Tag: the gladstone crestline park

Why Dogs Are Key in Our Crestline Park Community

Lots of developers use the term “community” to talk about the housing developments they’re creating, but it’s a concept we take seriously. That’s why we work with Nequette Architecture & Design: they’re the real deal in designing places that connect people. “The primary goal is to provide both private and public outdoor spaces to create intentional and/or chance opportunities for people to meet, greet, visit, build relationships,” according to owner and architect Louis Nequette.

Taking our Gladstone townhomes in Crestline Park as an example, Nequette walks us through the three types of spaces designed to encourage interaction and the one bit of total sanctuary.

The Front Porch

“The idea there is to create a private place for someone to hang out and not feel like they’re in the public domain,” Nequette says. Visual tricks like higher elevation and “a landscape buffer” help set it apart from the streetscape. “But it’s not so far away that if someone’s walking by with their dog, you don’t have conversation,” he says.

The Sidewalk

High-tech it’s not, but the sidewalk links residents to each other and to the Crestline Park neighborhood around them. (Saw’s Juke Joint is less than a mile away, after all.) “By providing street parking with sidewalks and street lamps, the idea is you’re going to go get your mail, you’re going to walk your dog, and you’re going to use the sidewalk, and you’re going to meet someone while you’re doing it,” Nequette says.

The Green

The Gladstone buildings surround a “green”, which offers wide-open shared space. “It’s your yard, and it’s everybody’s yard,” Nequette says. He thinks canine residents may enjoy it as much as human ones. But hey, dogs are the ultimate ice breakers.

Of course, even in the best communities, there are times you’d really rather be alone. You could even argue that some opportunities for solitude make communities work. With that balance in mind, Nequette points out fenced backyards just the right size for grilling.

Ready for your own? Give us a call.

For Sale in Crestline Park: A Gladstone Original

Posted October 26, 2016
Blog / Crestline Park / Featured Property / Leave a comment

Almost a year ago we debuted the first building in our Gladstone townhome community. And because the buildings all look a little bit different, there was only one chance to fall in love with Building One. Until now. Because now there’s a Building One home for sale in Crestline Park, and there’s no reason it can’t be yours.

With three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an easy, open floor plan, the home’s original owners have yet to outgrow it. It’s more of a star-crossed love affair with the home, as they’re taking a job transfer outside the city.

Look through the listing photos, and you’ll notice the kind of thoughtful touches that separate a house from a home. Besides classic tile, the master bath has double rainfall showerheads. The master closet isn’t just walk-in; it also boasts a stacked washer and dryer. And there’s plenty of recessed lighting throughout.

One of our favorite design details–and one that’s unique to Building One–is the built-in bench seating along the counter. Instead of a bar stool configuration, this layout offers a way to incorporate both dining table space and a main floor bedroom. All while maintaining the bright openness of the kitchen.

And that’s only one of the finishing details that set this home apart. Whether it’s ceiling fans you can love for form and not just function, or accent tiles that create a tidy finish around the kitchen backsplash, this is a home done right.

Looking for urban living with a bit of Fixer Upper shiplap character? You’ll find plenty of inspiration in the home’s current decor. Want something a little more CB2? The home’s bones pair equally well with modern lines and saturated colors.

The home is designed for versatile function as well, and its sunroom is the ultimate changeling. It’s currently a multi-purpose combination of home office and reading nook. But it could just as easily be a lounge-y TV space, or a more structured conversation area, depending on how you entertain.

Ready to take a look? Call Lynlee Real Hughes at 205-936-0314. And mark your calendars for the next open house on Sunday, November 13, then follow us on Facebook or Instagram for all the details.

How the Gladstone Adds Character to Crestline Park

Posted October 24, 2016
Bham Development / Blog / Crestline Park / H2 Builds / Leave a comment

Our Birmingham developments are a way to access older neighborhoods without living in an older home, our own Carter Hughes told AL.com. The Gladstone townhomes in Crestline Park are no exception. They’re a best-of-all-worlds model, and we asked architect Louis Nequette, of Nequette Architecture & Design, to explain how he created it with us.

The Gladstone provided “a unique opportunity to take a larger piece of property in the middle of a pretty thriving neighborhood area and add some affordable, more urban living offerings,” Nequette said. And of course, it was right in line with our goals for development in Birmingham more generally.

“There’s really been nothing developed in the Crestline area in probably 60 years,” Hughes told AL.com as Gladstone Building One was reaching completion. “Our focus is really to provide products that people haven’t had lately to encourage people to live in our city.”

But there are also the realities of urban infill, of putting a new development into an older area. The design brief for Nequette? “We had to fit into the price points of the area, we had to fit into the character of the area, and we had to create a sense of place,” he said.

Crestline Park “is a collection of influences,” Nequette explained. But there’s a prevailing English character his firm captured in the Gladstone’s “simple, cottage-inspired” design. “So you have some traditional influence mixed with modern-day living,” he said.

Nequette has also been conscious of designing a community, not just a collection of homes. The Gladstone is “its own little destination–a nice green surrounded by townhouses that look out onto a walkable street, rather than just being townhouses surrounded by a parking lot,” he said. “It’ll be its own little district within Crestline.”

Instead of an isolated enclave, it’s a model of the way new communities interact with older ones. Or, in our book, urban development at its best.

Design Notes From a Boutique Build

Posted August 17, 2016
Bham Design / Blog / Crestline / H2 Builds / Uncategorized / Leave a comment

The Crestline custom home in our Instagram feed is not just an H2 build but an H2 home. It belongs to one of our co-founders, and we love showing it off. But this boutique build is about more than personal style; it’s about the way we do business. We believe so much in our partners at Nequette Architecture & Design because we live with their work.

