Red Oak Townhouses

Cayce Place is Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency’s (MDHA) largest remaining family development site. Begun in 2013, the ambitious Envision Cayce Master Plan seeks to transform this neighborhood into a mixed-income, mixed-use community over 10-15 years. EOA Architects was tasked to master plan the C-5 residential block and design a residential building, (Boscobel III) Red Oak Towns, supporting 44 units of truly mixed-income tenants. Envision Cayce proposed a re-establishment of the grid through reconstruction of the historic roads connecting the historically isolated neighborhood back into an interconnected modern neighborhood. The woven nature of the design concept reflects the history of the urban fabric that has continually been erased, remade and re-sewn throughout time – starting with the first grids on the East Nashville farmland that were transformed by fires, tornadoes, and then finally in 1930, the urban renewal movement. The colorful patterning of the façade concentrates color and scale.

The building consists of a heavy mix of unit types ranging from 730 square foot 1-bedrooms to 2,110 square foot 5-bedroom units. At street level, entry stoops provide a more direct link to the street while balconies above provide views of the surrounding neighborhood. Every residential unit is designed at the same level of finish to be indistinguishable and to truly intermix the income levels throughout the building. The Red Oak Townhouses were completed in Winter 2021.

Client

Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA)

Place

Nashville, Tennessee

Scale

44 Townhouses

Recognition

Photography

Sterling Stevens Photography
Renderings by Frost Visualizations
Drone Image Michael Wasyliw, EOA Architects
Metro Nashville Archives (Maps and Historic Images)
EOA Architects (Site Plan Rendering)