In 2019 the Tennessee Housing Development Agency reported that over 45% of Nashville renters are housing cost-burdened: spending more than 30% of their income on housing-related expenses. With rents rising15% in the past year alone and a projected 50,000-unit deficit by 2030, the city’s housing crisis shows no signs of slowing. Partners Eagle Rock Ventures and The Mathews Company’s response was to bring a new kind of living option to Nashville. Teaming with HASTINGS Architecture, the team sought to bring a new housing typology to Nashville that allows young professionals, artists, musicians, and teachers of Nashville to live comfortably in a high-demand central urban neighborhood. The two resulting buildings, Martin Flats and Rutledge Flats celebrate the congregate housing model’s inherent sense of community. Compact 190-square-foot sleeping suites, shared kitchen & living spaces, and mindful design create these hyper-efficient and economic projects. These affordable rents for Nashvillians fall under 80% of the area median income and are inclusive of utilities, internet, and furnishings.
Martin Flats
Martin Flats, located in Nashville’s Wedgewood Houston neighborhood, offers a new congregate housing model to address the city’s desperate need for attainable housing. This housing model allowed the developers and long-term building owners to achieve their affordable goals with 100% private funding. The design celebrates the congregate housing model’s inherent sense of community, seen in the variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces and the facade’s artistic exterior expression. Like the individual residents who weave together to create the larger community, the facade consists of rotating corrugated metal panels and staggered window openings, creating a woven tapestry pattern of color and texture. The project also offers multiple ground-floor live-work units, each with direct access to Humphreys Street, spurring pedestrian interaction and street activation. In addition, a retail space at the corner of Humphreys Street and Martin Street invites the public in and provides another gathering place for residents.
Team:
Architects: Hastings Architecture
Co- Developer: Eagle Rock Ventures Llc; The Mathews Company
Mepf Engineer: Power Management Corporation; Jeff Pinkston
Structural Engineer: Balata Structural Engineering; Warren Goodrich
Civil Engineer: Michael Dewey Engineering; Michael Dewey
Landscape Architect: Hodgson Douglas
General Contractor/construction Manager: Rc Mathews Contractor
Photographer: Nick Mcginn
Materials Used:
Facade cladding: Glazing, FireLite NT Standard Grade
24ga. Corrugated Wall Panels, Firestone Building Products
Exterior Lighting: Exterior lighting, WE Mini Wall Mount Series Gen 1, SLG Lighting
Exterior Paint: Paint, Acrolon Ultra High-Performance Polyurethane, Sherwin-Williams
Flooring: LVT, Shaw Contract
Carpet Tile, Cloud Cover View from Above, Interface
Counter tops: Granite Countertops, National Stoneworks
Doors: Flush Hardboard Pre-Hung Doors, Hollow Core Flush Hardboard Doors, Construction Services Group
Windows: Century 2000 Fixed Sash Windows, Torrance Steel Window Co. Inc.
Roofing: Firestone Building Products
Interior Paint: Paint, ProMar® 200 Zero V.O.C.Interior Latex, Sherwin-Williams
Bike Mounting Racks Bike Storage Rack Vertical Patriot Blue, Graber Manufacturing
