Creative townhome design in Birmingham
As townhouses gain popularity due to rising housing costs, creative designs allow this building type to appeal to more buyers. Avenue A Townhomes in Birmingham, Alabama, turn this common housing type into something great.
On a 1.5-acre former industrial site, Nequette Architecture & Design planned 28 homes with 13,000 square feet of retail space—the latter is the adaptive reuse of an existing building. The townhouses are placed perpendicular to the street, lining two 3,000-square-foot courtyards. The back of each townhome connects to a private alley.
The design creates a sense of place and defensible privacy without gates. It’s also a social model—the courtyards have a fire pit and seating where people can get to know their neighbors. Porches and balconies add to the social experience. The courtyards open to the street with plenty of windows on the street-facing sides of buildings, making the streetscape interesting to passersby.
The surrounding district was primarily industrial but has been redeveloped due to the conversion of an old rail line into the multi-use Rotary Trail, passing directly in front of the townhomes. “When H2 Real Estate, the developer, approached us about the possibility of a development opportunity on that property, we were excited to fill in a gap in the urban streetscape,” the design firm states.
The firm explains: “The Avenue A townhomes infilled an old manufacturing facility site that had been for years nothing more than a dumpsite for unwanted materials and garbage. This redevelopment replaces a couple of the missing teeth along this street frontage with good urban-formed buildings that address and put eyes on the street. This project makes the streetscape more pedestrian-friendly, makes the experience on the Rotary Trail more pleasant and engaging, and brings more people and activity to this redeveloping area of downtown Birmingham.”
The Avenue A Townhomes improve the living proposition of this building type, but the unusual layout required a different entitlement strategy, because the lots don’t face the street. Nequette founder Jared Calhoun explains:
“The City of Birmingham is typical of a lot of municipalities with respect to the public right-of-way access requirements for a fee-simple lots. For Avenue A, we presented to the subdivision committee the idea that the courtyards and alleys here, while part of the individual parcels, would be covered by common use access and public utility easements that allow all owners by access.” Thus the alleys and courtyards satisfy the frontage requirements.
The layout helps to optimize density on the site. “Working with the existing site grades tied to alleys, streets, and adjacent property circulation, we saw an opportunity to raise the townhomes off the street to create privacy and security for the residents. In turn, the common courtyards were designed to step down and open up to the streetscape,” the firm explains.
