The low-rise condominium and commercial mixed-use structure Eleven:30 was completed several months ago, but for now, all you can do is sit back and enjoy the view. As of last month, buyers had snapped up all the available spaces.
So, about that view. Local architect Richard Price purchased two dilapidated homes at 1130 E. High St. five and a half years ago. The homes weren’t salvageable, so Price conceived of a condominium space in which the units open in the front on a courtyard.
Price says the relatively unique condo style dates back to the 1920s and is popular in other areas of the country—Los Angeles, New Orleans, even Richmond—but less so in Charlottesville. According to Price, because the units directly face a central communal area, residents are naturally drawn into social situations.
“With the front doors facing onto the courtyard, it is a space where the neighbors stop and talk to each other,” Price says. “They have get-togethers, they have a certain pride in it.” For a structure located on a main thoroughfare like High Street, Price thought the design would work especially well, sheltering the living areas from traffic at their rear.
Eleven:30 now contains 12 spaces in total, with two commercial business units facing High Street and 10 residences above them. The structure is decidedly contemporary in styling, Price says, with simple geometric shapes and colors and “not a lot in the way of ornamentation.” Price also strived for sustainability in his design, and Eleven:30 features extensive bioretention and a native plant landscape. Price commissioned Kennon Williams Landscape Studio to assist on the development’s landscaping and hardscaping.
Realtor Roger Voisinet, who worked with Price to market and sell homes in the award-winning River Bluff neighborhood, a 19-acre conservation community with 22 sustainably built homesites, notes the Eleven:30 condos are a short walk from the Downtown Mall in their Martha Jefferson neighborhood location.
In addition to its unique courtyard configuration, Voisinet says Eleven:30 gives residents the ability to occupy an office on one floor and live in the space just above it, another rarity in Charlottesville.
“[Richard] had a real vision for this courtyard housing project,” Voisinet says. “Ultimately, they had to be condominiums, both business and residential…I only wish we had more.”
Was Price successful in realizing his vision? Eleven:30 may not exactly be Melrose Place yet, but give it time.
“Well, we are done. That’s definitely success,” Voisinet says. “From what I have heard from the residents, it is being very well received.”
Sociable medium
Architect Richard Price wanted his new condo development at 1130 High St. to be a uniquely social space spilling onto its interior courtyard. Why not go all out on the courtyard area itself?
Price worked with landscape architect Kennon Williams to bring the outdoor space in the Eleven:30 condominiums alive. As the centerpiece of a decidedly contemporary and green structure, Williams focused on those two areas in his landscape design. “Richard’s background is in sustainable design and modernism, and we wanted the landscaping to be consistent,” Williams says.
Williams opted for native plants with only one or two exceptions, a simple geometry and cleanliness to the planting layout, a long-term view of shading and heat control (i.e., trees destined to grow taller), and biofilters—vegetation designed to pull contaminants from the air—throughout the Eleven:30 courtyard space.
“We are trying to create as much delight as we can with plants that are wonderful to look at but also that benefit wildlife,” Williams says.