A group of local Virginia Tech students in an architecture studio class got the opportunity to reimagine a small section of Alexandria this semester.
The students spent the fall semester designing a multifamily/retail development for a plot of land on the western side of the intersection of Richmond Hwy and Swann Ave. The lot is currently the home of a warehouse.
They worked under the guidance of Peter VanderPoel, an adjunct instructor at Alexandria’s Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), a satellite campus of Virginia Tech.
That warehouse block is in Oakville Triangle, an area the city has very specific plans for in regard to redevelopment, even specifications down to each block. The students researched what the city was planning and looked at the zoning codes.
“Knowing that there is going to be a lot of changes up in the north end of Alexandria, with Amazon and the Virginia Tech Innovation campus going in there, [our director Susan Piedmont-Palladino] thought that would be an appropriate place to look at doing a project.” VanderPoel said.
The class researched what the city wanted to develop on that plot of land, the natural make-up of the area, and used the city’s vision document for the Oakville Triangle as guidance before designing their buildings. The purpose was to combine all the skills the fourth year architecture students have learned in their other classes.
Ever year Virginia Tech announce a theme, and this year’s was “performance.” VanderPoel encouraged the students to think about performance when designing their projects.
“We talked about with COVID, what’s happened.” VanderPoel said. “Performance is now a very different animal, people used to sit in a big audience and watch a performance on a stage, and now it is separated.”
Design by Marshall Flieger
Students incorporated design elements like courtyards and balconies to help promote social interaction among residents, like in this design above by Marshall Flieger.
The idea exercise resulted in interesting concepts for the area with colorful elements, community gathering spaces and viewpoints from living spaces and common areas.
Below you can see a couple more designs by VanderPoel's students.
While the student's projects are unlikely to see construction, Oakville Triangle is headed for a major revisioning with the addition of the Inova Healthplex and new housing development.
Design by Kyle Quinn
Design by Kyle Quinn
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Design by Carl Buck
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Design by Carl Buck
