Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

Located a short distance from downtown Gainesville, Brytan is designed as a new urban center and neighborhood, changing the character of development along Archer Road from disconnected sprawl to traditional urbanism.

Located a short distance from downtown Gainesville at the prominent Tower Road intersection of State Road 24 (Archer Road), Brytan is a 150-acre parcel designed to incorporate commercial, office, residential, and open public spaces. Brytan’s more complete mix of commercial and residential uses will serve both its own residents and the surrounding community.

While most traditional neighborhood developments lack a large commercial component, Brytan provides over 100,000 square feet of retail space and nearly 200,000 square feet of offices, complementing approximately 650 residential units. Housing takes on a full variety of forms, including apartments above retail, apartment villas, live-work units, rowhouses, bungalows, and large-lot homes. This thorough mix of uses will give Brytan’s future residents the opportunity to live, work, and shop as pedestrians. Brytan has the potential to become the commercial and social center of the southwest Gainesville region, containing a significant downtown area to the north and two residential sectors to the south.

The most unusual aspect of the scheme is the large outparcel at its center that naturally splits the scheme into three sections. Since the future ownership of this property is in question, this outparcel is being treated in a way that permits possible inclusion while also providing an adequate buffer between it and the surrounding sectors. The buffer’s pastoral quality allows the outparcel to be expanded to the north and south, creating a large central park. Both sides of this park will have a street running from the downtown to the two distinct residential sectors. The larger of the sectors is more suburban, with curvilinear streets in the tradition of Olmsted; the smaller is more rural, with a series of three residential closes leading to a large green at the eastern end.

The town center combines highway visibility with a traditionally enclosed Main Street plan. The main intersection is broadened into a civic space fronted by a meeting hall and a dance studio. Approximately 900 off-street parking spaces are hidden behind retail buildings with apartments above. As one heads down either of the two primary streets, live-work rowhouses mark the transition to the office sector, which ends above the central park. Then, rowhouses lead into the residential sectors. The town hall is a specific design intended for the site, marking the entrance into the western residential sector with a roofline that responds to the long vistas it terminates from the north and the south.