Williams Place

2017 Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Winner

Located on a 4.37-acre peninsula in Davidson, North Carolina, Williams Place is a four-story, 127-unit, 120,149 SF independent living retirement residence. With the thoughtful architectural layout in relation to Lake Cornelius, residents take advantage of the amazing views throughout the building. The circulation is organized around a central atrium. The building interior design also includes common areas for a variety of uses – Beauty Shop, TV Room, and Media/Computer Room.

To create natural social gathering places outside, our Landscape Architect masterfully incorporated a stone firepit and sitting area overlooking the lake, raised garden beds in the community garden, and large patio and arbor complete with a bocce court to the south into his design. We incorporated a peaceful pedestrian path within the lake shore buffers to connect the Town of Davidson’s existing path system to our extensively landscaped site. The architectural design was driven by the uniqueness of the site size, shape, and location. The property is located on a peninsula of land on Lake Cornelius and is highly visible from the highway and from the Town of Davidson. It is also located near a portion of the town that is growing with offices, hotels and associated retail developments. Neighborhood compatibility was achieved in the site planning and building design. The wing ends and building center step down from three to two and one story. This arrangement provides for privacy and a gentle change of scale. Significant time was spent repairing and enhancing the lake shoreline that was prone to damage due to erosion. Care was taken to minimize the impact to the existing community.

The proximity to this area of town, which has been constructed using brick masonry, led us to naturally incorporate brick into our exterior design. We based much of our architectural detailing on Craftsman Style buildings. Horizontal and Shingle siding was used along with heavy timber accents throughout the entire project. These materials and organic colors allowed us to blend naturally into the generous landscape buffers around the entire peninsula.