Riverfront Brio Renderings

Epstein is providing architectural, interior design and Structural, and MEP Engineering services for Riverfront Brio, a new mixed-use residential, hotel and garage project in Owensboro, Kentucky. New renderings show the project's lobby, kitchen and lounge, and fitness center.

Working with local owner and builder Gulfstream Commercial Services and Envision Contractors, Epstein’s talented design team developed the three-building complex into an integrated design, organized around a central public courtyard. Situated across 2nd street from the award-winning Owensboro Convention Center, Riverfront Brio invites convention-goers and guests into the pedestrian-focused courtyard, activated with restaurants and cafes. The client anticipates street festivals spilling into the courtyard lawn and benefitting the community.

The custom-designed, five-story Home2 Suites by Hilton features a tall ground floor housing the hotel’s lobby, pool and amenity spaces, and covered vehicular arrival. Epstein re-interpreted the brand standard architecture for this urban environment, using linear siding, brick masonry and expansive storefront glazing. There are 121 guestrooms in a combination of king and queen-queen suites.

Riverfront Brio’s six-story, 79-unit residential property offers a variety of spacious one and two bedroom units, and stunning penthouse units. The exterior design relates to the Home2 Suites in materials and massing, providing a cohesive design over the entire block. Lofty ground floor space offers exciting opportunities for restaurant venues, with outdoor dining in the courtyard. The third floor houses indoor and outdoor residential amenities, including a pickleball court! Both the hotel and residences are accessible by a three-level concrete parking garage along 3rd street. Epstein’s designers took care to integrate the garage design into the architecture of both the hotel and residential buildings.

The project has posed challenges right from the start, including schedule commitments with the city of Owensboro and high-seismic design requirements. In only two months, the team, which includes the local civil engineering firm Bryant Engineering, prepared Design Development drawings for all three buildings sufficient to prepare a foundation package for bid and permit. Given the property is near the New Madrid fault line, and sits on an ancient riverbed, the seismic conditions are less than ideal, forcing the project to use deep foundations. As a cost-control measure, the owner had purchased machinery and systems to produce cold-formed structural framing members for their projects, so the designs of both the hotel and residential buildings use stud-framed bearing walls. Because of this, Epstein is working closely with Envision Contractors’ production team to develop the BIM to be the basis for cold-formed steel framing panelized construction. Project construction completion is slated for 2024.