The Village Promenade apartment complex in Muncie, IN represents an innovative approach to student housing that also meets parking needs in the local community. Part of the owner’s strategy was to maintain a high level of quality throughout the project. Specifying County Materials’ Heritage Collection™ Concrete Brick helped ensure that the exterior of the building met the owner’s exacting standards.
The Village Promenade project consists of two buildings located in The Village, a business district adjacent to the Ball State University campus. The east building features a courtyard with a pool and student amenities on the lower level, including a game room, kitchen, movie theater, gym, and private and group study rooms. The west building wraps around a multi-level, city-owned public parking garage. It also includes tenant parking on the lower level. Both buildings feature rooftop green space. The buildings have a combined total of nearly 334,000 usable square feet, including 275,102 sq.ft. of residential space and 23,483 sq. ft. of first-floor commercial space. There is a 9’ elevation change from north to south, resulting in an extra 5th level on the south end of the 4 story buildings. The upper floors consist of 226 one- to three-bedroom residential units.
The structure represents innovative cooperation between the project’s owners and the City of Muncie because it helped solve a parking shortage in The Village. “The City was motivated to increase the availability of public parking,” says project owner Chase Sorrick. “A lot of times a city will want a parking garage in the heart of an area, but it can be a challenge to make the garage aesthetically pleasing without increasing the cost of the garage too much. We used a land assemblage of nine parcels and created a separate parcel in the center of that block. We deeded that land to the city of Muncie and wrapped our building all the way around it. This is best of both worlds.”
Throughout the project, top quality material selections were priority. “Our concept is that if you build something that looks very nice – like a 4 star hotel - it’s going to be treated that way.” For example, all the windowsills and countertops in the residential units are granite, and each unit features a high quality washer and dryer and private bathrooms for each bedroom.
The design team looked for superior quality in the exterior materials as well. It was also necessary for the structure to fit in visually with the character of the university and the surrounding architecture of The Village. Because a traditional brick look was desired, Heritage Collection Designer Concrete Brick provided the perfect solution.
The concrete units were chosen over clay brick for a number of reasons. In addition to being more economical per unit, concrete bricks’ precise modular sizing lays faster. On a project this size, this translates to significant savings in labor costs. Heritage Collection brick is also extremely durable. “We want to have that kind of durability at pedestrian contact areas,” Sorrick says. He also notes that County Materials’ concrete brick is able to bear more weight than clay brick. This was important, as the full brick units were used over Type 5 wood frame construction, and the concrete masonry units offered greater structural integrity to the project.
Heritage Collection Designer Concrete Brick is available in dozens of color choices and three textures. For this project, 109,520 units of 4”x4”x16” score and closure smooth bricks were used. The color selection process called for intense coordination between the owner, architect, material supplier, and a representative from Ball State. Two color blends were selected. The first is a three color blend featuring Cinnabar, Harvard Blend, and Coffee blend. The second is a 66/34 blend of Harvard Blend and Coffee Blend. The two different blends were used to break the building up visually and give it the appearance of multiple buildings, for a more residential-looking structure.
In addition to the concrete brick units, more than 7,000 units of Heritage Cast Stone in 4”x8”x16” and 4”x8”x24” sizes were installed as trim accents. “The cast stone gave us that traditional look we were after,” says Sorrick.
Many factors presented challenges for the project: the massive size of the buildings, the need for tight coordination between city and private teams, and severe winter weather. However, the Village Promenade project went from breaking ground to completion in just 12 months to be ready for students to move in at the beginning of the 2015 fall term. In the end, all the planning and investment paid off: In 2015 and 2016, students voted Village Promenade the Best of Ball State housing.