Adaptive Reuse In Affordable Housing

Creative Re-Use in Our Communities

Creative adaptive reuse strategies are one of the best ways for designers, builders, and developers to collaborate with government agencies in resolving the affordable housing crisis, while also reducing the ecological impact of the construction industry.

This post explores a few case studies, shares helpful resources, and challenges us to re-think our modern “business-as-usual” construction economy.

An Authoritative Report On Adaptive Reuse

In 2019, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) published a comprehensive report on the topic, titled “Renovate, retrofit, reuse: Uncovering the hidden value in America’s existing building stock” which presents a clear case for the enduring value of reinvesting in America’s existing building stock. While the report isn’t specific to affordable housing, it is a compelling case for the value of deep green design solutions and adaptive reuse as a strong sustainable development solution.

Some of the data that jumped out from our review included:

• Renovations and reuse projects account for 43% of architectural firms active billings in the US

• 94% of building owners believe their properties will increase in value after a green building retrofit

• Residential and commercial buildings generate 20% of all US greenhouse gas emissions (accounting for 33% of emissions from the electrical grid)

• US commercial building stock is estimated at more than 6 millions buildings, totaling 90 billion square fee, with an average age of 40 years

Key Findings

What these facts tell me is that a huge opportunity exists, in helping 94% of US property owners find creative ways to invest in their property to increase its value, decrease the environmental impact, and find new and improved uses for the existing unused and underutilized buildings in our communities, such as affordable housing, small business-oriented office suites, healthy food markets, and community parks and recreational facilities.

The main take-aways from the AIA report included:

• Office buildings from mid-20th century offer significant opportunities for energy retrofits to increase value

• Educational buildings have improved their energy efficiency recently, but older schools continue to offer major opportunities for renovations to reduce cost and increase the building life

• Hotels have seen increased energy consumption, especially compared to older hotels that have already been renovated. This concerning trend is ripe for innovation

• Retail buildings have also seen an increase in energy consumption for newer facilities, which is an indicator that this sector could also benefit from creative solutions to provide great spaces, with a more energy conscious design.

High Performing Project Case Studies

The report offered three high-performance case studies to illustrate the potential for investing in renovation and re-use projects to breathe new life into existing buildings in our communities. The outcomes of these smart design solutions offer benefits to the health, equity, economics, and resilience of our communities, and the studies offer valuable insights into the creative opportunities that will hopefully inspire your next project.

• Mundo Verde public charter school in Washington D.C., in 2013, renovated a 90-year-old brick building, investing approximately $12M into a 59,000 square foot project and achieving a LEED Gold renovation project and LEED Platinum annex building, and ensuring the generations-old building would ensure a safe and healthy educational atmosphere for the century ahead. A truly remarkable solution that preserved 97% of the existing structure, diverted 75% of waste from landfills, used 98% FSC certified lumber, high-performance glazing and insulation, and an innovative heat-recovery HVAC system that achieved a nearly 60% below average annual energy consumption for similar school buildings. Introducing a rain capture, onsite cistern, and water recycled water supply for irrigation and toilet plumbing led to savings of an estimated 300,000 gallons of potable water every year. Studio Twenty Seven Architecture, Forrester Construction, Ehlert/Bryan Inc. Structural Engineering, Carvalho + Good Landscape Architects.

• DPR Construction, in 2014, transformed its 24,000 square-foot regional office in San Francisco, CA into a zero-net-energy (ZNE) LEED Platinum renovation, truly walking the talk in creating innovative and responsive design and construction solutions within the elite real estate market of billion-dollar corporate America. The office design prioritized a high-performance indoor work environment, awash in natural daylighting from added skylights and an atrium, with 30% more natural outdoor air ventilation than required by code, and biophilic design solutions such as “living walls” of live vegetation used as interior artistic wall coverings. Even with all of these green design components, the project was completed for only $185 per square foot - a massive achievement for a project that is raising the bar for high-end commercial real-estate ZNE and carbon reduction design and construction trends. DPR Construction, FME Architecture + Design (Forge), Paradigm Structural Engineers, Habitat Horticulture.

