In a region with numerous examples of mixed-use

In a region with numerous examples of mixed-use town centers and TNDs completed, Ayrsley in Charlotte, North Carolina, is taking off. Planned for a total of 2,000 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of offices, 400,000 square feet of retail, 550 hotel rooms, a YMCA, and a 14-screen movie theater, Ayrsley has grown moderately and steadily over the last four years. It is about 30 percent complete. But now, according to the Charlotte Observer, the project is making a “hyper jump” and will be largely built by early 2008. The movie theater was set to open in August and more than 850 residential units are occupied or under construction in and around the town center. A 44,000 square foot office/retail building is set to open in early 2007. Furthermore, two more office/retail buildings are scheduled to break ground by the end of this summer. The first of five hotels could be announced by October, the paper reports. Ayrsley is a hybrid project that was designed in a charrette by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). The final plan was modified by Overcash-Demmitt Architects of Charlotte. Significant additional changes were made by engineers working for the city and for Stantec during the implentation, according to Tom Low of DPZ. Instead of a main street at the entrance to Ayrsley, a wide collector road was built. The buildings on this thoroughfare turn their backs to the street and their entrances face parking lots, Low notes. DPZ asked developers Cambridge Partners and Henson-Tomlin Interests to take DPZ off of marketing materials. “The client wouldn’t go to bat for us when the city engineers began to retool the project,” Low says. “They took the path of least resistance.” Given how much of the plan is being built in the next few years, however, Low says “the jury is still out” on how well Ayrsley will meet new urban design criteria.