Icon in the Gulch is Complete

Cleveland, OH (September 29, 2008) – Urban dwellers are now calling ICON in the Gulch their home as the 22-story, 418-unit mixed-use development with 26,000 square feet of street-level retail reaches completion. During the summer months, residents began moving into the highly anticipated building that is the first residential development available for purchase in the Gulch neighborhood.

“ICON ‘s design needed to be timeless as it will set the tone for the Gulch’s residential district,” says Lee Schaefer, Vice President - Development at Bristol Development Group, one of the development partners of ICON. (Marketstreet Equities Co. is the other partner) “We enlisted ka to provide such a design and they delivered above and beyond,” he adds.

The design, created by ka of Cleveland, Ohio, merges architectural elements that echo the area’s industrial history while also providing modern high-tech building solutions. Some of the elements include concrete and steel construction that enhances the sound quality and feel, 22-stories of unobstructed city views; 10-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, high-speed elevators and spacious balconies.

“As with any project a developer and architect envision, seeing it evolve from a concept into a built project required a great deal of collaboration. With the ICON project, creating a visual icon for the Gulch neighborhood redevelopment was an exceptional opportunity,” said Robert Weeks, project manager at ka.

In addition to ICON, ka is working with Bristol Development Group and Marketstreet Equities Co. on another project in Nashville, Velocity in the Gulch. Velocity, a five-story project, consisting of 264 condominiums and 21,000 square feet of retail space, will offer one- and two-bedroom urban living attractively priced for the young working professional and first-time homebuyer and is scheduled to be complete in 2009.

Founded in 1960, ka has evolved into a nationally recognized, 95-person architecture firm based in downtown Cleveland, Ohio with a regional office in Tampa, Florida. The firm has active projects in 23 states, Mexico, and Canada. The firm’s emphasis on providing value-added design services to clients in the commercial and corporate marketplaces has culminated in large-scale, mixed-use projects comprised of residential, retail, office, and entertainment components, condominiums/apartments, open-air lifestyle centers, 60 regional malls, 300 department stores and seven million square feet of office space. ka’s services include site and land planning, architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture and environmental graphic design services. To learn more, visit www.kainc.com.

Contact: Abigail Dachille, ka, 216.830.1584, adachill@kainc.com

Electronic images available upon request.
Photos courtesy of Charles Davis Smith.