News

Schematic Designs Unveiled For Banks Project

Architects Selected and Design Review Process Starts

Cincinnati, OH and Atlanta, GA (June 24, 2008) –The Banks development team of Carter and The Dawson Company unveiled preliminary designs for Phase 1 of the Banks development today.

The schematic designs for this portion of the project establishes the basis of an urban neighborhood by creating a place where people can live, work and play. This includes 300 apartments and approximately 70,000 square feet of restaurants and residential, restaurants and retail at the street level. Phase 1 will also include an office building of approximately 300,000 square feet and a potential 200-key hotel, as well as additional for-sale housing.

The design calls for primarily brick facades with stucco accents and cast stone bases that vary in height and width to help create a traditional urban neighborhood with a contemporary flair. Yet, there are similar design elements that allow for a feeling of continuity and wholeness.

"From an urban design standpoint, the intention here is to make the Banks feel like any other great urban neighborhood where the fabric of the streetscape has evolved over time with different architectural expressions that nevertheless complement each other as a harmonious whole," said Bailey Pope, vice president of design of construction for the Dawson Company.

The development team also announced today the architectural team that has been designing the Banks. These include:

• Cooper Carry, a national design firm with offices in Atlanta, Washington D.C., New York and California, provided the master planning for Phase 1 and is responsible for the design of Phase 1B, the office building. Cooper Carry will work with a team of architects for Phase 1B, including Moody•Nolan, the nation's largest African-American-owned firm and WA Architects, a registered minority and small business enterprise.
• Cole + Russell Architects, a national architectural firm headquartered in Cincinnati, and Moody•Nolan are responsible for the design of Phase 1A, which consists of the residential, rental and retail portions of the development. Cole + Russell Architects and Moody•Nolan have a history of collaborating on complex, urban projects and are currently partnered on nearly $200 million worth of work in Cincinnati.
• The hotel designers have not yet been named.

The preliminary designs were shared with the Urban Design Review Board, a citizen advisory board to the City that reviews projects architecturally and which starts the design review process. The process is intended to help create a quality design that is consistent with the city’s urban master plan.