Back

Members of the first-place Chinatown Community Fulcrum team and officers of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston at the 2005 awards ceremony. Pictured, from the left, are John Eller, the Bank's senior vice president; Mary Fuller of the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), Jeremy Liu, executive director of ACDC, Carrie Grassi, of MIT; Damian Taylor and Antonio Medeiros of Harvard University; William Ho and Rick Liu of ACDC; and M. Susan Elliott, the Bank's executive vice president.

A mixed-use proposal to create 202 units of ownership and rental housing and community space in the Chinatown section of Boston received the top award in the 2005 Affordable Housing Development Competition. The winners of this year's competition were announced April 22 at an awards ceremony at the Boston Foundation.

Sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, and the Boston Foundation, the competition brings together students and faculty from Boston-area universities, nonprofit developers, and mentors from the design and finance communities to develop innovative affordable-housing proposals for Greater Boston neighborhoods. Students from Boston University, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology participated in the competition.

Delivering the keynote address at this year's event was Douglas I. Foy, secretary of the state's Office for Commonwealth Development. In his comments, Mr. Foy focused on the relationship between transportation planning and affordable housing, and urged the student participants to more fully integrate land-use and transportation planning, energy efficiency, and affordable-housing concerns in their efforts to create more livable communities in the future.

After presentations from each of the participating student teams, John Eller, senior vice president of housing and community investment at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, announced this year's winners. "I am always amazed by the creativity and professionalism exhibited by the students in this competition," said Mr. Eller. "It's exciting to see this much talent and ingenuity in students who are just starting their careers."

Architectural rendering of the housing development proposed for Boston's Chinatown by the 2005 first-place Chinatown Community Fulcrum team.

Receiving the first-place award was the Chinatown Community Fulcrum team, whose $65.9 million mixed-use proposal would provide 202 units of ownership and rental housing, including 102 affordable units, and 29,000 square feet of community space in Boston's Chinatown.

Student team members Hannah Fischer-Baum, Caitlin Gallagher, Carrie Grassi, Antonio Medeiros, Seth Riseman, Damian Taylor, and Jake Wegmann will split the $10,000 first-place award with their community development partner, the Asian Community Development Corporation.

Nicolas Retsinas, of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, offered his expertise as a faculty advisor. To help the students crunch numbers and ground the project with fiscal viability, the team also worked with finance mentors William Fenton, of Bank of America, and Peter Macero, of Citizens Bank. Design mentor Rob Chandler, of Goody Clancy, helped the group create a flexible design to satisfy community needs for living, office, classroom, and meeting spaces.

Winning the second-place award was the South Middle School: A New Vision for Adaptive Reuse proposal for Waltham, Massachusetts. The $6,000 award will be split between team members Glen Brenner, Chi-Yan Chan, Shannon Stewart Christmas, Anna Gallagher, Christa Lee-Chuvala, Robert E. Vieira, and Jie Zhu, and their development partner, Waltham Alliance to Create Housing.

Members of the second-place South Middle School: A New Vision for Adaptive Reuse team receiving their awards at the 2005 awards ceremony. Pictured, from the left, are Shannon Christmas, Chi-Yan Chan, Christa Lee-Shuvala, Anna Gallagher, and Rob Viera.

The team worked with faculty advisor Leland Cott, of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University; finance mentor Patricia Capalbo, of Wainwright Bank and Trust Company; and design mentor Chia-Ming Sze, of Chia-Ming Sze Architect, Inc.

The Waltham proposal focuses on the reuse of the South Middle School into Moody Street Common, a mixed-use, mixed-income development. The proposal would create 60 units of housing at all levels of affordability as well as community space in response to neighborhood demand for affordable daycare, a new community theater, and additional arts and community spaces.

An honorable mention went to the Codman Crossing (Dorchester, Massachusetts) entry. It was the first time that competition judges have awarded an honorable mention. Student team members Misty Boykin,

From the left, competition judges Felice Mendell, of the Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development; Rebecca Regan, of Boston Community Capital; and Kim Vermeer, of Urban Habitat Initiatives, at the awards ceremony.

Ifeoma N. Ebo, Gee Kim, Brittanya Murillo, Kiara L. Nagel, Noah Sawyer, and Will Woodley share this accolade with their development partner, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation. Aiding the team were faculty advisor Margery Austin Turner, of George Washington University; finance mentor Sarah Lamitie, of Boston Private Bank and Trust Company; and design mentor Michael R. Davis, of Bergmeyer Associates, Inc.

To take advantage of its proximity to the proposed MBTA commuter-rail stop planned for Talbot Avenue, the Codman Crossing proposal would create retail space, a new community center, and 76 residential units, 58 of which would be affordable to families earning less than 60 percent of the area median income.

Architectural rendering of the mixed-use development proposed for Waltham by the 2005 second-place South Middle School: A New Vision for Adaptive Reuse team.

Each of the competition entries showcased innovative ways to address affordable-housing needs in a variety of communities. Other entries included:

• Kearsarge Mills in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

• New Abbey Park in Scituate, Massachusetts

• Atwood Place in Brighton, Massachusetts

• Quincy Blue in Roxbury, Massachusetts

• The Market Common in Lawrence, Massachusetts

All of the proposals addressed community context, physical design, energy efficiency, and smart-growth concerns as well as project financing and feasibility. The proposals also discussed the appropriate density of uses (housing and otherwise) for each respective location.

For more information on the 2005 Affordable Housing Development Competition, please visit www.fhlbboston.com/compete.