National City, CA

CLAD steps into the role of owner on a small vacant lot on a run down commercial strip looking for a new lease on life.

Located within National City’s Downtown Specific Plan Area, the zoning allows for 75 dwellings per acre. The City strongly desires the area to be redeveloped with medium and high density projects with a strong emphasis on mass transit and multi-modal transportation. With that in mind, 129 NCB was designed as a mix of 12 studios & 1 bedrooms, as well as 2 live/work units facing the public street. There are just 7 parking spaces and a generous amount of bike parking.

Each unit’s living space and accompanying outdoor patio, as well as the external circulation, faces an internal parking courtyard. The parking courtyard itself is finished with a driveable landscape surface, which improves site drainage by allowing rainwater to slowly infiltrate onsite. The design provides separation from the loud street and the 5, and encourages interaction amongst tenants as they move throughout the property.

The building is clad with dark fiber cement panels to create a monumental appearance from the street, reminiscent of the massive ships parked just blocks away at the Navy base.