The Railyard

The Charlotte Railyard will be a new neighborhood that mends a gap in the urban fabric of the City of Charlotte. Located just 4 blocks northeast of Uptown, the 210 acre site, with its two light rail stations, will be a model for transit-oriented development while providing a vibrant, safe, and healthy place to live, work, and play.

The development will feature a mix of residential, retail, office, educational, and hotel space, as well as over 26 acres of park space, and a redesign of Tryon Street. Creating a connection between Uptown Charlotte, Lockwood, and the thriving neighborhood of NoDa, the Rail Yard development will include: A Maker’s Market, providing work space, an education center, and housing for Charlotte’s creative class; A Main Street district housing independent boutiques, restaurants, cafés and a grocery store; An expanded cultural and recreational district with a large gateway plaza; Two large parks surrounded by high density residences near light rail stations; Lockwood South and Optimum Park, extensions of existing residential neighborhoods that reconnect the site to its surrounding context.

With the opportunity to move the storage functions of the existing railyard to the freight yard at the airport, and the Amtrak Terminal to the proposed multi-modal station in uptown, we propose that the significantly decreased train traffic be moved into a tunnel under the site, to open up its neighborhood potential. The architecture of this new development will reflect the area’s industrial history, while reusing many of the existing buildings and materials on the site.

I was tasked with designing six blocks with the Maker’s Village neighborhood. Maker’s Village in the northern section of the development that features existing industrial buildings and a piped stream. Many of the existing buildings along the western boundary of the site were brick structures that could be adapted and reused for the Makerspaces. A small stream was daylight as a swale. The existing trees surrounding the area of the swale were maintained and protected by the creation of a linear park. Bordering the linear park are new six-story apartments that frame the park along with a row of townhouses and a complex of mews that provide a diverse portfolio of housing for those working in the Maker’s Village. Despite being new construction, they would take cues from the existing buildings in terms of materiality and character, adding to the industrial make up of the neighborhood.