By
Theo Noell
 |
| A
student team from Harvard University and MIT won the first-place
award for their United Front Homes proposal in the 2007 Affordable Housing
Development Competition. |
“What is built?” and “How can it be built?” are
crucial questions that need to be asked when considering any real
estate development.
These questions take on even greater importance for affordable housing
and community-development initiatives, which are often confronted
by NIMBY (not in my back yard) challenges, inadequate funding, and
rising energy costs. To address these challenges, new affordable
housing must be built to last and operate efficiently over the long
term.
For the last seven years, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and
other organizations have sponsored the Affordable Housing Development
Competition to help communities visualize what is possible on a site
and how it can operate efficiently over the long run.
Each year, the competition allows graduate students from Greater
Boston universities to partner with local community developers to
envision new affordable housing for area communities. The competition
stresses use of good design, smart-growth features, and green building
to produce
attractive, efficient, and healthful buildings. An important goal
of the competition is to educate the next generation of affordable-housing
designers and developers by encouraging them to include these practices
in their proposals.
While all eight submissions in the recent 2007 competition considered
these issues, the first- and second-place winners offered the most
vivid examples of sustainable community initiatives.
Working with Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc., architecture
and planning students from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute
of Technology received the first-place award for United Front Homes,
the rehabilitation of an existing 200-unit affordable rental community
on a 12-acre “super block” in downtown New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The student proposal called for the rehabilitation of 126 existing
units, demolition of obsolete units, and new construction to create
30 elderly units and 30 homeownership townhomes. The developer’s
goal was to build durable, energy-efficient structures that preserve
affordability and protect the community against crime and physical
deterioration. Extending the streets through the site to connect
residents with the surrounding neighborhood, relocating the community
center, and creating more defensible green space were features designed
to make the development more livable.
A key requirement of the United Front Homes proposal was the need
to make each unit resource-efficient and healthful. This was accomplished
by making the building envelopes tight and by using high-efficiency
furnaces, tankless water heaters, programmable thermostats, energy-efficient
appliances, compact fluorescent lighting, and low-VOC (volatile organic
compounds) paints and materials. The proposal also envisioned water-conserving
toilets, showerheads, faucets, and washing machines. All of these
features were designed to make the units attractive and affordable.
For the exterior, United Front Homes used Hardie Plank siding and
shingles, green roofs, and solar panels. The proposal called for
modular construction to create tighter units and reduce construction
waste. For landscaping, the students recommended using native plants
and grasses, porous paving, drought-resistant shade trees, and rain
gardens to reduce storm-water runoff and improve surrounding water
quality. Lastly, the students addressed the commissioning and maintenance
of the green features to ensure their successful operation over time.
Working with Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, a team of
students from Tufts University, Harvard Business School, and the
Harvard Graduate School of Design received the second-place award
for Dudley Crossing, a proposal to rehabilitate 42 affordable units
and build a mixed-use, mixed-income development in the Dudley Crossing
section of Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.
The goal of the proposal was to replace five blighted properties
and buildings with improved housing and retail space. The team proposed
a building with a southern orientation to maximize solar gain as
well as green roofs, solar power, and solar water heaters. Like the
United Front Homes proposal, the Dudley Crossing initiative used
sustainable materials such as pre-cast concrete, reused brick and
stone on the facades, and modular construction.
The floor plans of the proposal maximize free air, cross ventilation,
and day lighting. The design also called for light wells, energy-efficient
windows and appliances, use of local and low-VOC building materials,
and high-efficiency insulation to make the units energy-efficient
and affordable over time.
Since the competition began seven years ago, a number of competition
proposals have been developed, including Nuestra Comunidad’s
Dartmouth Hotel in Boston, the second-place winner in the 2001 competition.
The Bank and the other competition sponsors − the Greater Boston
Chamber of Commerce, Kevin P. Martin and Associates, P.C., and Citizens’ Housing
and Planning Association − are now looking forward to the 2008
competition and new opportunities to continue our advocacy for affordable
housing and sustainable design in local communities and universities.
T
Theo Noell is manager of programs and outreach at the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Boston. |
