Canopy at Grove Park
Finalist: Best Affordable Apartment Community (Over 100 Units)
Location: Atlanta, GA
Award Applicant: JHP Architecture / Urban Design
Architect: JHP Architecture / Urban Design
Developer: Columbia Residential
General Contractor: Block Builders
Interior Designer: Holt Interiors
Photographer: Creative Sources Photography
Project Website: canopyatgrovepark.com/en
Project Statement
Columbia Canopy at Grove Park is a Purpose Built Community providing 110 units of affordable housing for low- to moderate-income households in the historic Grove Park neighborhood of Atlanta. Rapid investment, acceleration of home prices, and the threat of gentrification threatened to displace residents. The project successfully provides high-quality mixed-income housing for the area, ensuring that existing residents were not displaced. Extensive community engagement and creative solutions to challenging site conditions combine with a focus on affordability, wellness, and sustainability to round out this community asset.
The development provides affordable and approachable housing to a previously underserved and overlooked community. This part of Atlanta had fallen into severe disinvestment, was considered a food desert, and at one point had one of the highest crime and murder rates in all of Atlanta. Needless to say, this area was in desperate need of support and investment.
The Grove Park development brought much needed improvement and stability to this area. Canopy at Grove Park is a joint venture between Columbia Residential and Grove Park Foundation. Grove Park Foundation is a Purpose Built Communities affiliate undertaking a holistic multifaceted neighborhood revitalization and adapting the Purpose Built Communities model to the needs of the Grove Park community in Northwest Atlanta.
Affordable and mixed-income housing is a critical piece of the strategy and one of the first elements to be completed in the revitalization. The project represents the first phase of housing of two planned housing phases. It is aimed toward providing housing for low- to moderate-income households at risk of displacement in this area that is seeing rapid investment and accompanying acceleration of housing prices. The energy-efficient design ensures residents the greatest opportunity to thrive by reducing utility bills, and enhancing air quality and health, all while also promoting walkability and use of public transit.
