CP 238

Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Development

Time:MW 5:00 – 8:00Location:314 Wurster Hall Units: 4

Description

This course is the capstone studio for students in the Housing and Community Development Concentration. It is designed to help students synthesize a wide array of project and neighborhood development skills, including project conceptualization, market and feasibility analysis, design, financing and approvals. The course requires that teams integrate the diverse pressures on economic and project development in meeting the needs of the client. The studio experience will be augmented by guest lectures by practitioners in the design, planning and finance fields.

Prerequisites

CP235, or permission of instructors.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture graduate students are also welcome.

Course Structure

The course will be organized around a set of two projects:

1.Affordable Housing Project (weeks 1-8):

Working in teams, students will conceptualize, design and develop affordable housing proposals for one of several sites currently under exploration in the cities of Richmond, Pinole, Lafayette and San Francisco. Our goal will be to assist several cities and/or nonprofit organizations in exploring opportunities on the sites.

Some of the issues to be addressed will include:

  • What type of development should occur on the site.
  • Who will be the target clients for the project?
  • What is permitted and feasible on the site?
  • How much density makes sense? How much is permitted?
  • How much parking is needed? Required?
  • Are supportive services needed?
  • What is the right mix of units (sizes and affordable/market rate units)?
  • How will the project be financed?
  • What roles can participants play in the development of the project?

2.Mixed-use development proposal (weeks 9-15):

For the second project, students will prepare a design/development proposal for a larger mixed-use project. Teams will explore the potential development scenarios for the site, integrating market feasibility, financial feasibility and design to craft an overall plan for the site, including an assessment of uses on the site and alternative development approaches for the site.

Course Requirements

This course is a great deal of work and extremely rewarding. At the end of each project, student teams will present their proposals to the client and housing and design professionals. Development proposals will be documented in written form as well. During the course of each project several intermediary assignments presenting team market analysis, design and financing proposals will de due.

Refresher/Introductory Materials

During the early part of the course, there will be a series of introductory lectures on basic design and finance principles (see attached schedule for preliminary times). These will be offered at the beginning or end of class time (about one-hour each) and are designed to introduce (or reintroduce and expand) on student design and finance skills. Prototypical financial models will be provided to assist in the development of financial requirements for the projects).

A Minimum Materials List

Is this is your first studio? The following is a minimal list of materials you most certainly will need to do your studio work:

  • Architect's scale
  • Engineer's scale
  • Drawing Surface (matt board, rubber drafting bd. cover, whatever)
  • Trace paper of varying sizes (12", 24" as starters for the team)
  • Pens, pencils, sharpeners, color pens or pencils, erasers, etc...
  • Drafting tape
  • Calculator
  • Parallel Rule or T-square
  • Triangles: 45 degree and 30/60 degrees triangles - of varying sizes

(CAD drafting is an alternative to mechanical drafting for final presentations; however, you will need to present your work in sketch format prior to final design)

Course Text

Since the course draws upon an extremely diverse set of information, there is no required text for the course. The listings on the following pages offers source material to assist in the development of the project proposals and will be augmented by additional resource material as required throughout the course.

Project Development Resources

While there are no required readings for the course, there are a number of resources you should be aware of, many of which will help you in the design/development process for both projects:

Finance

California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. 2004. 2004 9% and 4% Tax Credit Application Packet. Sacramento, CA (see website at ).

California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program Qualified Allocation Plan. Sacramento, CA (see website).

California Debt Limit Advisory Committee. (Tax Exempt Financing rules and application).

California Department of Housing and Community Development. (HCD funding programs). and . Information on the MHP Program is available at .

Guggenheim, Joseph. 1998. Tax credits for low income housing : opportunities for developers, non-profits, and communities under permanent tax... 10th ed. Glen Echo, Md. : Simon Publications. Environ Dsgn HJ4653.C73.G85 1998

Hecht, Bennett L. 1994. Developing affordable housing : a practical guide for nonprofit organizations. New York : Wiley. Environ Dsgn HD259.H43 1994 and supplement HD259.H43 1994

RS Means Company. 2001. 2000 Means Square Foot Costs (19th Edition). Environ Dsgn TH435.M5 Shelved: Latest edition Reference or Forest Prod TH435.M5

Carn, Neil, Joseph Rabianski, Ronal Racster and Maury Sledin. 1988. Real Estate Market Analysis: Techniques and Applications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Environ Dsgn HD260.H56

Housing Design

Davis, Sam. 1995. The architecture of affordable housing. Berkeley, CA:University of California Press. EnvDesign NA7540 .D38 1995

One of two books to address affordable housing design and the development process directly. An excellent reference. Davis considers the history of subsidized housing, the development approval process, the costs of developing affordable housing, housing design, and cites case studies of excellent affordable housing projects.

