the project's courtyard condos to the east. The Redwood Building is 3- and 4-stories tall, with up to forty 1-BR & 2-BR units organized around a central atrium. This building is parked in an at-grade podium, and has units on the ground floor facing the large redwood grove open space to its east.
The center of the site has three courtyard condo buildings 2-4 stories high (labelled "B1", "B2", and "B3").
They sit atop a semi-subterranean parking garage with 241 parking spaces. These three buildings are designed as hybrids of stacked flats and walkup townhouses, all arranged around beautiful communal courtyards. Buildings "B2" and "B3" are organized around a central green on axis with the central historic building ("C2"). Four-story single-loaded stacked flats define both sides of this green; the rest of the buildings are a series of townhouses entered from the courtyards. Building "B1" is entered from Elm Street via a large courtyard that preserves existing redwood trees, and is also designed with a combination of stacked flats and townhouses.
There are a number of important concepts worth noting in the design of this project:
1. The project prioritizes the creation of a beautiful public space network.
2. Th
e project conserves important natural features of the site, including the redwood trees and
the Crescent green.
3. Th
e project exemplifies how adaptive reuse of historic buildings and new development can fit togeth
er to make great places.
4. Th
e project shows how new development can respond to its immediate adjacencies. The resid
ents of the single-family neighborhood to the east are respected by building the single- family units at the eastern portion of the project site. By contrast, the 3- and 4-story resid
ential building along Walnut Street is a direct response to the height of the buildings on the other side of the street.
5. The project demonstrates the wisdom of using a variety of housing types – from courtyard housing to single-family homes. This not only offers architectural variety, but also brings di
verse products and living choices for the community. The project also includes a mix of ho
meownership opportunities for households at a variety of income levels.
6. The project demonstrates the importance of contextual building massing. Highest massing on this site is located in the center of the site, so as to be practically unnoticeable from the su
rrounding streets and neighboring lots. The four-story wings of the courtyard housing bui
ldings constitute less than a third of the overall building footprint, and are situated along large greens, thereby lining the new streets with two- and three-story house-form buildings.
7. Th
e project shows how a rich neighborhood character can be generated via a variety of fron
tages such as porches and stoops.
Th
e project aspires to show how new development can respect the architectural traditions of a region and place. As seen in the precedent images and character study sketches, this project endeavors to generate an architectural image that stems from the Napa vernacular – with sloping roofs, deep porches and trellises, and a variety of regional materials such a shingles, siding, plaster etc.
A homeowners association will be established for The Crescent and have all applicable docs reviewed by the Department of Real Estate and recorded (as necessary), such as CC&R’s, By-laws, HOA Budget, Articles of Incorporation, and Condo Plan. Finally, the site will have wayfinding throughout in order to provide ease of travel from one building or greenspace to the next.
ATTACHMENT 4
Lan
dscape Design
Th
e existing campus has approximately eighty-six (86) existing trees on the site according to the arborist report. Nineteen (19) of the existing trees are subject to the City of Napa’s Tree Protection Ordinance.
The site for the most part is relatively flat with the exception of some areas with five (5) foot elevational changes. The historical landscape uses of the campus has mainly been for health services with some small use of agriculture.
The new landscape design proposed seeks to save over fifty (50) of the existing eighty-six (86) trees, retain the historical crescent and maintain over ninety-thousand (90,000) sf of common open space for the site. There is approximately one (1) mile of new trails and walks that connect the new residential buildings, seven (7) gardens and ten (10) courtyards.
The new landscape palette will be mostly appropriate native and ornamental plant material that is sustainable to the local climate. The landscape water needs will meet the local Water Use Requirements as mandated by the State of California. Additional sustainable items included in the landscape will be; bio-retention and infiltration systems to clean and reduce storm water runoff, reduce heat island effect by planting approximately one-hundred (100) additional trees, and incorporating solar energy strategies with Photovoltaic panels on pergolas, low flow drip and smart irrigation and using appropriate trees and placement to reduce energy costs of the residential and historical buildings.
The historical crescent lawn will be slightly reduced to meet sustainable water use requirements but will still have approximately twenty thousand (20,000) square foot lawn for resident use. Seven (7) on grade gardens will incorporate various amenities such as, seating areas, jogging trails, horse shoe pits for play or bean bag toss, picnic areas, short term bicycle parking stations, free play open space and quiet contemplative areas. Ten (10) courtyards over subterranean parking will offer residents shaded spaces, communal conversation seating areas, barbequing opportunities, dining spaces and private open space patios. All of the gardens and courtyards will be accessible to the residents.
The street design is envisioned as a curvilinear narrow roadway to calm vehicular movement and enable safe use bicycles.
Site Lighting will use shielded directional LED light sources to meet the foot-candle requirements.
ATTACHMENT 4