Behold our latest massing diagram from NORR Architects Planners. It consists of our 6000+ square foot common house (bottom corner), 36 underground parking stalls, 6 one bedroom units, 10 two-bedroom units, 14 three-bedroom units and 6 four-bedroom units. Because of the slope of our acre of land, there are four tiered courtyards spread through the project and a large garden plot at the top of the hill.
The smaller envelope of buildings (fewer building structures) allows for more energy efficient buildings. In pre-permit application meetings, our architects discovered that we would be required to build with steel framing because of new provincial fire codes. The new design also allows for 100% accessibility (for the mobility challenged) to all front doors. You can see the pathways in front of the units and the 2 elevators (darkest sections).
The documents related to this plan (still being developed) form part of our development permit (DP) application to the city of Calgary. The process takes 4-6 months and this DP from the city is needed before we draw up building plans (and get a building permit) and engage a builder.
Jasen is one of our lead design team members. He led us in discussions regarding the site plan and unit floor plans on January 18. I am still very impressed with how our cohousing group functions through consensus decision making.
Chris ScottHanson is our project manager and continues to keep us focused on the important elements of our project.
Can you spot Amber in the pink scarf? This is a pretty exciting time for Dragonfly Cohousing. Our membership grows almost every week and we are nearing our sales goals bit by bit.
3 comments:
Roof = gardens?
We're looking into roof gardens. They can be quite costly and we have all that land to the west that will be used as gardens. We're also looking at installing some sort of solar energy collection up there too.
Solar can be quite costly up front too, but the payback is not nutritional, but rather economical. We're proposing them more often on our projects (solar thermal i.e. hot water, not solar PV). I can provide technical input on some of the options, if you're interested.
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