The Orchard engages Santa Barbara’s busy Hollister Avenue corridor with an array of different housing types alongside neighborhood-serving retail, all in service of a more productive use of former agricultural land. Notable for integrating three of our disciplines: architecture, planning and retail design, the development expresses a broad agricultural theme in respect to its context and includes senior housing, affordable multifamily, for sale townhomes and student housing, among other typologies.
The for sale component anchors the site and is diversified by other housing. Two-story row homes, three-story townhomes and three-story interlocking townhomes create variants and entry points for different buyers. Each has a distinct elevation style under a broad agricultural theme, some with a Spanish colonial influence, others more coastal and others more contemporary. The townhomes occupy the sites near Hollister, and the multifamily branches off toward the commercial complex at the rear of the site.
Courtyard style flats, affordable and market rate multifamily apartments round out the senior affordable and student housing. The site intersects with a flight path, so the designers worked with FAA regulations and strategically placed parking structures, streets and resident amenities under the path to minimize its impact. The residences are woven into a site containing a large public park and a tech campus. These more intensive uses sit opposite the flight path from the residential and retail sites, creating a seamless barrier.
The retail plaza occupies a space at the entrance to the site, taking advantage of busy frontage. The retail buildings each employ different forms to create depth and increase visual interest on a small site. The two-story restaurant gives a view of the surroundings and offers tenants visibility for branding. There is a shorter, stone- and glass-clad cafe for a quick serve restaurant or coffee shop, and the retail anchor is a broadly sloped glass enclosed market hall intended for a small grocer.
