A proposal to develop single-room-
occupancy units and transitional apartments in Quincy, Massachusetts,
received the first-place award in the 2004 Affordable Housing Development
Competition.
Sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the Boston Foundation,
and Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, the annual competition
brings together teams of graduate students from local universities
to create proposals for the development of affordable housing in
Greater Boston. The competition offers students real-life experience
developing housing in collaboration with local community-development
organizations.
The winners were announced at an awards ceremony on April 30 at
the Boston Foundation, where students heard presentations on the
competing proposals and an address by keynote speaker Rebecca G.
Barnes, chief planner at the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Ms. Barnes is currently working on plans for the Rose Kennedy Greenway,
a swath of green space that will run through the center of the city
once the elevated Central Artery is dismantled.
In her remarks, Ms. Barnes emphasized the importance of affordable
housing in attracting a talented workforce to the city and urged
students to view design as a tool to foster connections rather than
divisions among the city's diverse communities. "Design isn't
only the purview of architects," she said. "Design is
something we engage in together."
John Eller, the Bank's senior vice president / housing and community
investment, said he was impressed by the students' outreach to local
communities and welcomed them to the affordable-housing-development
community. "I hope that this competition has brought you into
this community and that you will stay," he said.
The Competition
Key to the success of the competition is the pairing of students
with local community-development organizations. While students are
eager to obtain first-hand development experience, the sponsoring
nonprofits take advantage of the diverse skills of the students
to get much-needed community-development projects off the ground.
To develop their proposals, students meet with sponsors and neighborhood
residents, calculate the costs and funding sources for their proposals,
and draw up design plans for the site. An important addition to
this year's competition was the participation of member bankers
as financial mentors and local architects as design mentors for
the student teams.
A first-place prize of $10,000 was divided between the developer
and
the winning team, with $5,000 to the developer and $5,000 to the
students. The second-place proposal received $6,000 which was divided
between the developer and the students.
The Winning Proposals
Receiving the first-place prize was the Claremont-McCarthy Project
in Quincy, Massachusetts, which proposes the renovation of two existing
boarding houses to create 29 single-room-occupancy units, and new
construction to create eight affordable transitional apartments
for the homeless in the Quincy Point section of the city. The proposal
would be developed and managed in collaboration with Father Bill's
Place, which provides shelter and services for the homeless in Quincy.
In their commentary on the winning entry, the judges noted the Claremont-McCarthy
team's clear presentation of goals and plans; informative interviews
with homeless residents, who felt empowered by their participation
in the process; and well-thought-out design, which included many
green-design features.
The Claremont-McCarthy proposal was developed by Sarah Nurmela and
Jesse Givens of Harvard University, and Diana Bernal, Whitney Foutz,
Ray Hodges, and Leslie Mullins of MIT. The team's faculty advisor
was Langley Keyes, associate department head at MIT's Department
of Urban Studies and Regional Planning.
The team's community partners were Neighborhood Housing Services
of the South Shore and Father Bill's Place. The team's design mentor
was Neal Mongold of The Narrow Gate, and its financial mentors were
Patricia Capalbo of Wainwright Bank and Trust Company and Chris
Dunn of South Shore Savings Bank.
Winning the second-place award was Cranberry Heights, a proposal
to create 40 rental units for low-income elderly, and 40 mixed-income
ownership units on a 260-acre property in rural Carver, Massachusetts.
The site consists largely of undeveloped forest, wetland, and cranberry
bog, which would be jointly purchased by the town and the nonprofit
developer. Over 90 percent of the site would be preserved in its
natural state by concentrating development on less than 25 acres.
Town officials expressed support for the plan because it would preserve
open space and ensure protection of the town's aquifer.
In their commentary on the Cranberry Heights proposal, the judges
noted the attractive design of the plan's elderly apartments, the
balanced program and use of the site, the team's sensitivity to
environmental issues such as water use, and the team's successful
outreach to town interest groups, including the board of selectmen.
Members of the Cranberry Heights team were William J. Carry, Helen
Donaldson, and Diana Sherman of MIT; Masato Kametani, Thomas S.
Lee, and Mary Elizabeth May of Harvard University; and Nicolas Rioux
of Wentworth Institute of Technology.
The team's faculty advisor was Leland Cott of the Harvard Graduate
School of Design, and its nonprofit partners were Gerri Bain and
John Hixson of South Shore Housing Development Corporation. The
team's design mentor was Nancy Ludwig of Icon Architecture, and
its financial mentor was Chris Lippert of Banknorth, N.A.
Other Proposals
In addition to the two winning entries, four other student teams
submitted proposals in this year's competition.
The Fernald Center proposal calls for the conversion of the Fernald
State School for the mentally handicapped in Waltham into housing.
The four-phase plan includes the renovation of two existing buildings
to create 38 ownership and rental units, reintegration of the site
into the surrounding neighborhood, and development of a greenway
around the site. The Bakery Hill proposal creates commercial space, rental apartments,
community space, ownership units, and open space on the former site
of a bakery in the Roxbury
section of Boston. The plan calls for construction of a large apartment
and commercial complex, four duplexes, and a triple-decker on Blue
Hill Avenue. The Madison Park Gateway proposal calls for the creation of affordable
and market-rate rental and ownership units, a child-care center,
and commercial space in four new buildings in the Madison Park section
of Roxbury. The Washington Allston Art- space proposal calls for the transformation
of a vacant industrial building in the Allston-Brighton section
of Boston into living and work space for 20 artists and work-only
space for three light-industrial businesses.
See a full list of the competition's 2004 participants on our
Web site at www.fhlbboston.com/compete
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