Originally the site of a Ford Factory that employed five hundred Charlotte residents and assembled 60,032 vehicles throughout its life, the future Camp North End recognizes its industrial history and sets the course to become a hub of technology, art, and innovation. NBW is currently working on 9.5 acres of the 76-acre site that will form the core of Camp North End. With stints as a warehouse for the U.S. Army, a manufacturing site during the Cold War, and a storage facility for Eckered Pharmacy, Camp North End will welcome the public for the first time in over 100 years. The proposed design reimagines the spaces between the factory buildings as a mixed-use neighborhood center. The design weaves the former industrial infrastructure with new development to capture and preserve the urban industrial feeling of the space while creating inviting human-scale landscapes.
The centerpiece, ‘Ford Green,’ reclaims a 3-acre disused loading dock for a new park. Plantings in this dynamic new landscape pay homage to the Eastern Pine Savanna. The Pine trees act as beacons to help visitors find their way around the site. Several streetscapes are being designed in light of woonerf living street design principles to promote pedestrian circulation and safety by managing vehicle speeds. A ribbon of Piedmont Prairie plantings will thread along old rail lines and service lanes connecting smaller peripheral pocket parks to Ford Green.
In contrast to these new green spaces, several urban plazas will function as hubs for day-to-day gathering and events. These plazas wind through existing buildings and will encourage visitors to open doors and explore the internal vastness and skeletal structures of the architecture. A series of ‘porches’ are tucked into former internal loading docks to encourage interaction with the historic structures while providing sheltered moments of retreat.
