Apartment Complexes

Built around the cluster, not around the aisle.

The cluster comes first. Townhouse and walk-up apartment buildings should be designed in clusters of three to six units, with offset front elevations and varied roof lines. A row of identical units stretching down a parking aisle reads as institutional even when the architecture is good — the variation is what makes the project feel like a place. Bailey draws cluster geometry first, with target density in mind, and then works outward to parking, drives, and common areas. The cluster decision is the most consequential one we make on an apartment project.

Once the clusters are placed, parking takes over as the next design layer. Standard practice specifies surface lots with nine-by-eighteen-foot stalls and twenty-four-foot two-way drive aisles for walk-up buildings, and the layout has to provide resident stalls, visitor stalls, and amenity stalls all within a reasonable walk of the units they serve. The maximum tolerable walking distance from a stall to a unit door is roughly 300 to 400 feet — push past that and resident complaints start. We design parking around the cluster geometry, not around an aisle grid, so the walks stay short.

Garden apartment units come in two configurations. Single-loaded buildings run units front-to-rear with a single exposure on each side, allowing for a private patio at grade and a balcony above. Double-loaded buildings are more efficient but limit each unit to a single exposure. The trade-off is straightforward: single-loaded units feel more like townhomes and command higher rents, while double-loaded units maximize building efficiency. Bailey works with the architect on the configuration before the site plan is locked, because the decision drives the cluster footprint.

The amenity package is the next driver. Every modern garden apartment needs at least a pool and a playground, and the competitive sites are pushing well past that into spas, fitness rooms, game rooms, and tot lots. Even sheltered parking — carports or individual garages — is becoming a common amenity in upscale projects. Bailey sites the amenity complex early because it has to be reachable from every cluster, visible from the leasing office for prospects, and accessible to maintenance vehicles without crossing resident parking. We don't bolt the pool on after construction documents are done.

The non-negotiables are fire access, refuse, and mail. Fire hydrants get placed so every building falls inside a 250-foot radius circle around a hydrant, with a 500-foot maximum spacing along access drives. Refuse enclosures get located so that a service truck can pull in, dump, and pull out without backing through resident parking — and so the sound of the truck doesn't wake the closest unit at six in the morning. Centralized mail kiosks get sited for pedestrian convenience, because the daily walk to the mailbox is one of the most predictable patterns on the property. All three live in the site plan from the start, not in a revision pass.