Park Place Apartments for Rent

The historic neighborhood of Park Place, built in 1884, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located in the western half of Norfolk, Virginia, its boundaries are roughly Church Street on the east, Hampton Boulevard on the west, the railroad tracks immediately south of 23rd Street on the south and up to 38th Street to the north.

Park Place lies directly north of the Ghent district. Adjacent to its boundaries is Lafayette Park, with tennis court, basketball courts, and softball and soccer fields.

Park Place is home to an exciting project currently under construction by students from Hampton and Old Dominion Universities. Calling themselves “Team Tidewater,” students have designed and are building a sustainable green residential structure. Their design has been selected to compete in the US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2011, which will be held on the National Mall in Washington DC.

The project is now under construction; Team Tidewater is building a six-unit solar-powered residential building. The competition’s challenge is to design and build a sustainable home that is affordable, attractive and energy-efficient. Focusing their efforts on the local urban environment in the Park Place neighborhood, Team Tidewater expanded the Department of Energy’s criteria to create a sustainable building that members of this community can afford, and a design that’s in keeping with the neighborhood.

The Team Tidewater students based their dwelling’s solar-powered design on a multi-family building style commonly found in the urban neighborhoods of the Tidewater area. Key features include a shaded balcony, operable windows and a separate mechanical area that keeps waste heat and noise outside the main living quarters and allows easy maintenance. Commercially available solar panels are integrated into the roof. This design beat out proposals from some of nation’s leading universities.