THE ROW AT WILLIAMS-BRICE STADIUM    Columbia, South Carolina
126 Unit 507 Bed Suite complex with Clubhouse and Amenities marketed to students of The University of South Carolina. Opened August 2020 during CoVid19 Pandemic with full Occupancy. Innovative design economical and quick to construct design was awarded NAHB 2020 GAME CHANGER Award from the NAHB Best in American Living Awards. Opened to full occupancy during the pandemic in Fall of 2020 for Reign Living of Gainesville Florida.

The Row at the Stadium is a rethinking of a way to achieve economical density on a semi-urban lot (former industrial building) with all surface parking.  The Vertical Apartments turned out to also be very Pandemic friendly. 

The Developer approached the new Architect to value engineer the project.  As the cost of concrete and other in-demand components continued to rise the Developer of The Row decided he could not afford to build the 4-story flats building that the original Architect had substantially finished designing.  The original Architect opted not to pursue more value engineering of his design.

Every Student Housing project the new Architect had previously designed was a national award winner.  One of his BALA Gold Award winning Student Housing projects was built for $86/sf.  That project had turned the student housing “cottage” upside down with a grand loft in the gable roofs with bedrooms separated for privacy and economy on the lower level.

For The Row at the Stadium the Architect realized that if he could eliminate at least 25% of floor plan area, he could achieve a 3-story building instead of 4-story.  At 3 stories the apartments could be vertical with bedrooms separated for privacy on the 2 upper levels. 

Before the Pandemic, the Architect believed that the young student renters would see the internal stairs as a positive as it would afford them more privacy on separated floors.

Under construction, during the CoVid19 Pandemic, The Row at the Stadium fully leased with enough wait-listers to refill the suites of students that opted not to attend University this year.

The innovative back-to-back new Vertical Apartment design (denser than townhomes) eliminated all shared interior common areas such as corridors, elevators & bike storage rooms. All Vertical Apartments now have street level entrances and porches along the outside public ways.  With just vertical shaft walls between units as the only fire-rated assembly the separation in the project, the Vertical Apartment design eliminates the need for rated gypsum, rated electrical components, fire-alarms and floor-ceiling rated assemblies.  No gypcrete is used.  Public area maintenance is limited to the Clubhouse and amenities.

On the same site foot print the new 3-story Vertical Apartments achieved 504 of the 507 maximum allowable number of units that the first Architect had designed in 126 Apartments.  Fire Lanes snaking between buildings were used for net additional 45 parking spaces giving the community a needed 1:1 parking space per bedroom ratio plus enough more site space for delivery and guest spaces outside the gated enclosure.

Half the Vertical Apartments have parking spaces immediately adjacent.  All have kitchens on the same level as parking.  Contact can selectively be limited to the other residents of the community with no interior common areas, no communal hallway air systems, elevator buttons, door handles, etc.

Each 1727sf 4-Bedroom apartment is a 3-story plan with 2-Bedroom on-suites on each upper floor with the Gathering Room, Kitchen and social Porch on the street.   

Street level porches are more social next to the main pedestrian Concourses with electrical outlets and hooks so that the residents can have an outdoor Living Room to decorate with personalized lighting.   The porch arrangement gives the Living Room areas window openings on two sides of the room increasing view and reducing glare.

1468sf 3-Bedroom Apartments are similar to the typical 4-bedroom except that a 2-story breezeway is carved out for easy access through the buildings and the Grand Concourse (punctuated by vertical markers).  Because these breezeways are configured not to be required for egress to the public way, they did not need to be fire-rated from the third floor of the unit above from the living side.

The 2553sf 6 Bedroom Apartment is 2-story at the ends of the buildings.   Because suites and not units are individually rented, it was acceptable to local Plan Reviewers to have the Accessible suites on the ground level of the 6-Bedroom Apartments with all amenities necessary to them on the ground floor.   There is a second lounge, laundry and porch for the 4-Bedroom suites on the second floor.

Students prefer the arrangement of having bedrooms socially distanced by floor.  No bedrooms open up onto the Living Area.  Most bedrooms are on an upper floor, so window blinds need not be in the closed position.  Smaller clichés of friend’s room by the floor in the units with more units on a floor.  The 6-bedroom units rented first.