Park Run

Eugene, Oregon

Located alongside the tree-lined ‘Q’ Street Diversion Floodway, Park Run is a new, four-story, 135,000 sf apartment building. Dwelling units range from studios to three-bedroom apartments. The 3.4-acre site supports generous community outdoor spaces for the residents, including a courtyard with outdoor seating and a fire pit, a canopy, an open field/play area, a pet area, and an outdoor pool and hot tub. Other amenities include a fitness room, a community room, a rentable conference room, rentable workspaces, a Luxor package room, a bicycle washing station, and electrical vehicle charging stations.

The building consists of four gable roof masses gathered around a central courtyard. Each of the gabled masses is differentiated by color and cladding texture. Though this is a large building, the separated forms—the volumetric articulation—break down the building mass into a more residential scale. Balconies, patios, canopies, sunshades, and overhanging roof eaves add small-scale features to the façades.

A unique characteristic of the design is the building’s relationship to open space. In order to avoid “box-y”, dull open spaces, the building bends toward the open space and creates more dynamic edges and expanded sight lines. By pushing parking to the perimeter, these spaces remain centralized and directly connected to the building. Another benefit of this perimeter parking is convenience; each resident can park near their apartment. A connected landscape surrounds the parking realm and defines the boundaries of the site. Smaller, unconnected landscaping, in conjunction with sidewalks, surrounds the building thereby creating a buffer from the parking while articulating individual units, patios, and communal entries.