SOME CONDO BUILDINGS RESERVE the wow factor for the penthouse, but not 301 Kenwood. Its elevators open directly into every unit. The ground-floor parking lot is hidden from the street by a two-story townhouse. (There's another parking level underground.) This avant-garde solution is only fitting for a 13-unit luxury residence not far from the city's contemporary cultural center.
THEY MAY VARY SOMEWHAT IN every city, but “The Projects” are always easily recognizable and definable: dour, anonymous, identical multistory buildings, separated from other neighborhoods by what seems like no-man's land. That's what stood for 70 years on 34 acres near downtown Cincinnati before the City West Revitalization project began.
AN APTITUDE FOR JIGSAW PUZZLES helps if you're going to design something along the lines of Belcara, a 107-unit detached community carved into a coastal ridge in Orange County, Calif. “It's not the sort of development where you have your plans first and fit the site to your plans,” says architect Mike Penrose. Instead, the picturesque enclave maps out as a series of cluster pads stepping down the hillside, with homes oriented to maximize views of the ocean, city lights, or both.
