Park Place Apartments • Location: Mountain View, Calif. • Architect: Fisher-Freidman Architects • Owner: Prometheus • Built: 1989 • Units: 373 Notable: The development—located on an 11-acre infill site that formerly housed Mountain View High School—was a catalyst for the revitalization of Castro Street, a historic district best known as the nation’s first and largest gay community.
Park Place Apartments • Location: Mountain View, Calif. • Architect: Fisher-Freidman Architects • Owner: Prometheus • Built: 1989 • Units: 373 Notable: The development—located on an 11-acre infill site that formerly housed Mountain View High School—was a catalyst for the revitalization of Castro Street, a historic district best known as the nation’s first and largest gay community.

Park Place Apartments, which was built in the 1980s in Mountain View, Calif., is considered by many to be the first green apartment community. Sustainable features include energy-saving appliances in the units and drought-tolerant plants incorporated into the landscape. Plus, Park Place is very pedestrian-friendly and opens itself up to the outside. City Hall, Mountain View’s Performing Arts Center, and Castro Street are all within walking distance. The three-story Park Place also represents a shift in the garden apartment-style design that was so predominant in apartments during the ’80s.

—John Thatch, principal, Pleasanton, Calif.-based Dahlin Group Architecture Planning