Consider the way Louis Nequette described the project in an Instagram post:

“How do you design a new roomy house in an old established neighborhood without killing the old school street scale? This courtyard house in Mountain Brook maintains a cozy Crestline cottage scale from the street while wrapping it’s floor plan all the way around a private courtyard pool. 3 Bedrooms in the attic line expand the design to support this ever-growing family.”

It’s the epitome of our boutique build philosophy, where space matters but quality matters more. Located in an older neighborhood, the design can’t rely on overblown entryways and conspicuous volume. It can’t rely on sheer square footage to carve out enough space for a family. That’s where design comes in.

It relies instead on the comfortable luxury of stairwells steeped in sunlight, of archways and corbels, and an open plan that refuses to be just another box. And while it’s true that this level of detail really only comes with custom design, we think you’ll notice elements that have made it into more turnkey builds. Into places like the Gladstone.

The bottom line is this: the folks who design your H2 community home are the same ones who design ours. Theirs is the work we know and the vision we trust.

And the trust works both ways. Designer Bill Aroosian lives at Abbey Road, where he designed the kitchens. Jeffrey Dungan, of the former Dungan Nequette partnership, also made his home there. They had enough faith in our communities they literally bought into them. It’s our favorite kind of testimonial.

H2 Builds: The Gladstone's Not-Quite-Urban Location

Posted January 24, 2016
Blog / Crestline / H2 Builds / Leave a comment

One of the key drivers of home buying is convenience. Often, our clients have opted out of the suburban commute, deciding to spend their time within an increasingly interesting Birmingham. But that doesn’t mean everyone wants to be right downtown. For many clients, a semi-urban location hits the sweet spot between downtown access and a residential lifestyle. Our Gladstone townhomes in Crestline are a prime example of the semi-urban location at work.

Crestline is a best-of-both worlds kind of area, and that’s what we’ve tried to capture in siting our newest community development. The Gladstone location — 4447 Montevallo Road — lies between the neat single-family streets of Crestline Park and the everyday essentials available in the neighboring Crestwood/Irondale corridor. It’s convenient to the big-box resources of the Montclair Road Publix and the independent gems of Dunston Avenue.

The Gladstone is within shouting distance of Brookwood Primary Care, Shangri-La Chinese, and multiple pharmacies. There’s even an innovative public library branch, which the Birmingham Public Library says was conceived by former BPL Associate Director Jack Bulow, who wanted “to have a branch in a mall and merchandise it like a bookstore.” Just past the shouting perimeter, you’ll find banking options at Regions and BB&T, easy eats at Milo’s or El Cazador, plus doggie day care and boarding services at We Talk Dogs.

This is not a community for folks looking to sell off their cars and commit to a walking or biking lifestyle. It’s for folks who can accept a quick drive to work but not the life-in-a-car experience of an I-65 or Highway 280 commute. It’s also one of the few options for homebuyers in Birmingham proper who want the convenience of a community development without the stacked neighbors of multi-family living.

The whole point of developing a community, after all, is to create living options that aren’t readily available. “Our focus is really to provide products that people haven’t had lately to encourage people to live in our city,” our own Carter Hughes told AL.com. If you’ve had trouble finding your perfect Birmingham spot, consider the Gladstone your Goldilocks answer.

H2 Builds: Modern Classic Design at the Gladstone

Posted December 17, 2015
Bham Design / Blog / Crestline Park / Leave a comment

the gladstone crestline park

It’s easy to think of townhomes as generic, fairly temporary places. As a step above apartment rentals, without the permanence and personalization of a single-family home. But townhomes can just as easily be a low maintenance, high-style alternative to detached homes in growing areas. At our Gladstone development in Crestline Park, they offer classic style for modern living.

Dungan Nequette Architects (DNA) have truly mastered timeless elegance, and they’ve brought that talent to bear in our Gladstone designs. They’ve created spaces with subtle artistry and thoughtful comfort. They’ve included options for arched stairway trim and crafted kitchen islands. In short, they’ve recaptured details you’d think would be limited to sprawling developments of detached homes for smaller – but no less stylish – city life.

There are two fundamental choices to make in selecting your Gladstone floor plan: sunroom or patio, and extra bedroom or extra entertaining space. However, there’s no bad choice.

The sunroom options offer bright and cozy additional seating that’s comfortable year-round, while patios provide sociable outdoor space. Choosing between 3 bed/3 bath or 2 bed/2.5 bath options is simply a lifestyle choice. Some clients prefer extra entertaining space on the main level while others get more use from an extra bedroom suite that’s easily accessible to guests.

DNA has kept the color palette neutral but created options in dark, mid-tone, and clean white color palettes. (Check out our Gladstone board on Pinterest for the full range of finish options.) Living spaces are designed to flow into each other for maximum open space, while bedrooms branch off into individual private retreats.

But DNA design doesn’t stop with the home itself. In our post on design advice for your home search, Louis Nequette explained that there is a “sense of place that multiple homes can create.” They offer “exterior rooms and streetscapes” that give residents “a unique place for them to identify with,” he said, and that rings true in the Gladstone master plan.

They’ve blended a busier, more public frontage to the Gladstone buildings with quieter, fenced backyards. A through way in the middle of the community provides additional traffic flow along backyards, but their inclusion of green space and limited parking options preserves some of the public/private feel you’d experience in a traditional residential neighborhood. It’s no accident, of course, that the green space is at the community’s center.

Many of us are best served by a hybrid living model. We want the ease of living in communities but crave the privacy of our own roofs. We want the casual flexibility of modern design but the solid craftsmanship of an older era. We’ve designed the Gladstone so you can have it all ways.

H2 Real Estate

Tag: the gladstone crestline park