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41. Avalon baymay 19, 2010

Avalon Walnut Creek Walnut Creek, CA. Pprovided by Avalon Bay.

Avalon Bay is a national development and investment trust company that builds many residential projects. One of these projects is Avalon Chrystie Place in New York City. The project is built over the subway tunnel and accommodates many uses. Location of the apartment building brought challenges, which Fred Harris talks about in this podcast interview with Urban Design Podcast.

The site was cleared for urban renewal by the city over 50 years ago. It stood vacant for all these years due to the subway tunnel underneath, which created engineering difficulties for developers. Advanced engineering that was applied by Avalon Bay helped to successfully complete a 14-story building on the site. The building has different facilities for different uses such as: a full size swimming pool, full gym, a 70,000 sq ft Whole Foods Market, affordable housing, and market-rate apartments.

As any with any other project, Avalon Chrystie Place had to adjust design as development progressed. Successful collaboration between designers and developers allowed the project to be successful even with many revisions. Fred Harris recommends that designers listen to what developers require since they are talking different languages.

Avalon Chrystie Place Phase I New York, NY. Pprovided by Avalon Bay.	Avalon Bowery Place Phase II 11 East First St, New York, NY. Pprovided by Avalon Bay.

Avalon Bowery Place Phase III 22 East First St, New York, NY. Pprovided by Avalon Bay.

Letters from Listeners

I've had the privilege of serving as Senior Designer on well over a dozen Avalon Bay mixed-use projects and the experience was always exceptional. With their industry experts at the table from early on in the process, they have essentially been promoting and practicing a particularly effective form of integrated design long before it became a household term.

Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED AP

Avalon Bay has done many affordable housing developments in Connecticut. Their organization has the knack for getting the proper approvals, then constructing these projects in a relatively short period of time. Their system apparently works- all of there developments get fully rented.

John Cruet

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