St. Ferdinand Homes II is a collaboration between Northside Community Housing (NCHI) and RISE Community Development to develop 43 mixed-income new and rehabbed units in the historic Greater Ville Neighborhood. 

The vision for the district’s Landscape complements NCHI’s effort to provide high-quality, well-maintained affordable housing with a high-quality, thoughtful and environmentally sustainable site. Rather than approach each of the 12 buildings and 3 open spaces individually, the design uses plant material and topography in a bold, recognizable and unified gesture that sweeps across the development. 

The gesture culminates in Triangle Park at the southeast corner, acting as a neighborhood marker and an attractive, passively used landscape. The park tilts up at its southern edge to create a more visible, layered landscape. The triangulated walking circuit is a public space with multi-season and multi-user interest from the dynamic interplay of paved and planted areas, a vibrant material palette (including re-purposed existing site materials and native trees and shrubs), and ever-changing “art walls”. 

The overall site landscape creates a cohesive development identity, provides visual rhythm and shade (Street Canopy Trees), lends each home visual interest (Smaller Ornamental Trees), performs as green infrastructure (Rain Gardens, Vegetative Swales), and creates a distinctive district to serve as a point of pride for both lifelong residents and new neighbors.