T. Jones, W. Pettus and M. Pyatok. 1995. Design for Living. Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing. Images Publishing. EnvDesign HD7287.96 U6 J66 1995B

This excellent book on affordable housing design is the first survey of affordable housing projects to be published in the US. The bulk of the book focuses on approximately 60 case studies of projects of varying building types and neighborhood contexts around the country. Also included are brief chapters on housing history, residents, finance and design.

McGrath, Laura. 1994. Case studies on affordable multifamily rental housing. Washington, D.C.: Community Information Exchange EnvDesign HD7288.85.U6 M33 1994

This pamphlet documents the development of some 20 projects completed in the early 1990s around the country. While it provides no information on design it does document costs and financing for the projects and describes the development process.

Colquhoun, Ian, Peter G. Fauset. 1991. Housing design : an international perspective / Ian Colquhoun. London : B.T. Batsford. EnvDesign NA7126 .C64 1991

Good resource on contemporary design.

Colquhoun, Ian. 1991. Housing design in practice. Harlow: Longman Scientific & Technical.

EnvDesign NA7110 .C65 1991

While the focus on British and Continental housing limits the applicability to our studio this housing design reference does provide useful guidelines in site planning and unit design.

Hayakawa, Kunihiko, editor. 1994. Housing developments: new concepts in architecture & design. Tokyo: Meisi Publications. EnvDesign NA7860 .H68 1994

Beautiful photographs and drawings of high-design housing in Japan. The projects showcased in this book do not follow the conventional wisdom of building affordable housing in the character of its neighbors. It does, however demonstrate a range of housing approaches and looks.

Home EC : a study in affordable housing: ACSA/American Wood Council tenth annual student design competition,1991-1992. EnvDesign NA2340.A15 1992

Pamphlet documenting one student competition. Provides some ideas as to presentation of your boards.

Pike, Jeremy. 1977. Site planning : cluster housing. Melbourne: Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne. EnvDesign NA9051.4 .P5 1977b

This small manual outlines design guidlines for site planning taken from gross features like looking at topography and access to finer design issues as planting and site details.

Untermann, Richard K and Robert Small. 1977. Site planning for cluster housing. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold. EnvDesign NA9051.4 .U571

While somewhat dated, this book lays out a comprehensive process for analyzing sites and developing a workable concept which meets the needs of the residents and maximizes the strengths of the site.

Social Factors in Housing:

Marcus, Clare Cooper, Wendy Sarkissian, with Sheena Wilson, Donald Perlgut. Housing as if people mattered. Berkeley, Calif. EnvDesign NA7115 .M36

A pattern language of design guidelines for humanizing site design for housing developments.

Non-profit housing in Bay Area:

E. TobyMorris.SanFranciscoBay Area Non-Profit Housing Development Organizations. Findings from a 1994 Survey, University of California at Berkeley, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Working Paper 654, February 1996.

Reference Manuals:

De Chiara, Joseph AND John Hancock Callender. 1990. Time-saver standards for building types (3rd Edition). New York : McGraw-Hill, c1990. EnvDesign NA2760 .D42 1990 copy 1 reference; copy 2 reserve

Hoke, John Ray and Ramsey, Charles George. 1992. Architectural Graphic Standards (8thEdition). New York : Wiley. EnvDesign TH2031 .R362 1992 Reference

Architects' standard and most important reference on architectural standards from sizes of bathrooms and stairs to parking layouts, flashing details etc...

Mixed-Use Development:

Schwanke, Dean. 1987. Mixed-use development handbook . Washington, D.C. : Urban Land Institute. EnvDesign HD111 .S381 1987 Reference

J. Thomas Black. 1983. Mixed-use development projects in North America : project profiles. Washington, D.C. : Urban Land Institute. EnvDesign HD257 .M59

Satoh, Shigeru. 1992. Transformers of the city : 3 mixed-use development projects in San

Francisco. Center for Environmental Design Research, College of Environmental Design, University of California EnvDesign HT168.S2 S38 1992

Witherspoon, Robert, Jon P. Abbett, and Robert M. Gladstone. 1976. Mixed-use developments : new ways of land use. Washington : Urban Land Institute. EnvDesign NA9000 .U725 no.71

Phillips, Alan. 1993. The best in mixed-use development design. New York : Watson-Guptill.

EnvDesign NA9053.O3 P48 1993

Large projects focusing on office and retail mixed-use.

Snedcof, Harold R. 1985. Cultural facilities in mixed-use development. Washington, D.C. : Urban Land Institute. EnvDesign NX798 .S64 1985

CP 238 final syllabus for 2008.doc