Mixed-Use Commercial-Residential Development (Princeton, NJ)
with Ross Woolley (Woolley Morris Architects)
Completed Spring 2021
Panoramic Construction Photo
A private client’s mixed-use commercial-residential complex near Princeton Junction Train Station, New Jersey. This project consists of six conjoined two-and-one-half-story row houses for sale, and a two-story building containing 17 apartments above a 12,000 square-foot ground floor of commercial space for rent.
The mixed-use building has a steel structure on the commercial floor, with the upper residential floor framed in wood.
Commercial Ground Floor Plan // Residential Second Floor Plan
Typical Wall Sections
Typical Storefront Plan Details
The building’s traditional formal aesthetic and earth-tone color palette are designed to comply with the context and ordinance of the local township.
West Elevation (Princeton Hightstown Road)
West Elevation Photo
With a five-minute walk time from the building site to the train station, or a five-minute drive time to the Route 1 highway, the project is oriented towards working class early-career professionals. The 17 apartments consist of nine one-bedroom, seven two-bedroom, and one three-bedroom units.
Typical Apartment Unit Plans
Constructed within a stilted market economy, this project is subject to the complications of the contemporary architectural addiction to the “Quadrivium Industrial Complex” of steel, concrete, glass, and plastic, as described by Mark Jarzombek.1 As with most American architecture built during the late 2010s and early 2020s, the project’s realization was impeded by exigencies of COVID-era labor issues in both offsite manufacturing and onsite construction, US tariffs on Chinese products and raw materials, and additional global supply chain bottlenecks. These forces clashed with a persistent mandate from client and contractor for value engineering and cost optimization. Working within these budgetary constraints, we continued to advocate for the most durable and hygienic built-in kitchen and bathroom materials possible; to retain as many in-unit laundry stacks as possible; and for additional resident amenities (including bolstered acoustic insulation, substantial HVAC systems, and energy-efficient wall and window assemblies). Throughout the process, our primary concern remained the long term habitability of the occupant — our foremost constituent.
Mixed-Use Apartment Building Construction Photo
Row House Construction Photos: front, rear, main bedroom interior framing
1. Mark Jarzombek, “The Quadrivium Industrial Complex” in e-flux architecture (November 11, 2019). https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/overgrowth/296508/the-quadrivium-industrial-complex/.
