Renderings of Twickenham Square

Twickenham Square broke ground on Tuesday, December 4th, ending nearly two years of negotiations between the City, the Housing Authority, and the Nashville-based developers. Construction began about a month ago, and it will continue until at least 2014, when the development is expected to open in phases throughout the year.

At the groundbreaking, new renderings of the project were revealed, showing street-level views of the apartments and retail fronts. Below is an overall map of the site, with locations of each rendering. (Note: The green space next to Publix will remain open space for now, but may eventually be developed. The floodway behind Publix is planned to become a linear extension of Big Spring Park.)

The overall Twickenham Square development. The numbers indicate the corresponding rendering's location; the arrows show the direction of the rendering's view. (click to enlarge) Provided by the City of Huntsville

Rendering 1: Retail Center

Rendering 1. Photo credits: Smith Gee Studio, City of Huntsville

This view is looking down Pelham Avenue from Gallatin. In the foreground is retail and restaurant space, of which there is about 22,900 square feet throughout the development. In the background on the right side of the street is Publix. It will be different than any other Publix in the city in a few ways. First off, it will be the smallest, at 32,000 sq. ft.- this is their "urban" prototype, which is about 13,000 sq. ft. less than their suburban store. Second, save for a few on-street spaces, you will have to park in the garage across the street (if you freak out about having to pay for parking, don't worry-- it's free for shoppers). Finally, the sleek, modern facade with large windows along the sidewalk is designed to tie into the rest of the development and make the store more pedestrian-friendly.

Renderings 2 and 3: Apartments

Rendering 2. Photo credits: Smith Gee Studio, City of Huntsville

These renderings show the view from the southwest corner of Publix, along a new, to-be-named street. This tree-lined street will be lined by 4-story apartment buildings on both sides. There will be 246 apartments- 185 one-bedroom, 61 two bedroom units. The design reminds me of one of Bristol's developments in Nashville, an award-winning project called 1700 Midtown.

Rendering 3. Photo credits: Smith Gee Studio, City of Huntsville

At the bottom corner of the left (east) apartment building is about 7,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail space-- enough for a sit-down restaurant, or a few smaller shops and restaurants (e.g. deli, ice cream, etc.) Residents will use a private parking deck at the south end of the street (not pictured).







Rendering 4: Medical Office Space

Rendering 4. Photo credits: Chapman Sisson, City of Huntsville

This is the medical office building, looking south towards Huntsville Hospital. Considering the proximity to the hospital (it's about 400 feet away, door-to-door), it may be no surprise that it will be the main tenant of the ~100,000 sq. ft. building. The original tenant was going to be the National Bank of Commerce, which has since decided to build its own branch on Meridian Street. However, it seems that another bank may yet occupy part of the building, as the newest designs show a drive-thru on the west (right) side of the building.

Rendering 5: Hotel

Rendering 4. Photo credits: Chapman Sisson, City of Huntsville

This is the same rendering that I posted in July, when Homewood Suites was announced as the brand. This will be a 101-room hotel, built along Gallatin between the retail center and the office building. One of the entrances to the main parking garage is in the background.







Street design

Close-up of the Harvard Road street design.

One more thing-- I wrote a post about a year ago about "cycle tracks," or bicycle lanes that are separated from auto traffic (by a row of parallel parking spaces, for example) and that Huntsville was planning to build a prototype on the new Harvard Road extension/"Downtown Gateway," which will run to the west of Twickenham Square between Governors and Lowe. Here it is, shown on a segment of the new street as it crosses St. Clair near the main library, with the one-way cycle tracks on both sides to the right of the on-street parking.