Jackson Square
Merit Award // Excellence in Architectural Design Commercial/Institutional
Architect // Novo Studio
GC // Eckman Construction
Civil Engineer // Hayner Swanson/IME
Structural Engineer // Team Engineering
MEP Engineer // Team Engineering
Landscape Architect // Blackwater Design
Description
The initial inspiration for the design of Jackson Square was people and community. The intent was to build affordable housing that someone would be excited to live in, feel comfortable when walking through the front door, and have the dignity of a beautiful home without the stigma of the traditional affordable housing aesthetic. The challenge for the design of Jackson Square was to create a building that would become an example of good affordable housing design, breaking the mold of what is possible with limited resources. Our design focused on smart massing, creative and efficient spatial unit layouts, and finding selective moments for artful design, resulting in a low income building within a low-income neighborhood, that feels anything but.
Jury Comments
“Affordable housing projects are important to examine with care and then through that review, we should be able to recognize qualities both absolute and transferable in their value. Three-story walk-ups in small town affordable workforce housing are challenging, and this project indicates that an essentially good and necessary program can be met with good design.”
“Some might ask of this project: “Where's the design value?” As a jury, we see it in the discipline and the economy of means, in the net to gross comparison, in the tightness of the plans but also in the quality of the resulting spaces and their efficiency - and the sheer fact that it's built. We see it in the volumetric massing, in the diagrams leading to the composition and footprint and the single-stair centered internal configurations. The architects knew exactly what they were doing: there is such intelligence to this! This wasn't an accident; they wanted to break down the standard double loaded corridor, bring light in on both sides, and minimize the circulation. But that’s not all: there’s an evident care for details, nothing flashy but each part considered with care within means. The elevations are sweet in their few, but effective, moves of materials, apertures, and proportions. And there’s good signage.”
“Too often, awards are based on the aesthetic event that's created or achieved. This a merit award because the design work is in the grain of the plan and the and the diagram. If we don't start recognizing that those qualities are recognizable and deserving within the constraints of affordable housing, then we're not going to move the needle on affordable housing at all. This project moves the needle.”
Photo credit: Ridgelight