• 1 Hotel South Beach, a Starwood Capital Group luxury hotel brand, made a mark with its inaugural property development in 2015 by investing $200M into a complete renovation of a 1-million-square-foot 426-room hotel built in the 1970s in Miami’s South Beach region. In addition to providing high-quality green design improvements, the design team also reimagined the relationship of the existing building to its surrounding community, and create a vibrant promenade out of a previously underutilized area, that invites passersby to weave in and out of the hotel’s cultural ambiance. The LEED Silver project focused on a targeted 15% energy savings, provided 100% outdoor air ventilation, and even re-used some of the existing HVAC components that still had serviceable life, simply adding high-efficiency chillers and boilers, and a solid plan for future improvements with a well-tuned maintenance schedule. High-efficiency LED lighting, a highly reflective roof membrane to reduce solar gain, and sustainable lumber sourced from Colorado’s beetle-killed pine forests. All the way to the hotel’s maintenance staff using eco-friendly cleaning products, all organic linens, and hemp mattresses, this team truly went the extra mile to make the best of the existing buildings that surrounds us, and inspire us all to think bigger about the impact that a few great ideas, early on in a project development plan, can have on reducing the carbon offset and energy consumption of the buildings we construct. Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design, Plaza Construction; First Finish, Desimone Consulting Engineers, Edsa Landscape Architects.

   

Mythbusting The Green Building Hype

The unintended, but welcome take away from this report, is that the smart money is investing in sustainable deep green design and construction solutions to optimize the quality of life for inhabitants, and maximize the cost-efficiency of the project’s total life cycle. How often do we hear people repeat the myth that “green building costs too much”, and yet the facts speak for themselves. When DPR Construction, the 10th largest construction firm in the US based on ENR’s 2021 Top 400 Contractor’s rating, is able to complete a comprehensive renovation of their own corporate office, achieve Zero-Net-Energy, and a significant impact in carbon-offset and mitigation strategies - for just $185 a square foot - it’s simply impossible to continue to argue against the value of adaptive reuse investments, and deep green design solutions to more responsibly construct the next generation of building projects in our communities.

Funding & Finance For Affordable Housing Reuse Projects In Your Community

To close this exciting look into regenerative community development strategies, we will pivot to the elephant in the room for pulling off projects such as those described above - funding, finance, and project development planning. And to focus the lens, even more, we’re going to look at the affordable housing funding opportunities for owners, developers, and community organizations in California.

If you’re interested in affordable housing development in California, the place to start is the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). HCD is the department responsible for all major affordable housing funding programs, which are renewed typically on an annual basis. While there is far too much information and detail to dive into here, we have provided a few key resources below for your immediate benefit.

• The NOFA Calendar - A one-stop resource to quickly review major upcoming affordable housing funding opportunities. NOFA stands for Notice of Funding Availability, and this calendar describes the major programs, total award available, application deadline, and program award timelines.

• HCD’s Active Programs Directory - Another one-stop resource, this directory outlines more than 30 active funding programs each targeting a specific type of funding, legislative priority, or specific community benefit programs like homelessness prevention, veterans housing, mental health care facilities, foster youth and transition-age youth housing, and other critical community needs. This resource is your definitive directory to major public funding resources that can be leveraged for your next project.

• Homekey Program - The Homekey Program is one of the active programs you’ll find in the directory, and for owners, developers, and community organizations that desire to bring affordable housing solutions to their communities, this innovative program can fast-track the funding and encourage your team to creatively design an expedited project, that can proceed from funding to occupancy in less than 12 months. It’s a worthy challenge, with a rich reward for those committed to creating long-term secure affordable housing solutions. In the past 8 months, this program awarded nearly 1.2 billion dollars to 73 projects across the state, providing more than 4,100 homes, nearly half of which are service chronically homeless and homeless youth.

  • Eligible projects require a County or City agency to serve as the Lead Applicant, and allow for partnerships with private companies and non-profit organizations to bring project development teams together for successful projects.

  • The program was designed for rapid adaptive reuse of unused hotel and motel buildings, to be converted into homeless shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing to alleviate the increasing homelessness crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Funds can be used for property acquisition, pre-development, development, and construction costs, as well as offering operating subsidies for projects that meet certain criteria.

  • Many Counties and Cities are utilizing ARPA-related COVID relief funding to provide the required local-match funding, and it’s possible that your local government may have available funding for creative housing projects. Contact your location County Housing Authority Director to learn more about their local strategy to support affordable housing projects. ARPA funds are typically available for projects that will break ground by 2024, and that can ensure all funds are expended by 2026.

The InflectionPoint Advantage

The design and construction space is changing rapidly, and project funding and finance is a constant challenge for every team. If you’re looking to create a project that raises eyebrows, or have a team in need of critical reinforcements to ensure project success, InflectionPoint Design + Development Group is ready to jump in the trenches, roll-up our sleeves, and help your organization thrive.

We hope you enjoyed this brief dive into adaptive reuse and affordable housing.

If you’re interested in scheduling a free consultation to learn how we can help you, just click here and pick a time that works for you.