South Carolina, California, Michigan & Illinois developments recognized as national models
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) today announced the winners of the 2019 HUD Secretary’s Housing and Community Design Awards. HUD and AIA selected winners in South Carolina, California, Michigan and Illinois based upon their overall excellence in affordable housing, community-based design, participatory design or accessibility.
“It’s incredible to see developments of such architectural integrity make a positive and lasting impact on their community,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “These innovative developments not only offer affordable housing, they demonstrate how affordable housing can be aesthetically pleasing and meet the needs of the community.”
The new HUD Secretary’s Housing and Community Design Award recipients are:
Excellence in Affordable Housing Design Award: This award recognizes architecture that demonstrates overall excellence in terms of design in response to both the needs and constraints of affordable housing.
Williams Terrace Senior Housing in Charleston, South Carolina replaces affordable family housing destroyed in a 1989 hurricane. The development is the result of a collaboration between two firms that worked closely with the local housing agency. Together the firms can create a dramatic design that meets the needs of the community.
The modern design references Charleston’s “Single Houses,” characterized by their piazzas, which function like porches. The development’s wide, open-air corridors surround an airy central courtyard and are lined with seating to encourage interaction, extending the living space and providing gathering and social areas for the senior residents. Williams Terrace also features sliding sun screens to allow residents to adjust the amount of shade desired. The building’s ground-level “screen porch” fronts the new public park and connects directly to it via a shaded public sidewalk. The development’s 41 one-bedroom apartments have bedrooms toward the rear for privacy and social living areas connected to the shared porches, extending the living space outward and allowing for through-ventilation in every unit.
Creating Community Connection: This award recognizes that incorporate housing within other community amenities for the purpose of either revitalization or planned growth.
The Anchor Place in Long Beach, California added a new residential building with 120 affordable one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Formally the Century Villages at Cabrillo (CVC), a 27-acre U.S. Navel housing site, now functions as a residential community with supportive housing and services intend to end homelessness.
Community-Informed Design: This award recognizes design that supports physical communities as they rebuild inner city social structures and relationships that may have been weakened by outmigration, disinvestment, and the isolation of inner-city areas.
8869 Avis is the first year-round home to Inside Southwest Detroit, a collection of initiatives that promotes youth and community development in Detroit. Inside Southwest Detroit collaborated with a diverse stakeholder group and team of architects to transform a 2,400 square-foot building into a community center and a leasable tenant area. 8869 Avis provides an anchor to The Alley Project, one of the flagship initiatives of Inside Southwest Detroit, which has transformed a neighborhood alley and surrounding vacant lots into an inspirational graffiti art gallery, connecting neighbors and youth to each other as well as to community assets.
Housing Accessibility- Alan J. Rothman Award: The Purpose of this award is to recognize exemplary projects that demonstrate excellence in improving housing accessibility for people with disabilities.
IFF Access Housing provides community-based housing at an affordable rent to people with disabilities in Chicago Illinois. Located on 25 scattered sites across a 2.5-mile footprint, the project helps stabilize Chicago’s Humboldt Park and Logan Square communities by utilizing vacant and foreclosed properties.