01-22-2023, 07:56 AM
Another interesting take on the stairs question that I saw today (and reminded me of a similar thing in Kitchener) is to expand the space at the top into more of a common area and stick it on top of something.
This example is near me in the NLs. In this case the stacking is a three story townhome on top of single floor apartment. The stairs are at each end, are covered and controlled (but not enclosed). The area around the stairs provides storage and mailboxes. Climbing the stairs you reach a large area where each home has level exterior access to and the areas function as an outdoor space, people have benches, BBQs, etc. It is on top of the lower apartments which fill a larger footprint than the townhomes above.
This example is just on Ahrens St. in Kitchener, I find the whole property very strange...setting the homes way back in the property means the street has a break, but with landscaping instead of a parking lot, this isn't unpleasant for the street I think, it's just strange. In any case, again you have common/shared stairs, uncovered and uncontrolled access, but with more of them. The upper deck area is stacked on top of the garages and again provides a space with level access to the homes and an outdoor space for the homes for seating, bbqs, etc.
Looking at the design in the render, I don't see why such a compromise wouldn't be possible, but it might run afoul of some idiotic FSA restrictions. The render does make the garage floors look really high though. I'm unsure if this is just a quirk of the render, or driven by the topology of the site (the rear looks like its level access) or possibly a decision made to accommodate the idiotic gargantuan commercial trucks being preferred by today's suburbanite.
In any case, all of the examples look a lot more pleasant to me than the render.
This example is near me in the NLs. In this case the stacking is a three story townhome on top of single floor apartment. The stairs are at each end, are covered and controlled (but not enclosed). The area around the stairs provides storage and mailboxes. Climbing the stairs you reach a large area where each home has level exterior access to and the areas function as an outdoor space, people have benches, BBQs, etc. It is on top of the lower apartments which fill a larger footprint than the townhomes above.
This example is just on Ahrens St. in Kitchener, I find the whole property very strange...setting the homes way back in the property means the street has a break, but with landscaping instead of a parking lot, this isn't unpleasant for the street I think, it's just strange. In any case, again you have common/shared stairs, uncovered and uncontrolled access, but with more of them. The upper deck area is stacked on top of the garages and again provides a space with level access to the homes and an outdoor space for the homes for seating, bbqs, etc.
Looking at the design in the render, I don't see why such a compromise wouldn't be possible, but it might run afoul of some idiotic FSA restrictions. The render does make the garage floors look really high though. I'm unsure if this is just a quirk of the render, or driven by the topology of the site (the rear looks like its level access) or possibly a decision made to accommodate the idiotic gargantuan commercial trucks being preferred by today's suburbanite.
In any case, all of the examples look a lot more pleasant to me than the render.