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Hammond's Ferry, North Augusta


Topher1

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Since this project is finally a go (after 2 years of delay), I figured it's safe to start a thread on it. They finally broke ground last month, and though it will take years to complete, I'm glad it's finally begun.

This PDF has a really good description of the project with some great (and large) renderings. I'll try to extract some of the renderings when I'm away from work and have access to better software.

http://www.doverkohl.com/project_graphic_p...h%20Augusta.pdf

Some highlights:

- 200 acres, a lot of which is right on the Savannah river

- 1000 residential units

- Retail/restaurant, as well as office and civic uses.

- A town square park, surrounded by 3-6 mixed-use floor buildings as the centerpiece

- Plenty of access points; the development is simply extending the street grid, and providing IMPROVED access to Augusta's and N. Augusta's downtowns.

- Integration and expansion of North Augusta's "Greeneway" bike trail (this will also serve as a catalyst to get the trail connecting to Augusta's system).

One of the things I like the mix of housing types. It's all street oriented, and looks extremely authentic in the renderings. It looks like a true mixed income neighborhood, with multi-family and small homes on the same blocks as stately homes. The renderings remind me a lot of Charleston's massing, but with local architectural styles.

The other thing that I love is the location. I've never seen a New Urbanism project with such a great location. This will be what bridges the downtowns of Augusta and North Augusta, and turns it into one cohesive urban environment.

Here are a few tiny images; look at the PDF to really see the scope of the project.

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The architect is Dover, Kohl from Miami.

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Some more links:

- The official site. Not too much information, the Dover-Kohl PDF is better.

http://www.hammondsferry.com/

- The Landing at River Club; A 50 unit condo/townhome development, not part of the project, but adjacent to the project.

http://aikenonline.com/stories/091904/new_2025034.shtml

249814a.jpg

- Groundbreaking story

http://aikenonline.com/stories/040305/new_3773768.shtml

- Development group; just a blurb and have to navigate to it.

http://www.leylandalliance.com/flash/main.swf

Also, Civitas, who helped develop I'on in Mt. Pleasant, has a hand in this development.

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Hmmm...good project and nicely designed. It is VERY Charlestonesque, though. That kind of brings my opinion of the project down a bit, because it seems to just copycat parts of Charleston. It needs to have its own flavor of being in Augusta, and not creating a residential Charleston theme park. Just my opinion, though. It still looks nice!

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There's no doubt that the project is modeled after Charleston (city leaders basically lived there when the project was first being conceived), but the building treatments definately seem more "inland" to me. The uniform, darker brick treatment is what does it to me, and really reminds me more of Virginia than Charleston. The single family homes are extremely reminiscent of Augusta's older (and unfortunately, very run-down) neighborhoods.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in its infancy, Aiken County was a bit of a summer retreat for Charlestonians (heat/mosquitos), due to it being one of the last places easily accessible by railroad. Most of the county's early residents were weathly northerners in the winter, and wealthy Charlestonians in the summer. So perhaps a bit of Charleston vernacular architecture is somewhat appropriate to pay homage to the county's "pre-nuclear" beginnings.

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Another thing to keep in mind is that in its infancy, Aiken County was a bit of a summer retreat for Charlestonians (heat/mosquitos), due to it being one of the last places easily accessible by railroad.  Most of the county's early residents were weathly northerners in the winter, and wealthy Charlestonians in the summer.  So perhaps a bit of Charleston vernacular architecture is somewhat appropriate to pay homage to the county's "pre-nuclear" beginnings.

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Interesting that you note that - York is another 'summer retreat' for Charlestonians as well in it's early years. This can be understood by the grand mansions, I also wonder if Camden was another popular destination for Charlestonians.

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There's no doubt that the project is modeled after Charleston (city leaders basically lived there when the project was first being conceived), but the building treatments definately seem more "inland" to me.  The uniform, darker brick treatment is what does it to me, and really reminds me more of Virginia than Charleston.  The single family homes are extremely reminiscent of Augusta's older (and unfortunately, very run-down) neighborhoods.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in its infancy, Aiken County was a bit of a summer retreat for Charlestonians (heat/mosquitos), due to it being one of the last places easily accessible by railroad.  Most of the county's early residents were weathly northerners in the winter, and wealthy Charlestonians in the summer.  So perhaps a bit of Charleston vernacular architecture is somewhat appropriate to pay homage to the county's "pre-nuclear" beginnings.

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That is good to know. They definitely want to be careful of being copycats with other cities, and the darker color would give the area it's own "flavor". Also, excellent information about Aiken as a retreat for Charlestonians. I remember reading about that; this was back when railroad was the primary means of transportation. I feel much better about the development now! :thumbsup:

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Topher, will this be in between the 5th and 13th street bridges, directly across from Downtown Augusta, or will it sit south of 5th? I didnt realize the scale of this project...Hurray!

A Pedestrian Bridge spanning the Savannah River between the two cities would be nice.

What is the development with all the giant new homes that is already built (recently) over there? I noticed that last time I was in Augusta.

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Topher,  will this be in between the 5th and 13th street bridges, directly across from Downtown Augusta, or will it sit south of 5th?  I didnt realize the scale of this project...Hurray!

A Pedestrian Bridge spanning the Savannah River between the two cities would be nice.

