57 building (435 unit) cooperative
Colonial Square is a 57 building (435 unit) cooperative that began a major revitalization of their complex in early 2011. The buildings had aged so that the siding was discolored and the doors and shutters faded. I was brought in to develop several color schemes for the residing of these buildings. What I quickly saw was an opportunity to “individualize” each unit using stock colors in vinyl siding, doors and shutters. The project was approved in late February 2011 by the governing board and the improvements to the building began in the summer.
A rare opportunity
This had to be one of the most complex, yet fun projects I’ve ever worked on. Local architect Bob Winter had drawings made of each of the 57 buildings. I used these, along with samples of the available siding, shutter and door colors, to uniquely personalize each of the 435 units in the complex. I strongly felt we had a rare opportunity to not just fix the exteriors, but to make each unit owner feel they had a personalized space different from the others. For the governing board of the complex I made up a sample building that architect Winter turned into a colored drawing to show the unit owners an example of what a typical building might look like after the make-over.
Goal & Solution
Goal
At first the complex management wanted just a few general colors schemes to use on all the buildings. That quickly changed when I came up with a way to personalize each unit with only a tiny cost increase in the overall project.
Solution
I employed a data base, plot plan layout of the complex, and colored samples of siding, shutters, doors, etc to build sets of color schemes that were unique to each unit owner.
