The LayLow in the Southside District
Owned By: Chattanooga Architects Heidi Hefferlin
and Craig Kronenberg
Architecture by Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects, PLLC
Photography by Harlan Hambright
If you’re familiar with local architects and architecture, you’ve probably heard the names Heidi Hefferlin and Craig Kronenberg. The duo is widely known for championing the revitalization of the Southside district. But what you might not know is that one of their most recent projects, the LayLow, began as a gambling club for men.
The Lay Low Lounge sat across the street from the architects’ Southside home for years. It was by all accounts a quiet place, as gambling joints go – a 40”x40” cinderblock watering hole haunted by gentlemen who crowded the doorframes on race days to place their bets. But people get older and old habits lose their shine, and so one day the Lay Low Lounge closed down.
Hefferlin and Kronenberg seized the opportunity to develop the concrete shell left behind. They bought the building, intending to design it as an age-in-place residence for their elderly parents. But circumstances changed and instead they built a luxurious, open design B&B called the LayLow – a tip of the hat to the neighborhood standby from which it sprang.
The original building was gutted, the exterior walls were removed, and roof trusses were added for support. Today, the space is bright, modern, efficient, and above all, open. A grassy yard gives way to a covered, wood-paneled porch, which stretches along a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass doors off the combined living room, dining room, and kitchen. Guests can enjoy the privacy of three bedrooms and a bath in the back (all told, the place can sleep up to seven), or throw open the glass doors and grill out for the whole block.
The LayLow has been featured in Architect Magazine and won the Award of Excellence at the 2015 American Institute of Architects (Tennessee) Design Awards, highlighted as an example of both excellent design and architecture as activism to revitalize a neighborhood.