The Banks at Mill Village

Mill Village is a redevelopment effort for a public housing project and occupies a steeply sloping site along the Chattahoochee River, about a mile North of downtown. There were 102 existing housing units and the only on-site community amenity was a playground, immediately next to the freight line, separated from it by a fence. The redevelopment replaces these 102 existing units, and reimagines them as higher density apartments, stacking them together into groups. The natural beauty of the site is taken advantage of by tying into the existing riverfront walking and bike trail. Buildings are oriented to provide maximum views to the river. Inspired by the brick industrial aesthetic of the mills which this part of Columbus is named after, the buildings feature clustered brick on the elevations, while maintaining a residential scale that steps with the sloping site without being overbearing.

A unique feature of the programming is a fully operational on-site Health Center. Created in collaboration with a local clinic system, this facility includes three fully equipped medical exam rooms, lab, and Nurses’ Station.

This re envisioning of the site, originally developed for essentially the same purpose, revealed an extraordinary opportunity to create a higher quality of housing stock, better connect with the surroundings and provide for an improved quality of life for residents.