Housing

2009 Vineville is a 106-unit apartment development located in a highly prominent location in Macon’s Vineville Historic District. The proximity to downtown, to shopping, to health care, and to other services in the Vineville area makes this site highly attractive for senior living. The project was constructed as part of a HUD HOPE VI grant.

Four new buildings house apartments for independent senior living. The exterior design elements of the new buildings take many of their cues from an existing historic building located on the site.

The existing building, now renovated for community space, was constructed in the 1830’s and converted to a maze of medical office space in the 1960’s. The current renovation required gutting the existing structure to return to its original configuration with parlors on the main floor. The parlors now serve as community gathering spaces for residents.

The remainder of the building has been fully renovated to provide a computer center, a fitness center, mail facilities, and office space for use by management and by outside agencies providing services to the residents.

Tattnall Place, a new 97-unit mixed income multifamily development, was constructed on the site of the former Oglethorpe Homes public housing development. Oglethorpe Homes was a 1940’s era development built in “bunker era” design with 188 apartments on a 7 acre site. The complete demolition and subsequent redevelopment was a part of the HUD HOPE VI program.

The site is located in the heart of Macon’s Intown Historic District. The project design is based on re-integrating the former super-block back into the surrounding neighborhood, helping to spur both public and private redevelopment in those areas as well.

The new buildings are designed to complement and blend with large houses in the neighborhood. Just as many of those houses have been divided over time into apartments, the new Tattnall Place “houses” are divided into 2, 3, or 4 apartments. As in the adjacent neighborhoods, the new “houses” have large porches facing the streets and on-street parking.

The site infrastructure – streets, walks, underground utilities – are completely new. The site also features several small open green spaces, a Community Building, and a swimming pool. Another key amenity immediately adjacent to the site is the Hazel Street Pedestrian Bridge, which provides a vital link to educational and recreational services nearby.

This project involved a dramatic conversion of a concrete “hump” bridge to a pedestrian walkway and public space. The bridge structure, originally built in the 1990’s, crosses depressed railroad tracks which physically divide an older intown neighborhood. The conversion project mitigated the effect of a structure that was both unsightly and dangerous, restoring an accessible pedestrian connection from the re-emerging Beall’s Hill neighborhood to vital neighborhood services and amenities.

There are a series of steps and landings approaching the actual bridge structure, with serpentine walkways that connect at the landings. The walkways provide a handicap accessible link to the bridge structure. On the structure itself ramps and steps leading to a center landing are separated by raised planters. The pedestrian bridge provides a vital, safe, attractive, fully handicap accessible link that reconnects the neighborhood. The completed bridge project is a key open space amenity to Tattnall Place, an adjacent neighborhood redevelopment project, and to the re-emerging Beall’s Hill neighborhood.