COURTYARD URBANIST · 9 OCTOBER 2026 · ACCESS REVISION 3

Four entrances. A more open courtyard.

4200 S. Indiana now has four dedicated street doors and four complete central main-stair reservations. The south wing is 20 ft shorter, adding 600 sf of open site area. The ground floor reserves street approaches and services explicitly, leaving seven connected home allocations.

Clearer access; a tougher financial case.

The current 31-home study costs about $733,000 less than the preceding 35-home concept, but loses about $109,000 in annual NOI under the existing illustrative rents and revised bedroom assumptions. Debt coverage falls from 0.85× to 0.73×. This is an architectural access correction, not a claim that the project now pencils.

Ground access

Seven homes: five 1BD targets, one 2BD and one 3BD. The Indiana street-to-core lobby would split the former second ground allocation. The connected lower area becomes one larger home; the isolated upper strip becomes services. Gray reserves are excluded from rental area.

Ground floor with four street entrances, main stairs, seven connected homes and service reservations

Open full-size ground plan

Typical upper floor

Eight homes: two per main entrance, yielding seven to eight homes in each four-story entrance cluster. Gross targets are two 1BD, five 2BD and one 3BD per upper floor. The corner’s compact kitchen wall gets a narrower courtyard window rather than losing that opening to the standard facade spacing.

Open full-size upper plan

Same rates, different geometry and mix

Measure	Previous shared-stair concept	Revised access study
Homes	35	31
Ground homes	8	7
Main street entrances	2	4
Building coverage	60.6%	56.9%
Enclosed gross area	34,600 sf	32,700 sf
Gross apartment allowances	31,898 sf	29,051.5 sf
Total development cost	$13,624,455	$12,891,655
Net operating income	$572,380	$463,280
NOI debt coverage	0.85×	0.73×
Cost gap at existing 1.20× study target	$3,949,593	$5,060,896

Rents, $275/enclosed-gross-sf and $100/open-sf construction, 65% LTC, 6.5% interest, 30-year amortization, RFP land of $467,335 and four affordable homes remain fixed. Bedroom counts are design targets, not verified room fits. Architectural premiums, a separate elevator allowance and added core-specific costs are not priced; use contractor estimates. The prior scheme remains loadable under Earlier versions. Saved workbook Version 14 does not automatically inherit this study.

Decisions before the next design stage

Resolve building and accessibility classification first.Four doors do not create four separate buildings. The connected structure, galleries and two shared exterior backup stairs require Chapter 11 and egress review. The multistory-housing definition and treatment of attached structures may require vertical accessibility; no elevator exemption is claimed. Obtain a code strategy before relying on the present count or budget.
Fit complete representative rooms.Gross allowances and coat vestibules are drawn, but complete room plans are pending. Test the compact A/B upper 2BD layouts and C1/C2 first, including primary ensuite, required baths, a 7 × 10 ft office target, bedroom privacy, usable island and courtyard kitchen. Confirm that C2’s recessed kitchen/window relationship works before freezing the facade. Reduce bedroom targets and rents together if the requested program cannot fit.
Coordinate actual stairs and balconies.Main cores are 10 × 18 ft gross reservations. Four-foot flight/landing study dimensions and 18 risers per 10-ft story need walls, rails, doors, headroom and structural thickness. Verify exit separation, shared-gallery protection, discharge and accessible finished clearances. The approximately 42-ft modeled top and 30-ft highest occupied level do not by themselves establish compliance.
Price the economic tradeoff.Request bids for repeated structural/wet-stack grids and separately price limestone, quoins and cornices. The model's approximate $154/enclosed-sf threshold is a study target, not available contractor pricing. Evaluate confirmed assistance, rent comparables and a separate ownership case after the legal/accessibility strategy is settled.
Retain courtyard usefulness.Sandbox, picnic tables, trees and planting remain. Develop refuse access, drainage, soil volumes, winter maintenance and continuous clear paths; the new open area is not all usable play area. Neighboring building heights and shadows remain approximate.

Site and evidence

No new survey was available. The model retains the 160 × 100 ft RFP parcel, 40-ft street bars, 30-ft inward-wing width, and no south-party-wall windows. A/B have 52.5-ft frontages. C’s equal 50-ft gross corner legs produce about 71.7 ft of combined straight frontage plus a separate 20-ft chamfer. D has 50 ft of Indiana frontage.

Retained GIS context map · Orbitable model with nearby-building shadows