The Lewter District Townhomes occupy a former surface parking lot at the site of the Lewter Hardware Store – a beloved Huntsville institution that closed in 2022. The historic main building of the store itself was restored as a restaurant and office – anchoring a new mixed-use district that includes this project’s fourteen townhomes and a new five story office building with retail at the street level. The north part of the downtown core is now known as the Lewter District – keeping the local family’s legacy alive.
The overall urban design moves were critical to successfully weaving new elements in with the existing fabric of the city. Scale-wise, the first three townhomes deferentially match the street setback and height of the adjacent Lewter Hardware Store before stepping back eight feet to create welcoming front courtyards for the remaining eleven units. Extra care was taken with the sidewalk to design to incorporate the city’s required sidewalk design while maintaining existing street trees.
The façade design of the townhomes themselves is a study in careful management of scale, proportion, and brick detailing. Each townhouse is on its own standalone parcel, and the design team sought to highlight this fact and break down the overall scale of the building using a small brick reveal in the brick between each lot. The interiors are well day-lit and organized around a dramatic central stair celebrates the vertical circulation moment inherent to this housing type.
The result is a lively new destination within the city that respects the past while bringing new energy to a formerly underdeveloped area.