What is the development with all the giant new homes that is already built (recently) over there?  I noticed that last time I was in Augusta.

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Actually this is directly north and adjacent to the 13th St. bridge. This will basically link the two downtowns along Georgia Avenue, as well as providing more access to Georgia Ave. by improving the bridge. The giant homes you're speaking of are just waterfront/golf course mcmansions, which are not associated with this project. I'm pretty sure they're part of the Rivernorth development.

Speaking of pedestrian bridges, do you remember this proposal back in 2003 to connect the two cities' bike trails?

pedestrian_bridge1.jpg

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/02270...-5842.000.shtml

This was planned to be completed by December 2004, but of course it's dead in the water now. Just think of how kick-ass this would have been right in the heart of Augusta... The current, dumbed down version of this is of widening the 13th St. bridge by 10 ft. on each side to create bike lanes and safer sidewalks.

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Damn thats too bad about the Bridge. Looks like it would have been nice. Greenville has an awesome new ped-bridge over the Reedy River. While it (the river) is nothing compared to the Savannah, the bridge design is fantastic.

Augusta needs a comparable project (maybe on the south side of Broad Street) to compliment N. Augustas project. It just seems like all of Augustas development is out in the suburbs.

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  • 1 month later...

Visited the development 6/11/05 but the office was closed. They do not return my phone call from earlier Friday. They do not reply to any of their email addresses listed. I have heard that you must get on their "list" in order to be under consideration. I assumed that their sales department was not yet in operation but I now know that they are. Has anyone heard what their intentions are about marketing these lots?

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^^ I think you'll find that several of the forumers representing the Augusta area here (myself included) are just former Augustan's and thus we don't really have the best inside scoop on a lot of the projects. With that in mind, we'd be happy to see more current local representation to keep us better updated on what's going on. If you do happen to find more information on the status of this project, please feel free to share.

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  • 3 months later...

Off the top of my head:

Sales have begun for a lot of the single-family lots. The lots along Front St (riverfront) fetched record prices, with the first lot sold going for close to a million dollars.

The West Ave. extension is still under construction, and this is a main artery through the development, so it will have to be completed before a lot of progress is made.

The Landing at River Club, is under construction. This is the 50 unit condo/townhome complex shown in the 2nd post in this topic. This isn't part of the Hammond's Ferry project, but it is adjacent and complementary to it.

EDIT: Keep in mind that this project is supposed to have a build-out time of 10-15 years, so slow progress isn't necessarily a bad thing. Of course there's worries that the finished product won't look like the initial renderings in 10 years, but I'll just keep my fingers crossed that they adhere to the original guidelines.

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  • 9 months later...

A few new updates.

First check out the new website for the project. It has a lot of awesome info about the project as well as North Augusta.

http://www.hammondsferry.com/

And some progress pics. The project is finally underway, and the first phase is the Crystal Lake Road area. This portion is further into the project and predominately single-family, but it looks like a good mix of densities is even going into this area.

First up, the river... A wide swath of public space fronting the river? I love this project already!

Hammond3.jpg

This is the Crystal Lake entrance. I imagine it will not look as suburban when fully developed... The bridge over the entrance is North Augusta's Greeneway biking/walking trail system... (The Greeneway integration is my 2nd favorite part of the project)

Hammond5.jpg

The homes are tall and thin with minimal side-yards. The vinyl siding does kind of trouble me however...

Hammond2.jpg

But fortunately, the completed, fully-painted homes look quite nice.

Hammond1.jpg

Lastly, a novelty in the area... Multifamily and single family uses on the same block!? The long yellow home looks a bit strange now, but there's lots in front of it that will block out the length of the home when developed.

Hammond4.jpg

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This aerial shows the site of the project on the lower-left side of the river. The portion currently under development is in the grassy area, beneath the small lake shown in the aerial. The town center will be in the wooded area near the bridge. Also of note, this aerial shows some of the construction of the Landing at River Club condos directly across the bridge, as well as the hideous mcmansions that are hogging the rest of the N. Augusta waterfront...

hferry6gi.jpg

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I hope that this will be well connected with the area already under construction/already developed. Its hard to tell from that master plan.

Posted below is the master plan spartan mentioned from the website. As far as being well connected, the connections are very thoughtful and serve their purpose. First and foremost, the Greeneway trail system circles three sides of the project, providing easy pedestrian access to ALL of N. Augusta, as well as Augusta's (and eventually Columbia Co's) trail system.

Secondly, the denser portion of the project (on the right side of the master plan) is essentially an extension of DT N. Augusta. The site labeled "Future City Hall" is a midrise structure under development IN DT N. Augusta (that's how close this site is to downtown). West Ave. and Central Ave. will bridge DT and the densest portions of this project as an extension of downtown. Georgia Ave (the bridge to Augusta) looks to have limited access to cars, but there will be pedestrian access via the Greeneway.

The area currently under development is the Crystal Lake Rd. area (shown in yellow on the master plan). This area doesn't have the best connection to developed areas, but in truth, the area to the north of this portion is basically crappy suburban. Most pedestrian traffic will be in the direction of the well-connected town center, or will take the Greeneway trail to the north of the site to reach the interesting parts of the city.

hmasterplan6jj.jpg

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