Monroe Street Commons

The project consists of a seven-story building for the site at 1864 Monroe Street, including two levels of underground parking, grade level retail space and four levels of condominium units.  An existing building was totally demolished in order to accommodate the new structure.  This project was completed in October, 2006.

Address:
1864 Monroe Street
Madison, WI

For more information please visit:  http://www.monroecommons.com

Challenges:
Monroe Commons takes up an entire city block on the near west side of Madison.  While this does allow for good access, this block is set on the edge of a busy commercial district and a dense residential area.  Good neighbor relations were critical for success.  This was compounded by the City of Madison late decision to update the utility infrastructure and streets surrounding the building.  This required special coordination with the Department of Public Works and their contractors.

During design, a key modification to the design was changing from a precast concrete to cast-in-place concrete.  With the parking extending two levels underground, the reduced floor to floor height of a cast-in-place concrete structure significantly reduced the earth retention and earthwork requirements.  This resulted in almost $300,000 of savings before the GMP was established.

The ground floor of the facility is a specialty grocery store.  The special mechanical and electrical needs had to be incorporated into the base design before the lease was completed.  This required the design and construction team to allow for the substantial utility needs within a tight GMP.  Trader Joe’s is up and running very successfully.

While most condominiums developments allow significant upgrades and changes to the base design, Monroe Commons did not limit the choices.  This created a significant challenge for the design, construction and sales team to properly coordinate rough-in and finish components.  The acceptance of the quality and timeliness of these custom units has been outstanding.