Kelvin

Situated in the historic but modest downtown of Lemon Grove, Kelvin inserts high-density mixed-use to take advantage of a trolley stop a block away and to model the city’s evolving vision for its future. Originally developed at the turn of the last century, Lemon Grove started as a train stop centered on the citrus industry. By the late twentieth century the town was a bedroom community to San Diego. Recent thinking by city leaders has centered on a vibrant, pedestrian rich mixed-use village served by transit. Kelvin answers this call by providing 66 units of market-rate housing and three retail spaces on a 0.75-acre site. On an urban scale, the new five-story mixed-use building anchors the northeast corner of the Lemon Grove Downtown Village Area.

The project aligns itself in a simple “L” shape on the two streets it fronts and provides parking under and behind accessed from the rear away from Broadway, Lemon Grove’s main commercial street. Because site area is fully used by parking, utilities, and ground floor uses, a top-level amenity space was added for gathering and recreation. Perched above the intersection, this space is announced and celebrated with a large folding roof. Here the prospect is to the mountains in East County and the border to the south. To emphasize the importance of Broadway urbanistically, the southern façade is fabricated in woven cement board siding in a citrus inspired color captured in four-story cowls. The upper residential levels cantilever over the sidewalk to make a covered walk aligned with the historic storefronts of downtown.