Green Affordable Housing Coalition

The Green Affordable Housing Coalition (GAHC) is a joint project of Build It Green and Bay Area LISC and brings together public-sector and private-sector professionals who are committed to incorporating green building practices into the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of affordable housing. Through education and outreach, the Coalition promotes the creation of buildings that:

• Are integrated to the site and region
• Use energy, water and materials wisely
• Minimize and recycle construction waste
• Create their own energy
• Are durable and easily maintained
• Promote good health for both workers and residents
• Enhance housing affordability

Success in this endeavor will produce economic and quality-of-life benefits for tenants, improve the financial bottom line for property owners, and generate economic and environmental benefits for the local, regional, and world community.

Participate in the Coalition

Build It Green currently supports one Green Affordable Housing Coalition in Northern California. The Coalition meets quarterly throughout the year.

Agenda - Update on Federal and State Tools for Affordable Housing, and Local Government Perspectives on Stimulus Funds

11:30 Introduction and Announcements

• Build It Green and Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  

11:40 Participating Administrative Entity for the Dept of Housing and Urban Development Green Retrofit Program (phone in presentation)

• Jerry Anderson, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Affordable Housing Preservation, U.S. HUD

12:05 The New California Utility Allowance Calculator

• Adrian Ownby, California Energy Commission

12:30 Local Government Perspectives: Planning and Implementing Federal Stimulus Funds for Affordable Housing

• Dionne Early, City of San Jose
• Margaretta Lin, City of Oakland
• Kara Douglas, Contra Costa County

1:20 Q&A and Wrap-Up

6/9/09

Green Affordable Housing Coalition

This program will focus on the planning and implementation of new programs supported in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and financing tools from the state level. You will hear about changes to existing Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, the new Utility Allowance Calculator Developed by the CA Energy Commission, and local government perspectives on putting Stimulus funds to work in their communities. Presented by Build it Green, Sponsored by AIA East Bay.

Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm

Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland.

Contact: 510-845-0472 x 110 or Elise@BuildItGreen.org

Cost: $25 RSVP for this meeting

1.5 CES/LU

For more information: 510/464-3600

California State Polytechnic University at Pomona Awarded $25,000 NCARB Prize Grand Prize

Washington, DC—The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) recently selected California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Department of Architecture, as the recipient of the $25,000 grand prize of the 2008 NCARB Prize for the Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy.

Jury chair and former NCARB President, H. Carleton Godsey, FAIA, made the formal announcement at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Annual Meeting last week in Houston, TX. Godsey also announced five additional NCARB Prize recipients that will each receive $7,500. In his recognition speech at the ACSA Annual Meeting awards ceremony, Mr. Godsey noted that the NCARB Prize jury reviewed 31 submissions for the NCARB Prize from 22 architecture programs before making its selections.

In California State Polytechnic University at Pomona’s grand prize winning submission, “Low Cost Sustainable Housing for Tijuana, Mexico,” students, practitioners, and a U.S. non-profit organization created prototype housing for the people of Tijuana, Mexico using a variety of waste materials. The jury commented, “the effects of this project are potentially far-reaching in terms of the benefits to the potential dwellers whose lives could be improved through a greener, more affordable housing solution.”

Members of the 2008 NCARB Prize jury noted that the project recognized local traditions in Tijuana and also addressed global issues of low-cost sustainable housing. “The integration of practitioners into the process added to the quality of the solution allowing the practitioners to learn more about sustainability and add value to their continuing practices…The project is a model for bringing practice and education to bear on a global problem that will demand continuing attention, commitment, and creativity.”

The 2008 NCARB Prize jury honored five additional programs, each of which received a $7,500 monetary award

The 2008 NCARB Prize jury was made up of members of NCARB’s Practice Education Committee and six academic representatives (department heads or chairs) of architecture programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). Academic members of the jury included the dean from the institution that was awarded the NCARB Grand Prize in 2007, the University of Virginia, School of Architecture, and one representative from each of the five other NCARB Regions, nominated by NCARB’s Regional Directors.

For More information:
Contact Greg G. Hall, AIA, Ph.D.
Director, Education
202/783-6500

ghall@ncarb.orgTo learn more about the NCARB Prize and each of the recognized projects, visit NCARB’s web site at http://www.ncarb.org/prize/2008/index.html.
Information about the NCARB Grant is also available on NCARB’s web site at http://www.ncarb.org/prize/grant.html.

Less Expensive Ways to Make Better Housing

From Berkeley Design Advocates:

Less Expensive Ways to Make Better Housing
SPUR’s Affordable by Design Proposals

Please join us for breakfast on Wednesday April 2 at 730 AM at The Vault to hear a presentation on the revolutionary idea that we can build middle income housing without public subsidy. The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association has recently issued its Affordable by Design proposal that advocates changes in both planning criteria and building codes that together can drastically reduce the cost to produce new multifamily housing. Perhaps Berkeley can consider these thoughtful recommendations; they certainly differ from the proposals advocated by the Density Bonus Joint Subcommittee.

Our presenters will be SPUR Task Force members George Williams, BDA member and Anne Torney, AIA of WRT Solomon ETC.

The SPUR report makes six key recommendation:
1. Regulate building density by height, bulk and setback requirements, not by limits on the number of units allowed.

2. Stop requiring new parking in new buildings.

3. Stop regulating bedroom counts.

4. Allow flexibility in the code to facilitate an additional story of housing in wood-frame buildings – suggesting five stories of wood frame above a concrete podium level with a 65-foot height limit – 15 feet on the ground floor, and five 10-foot high stories. SPUR notes that San Diego and Seattle have both adopted code standards to make such construction possible, and in Oakland the Forest City Uptown Development is building five stories of wood frame.

5. Allow developers to fulfill their on-site inclusionary housing requirements by providing more units at middle-income price points, rather than fewer units at moderate-income price points.

6. Modify requirements for courtyard widths and rear-yard setbacks to allow for greater design flexibility in locating common open space.

The full report is available on the SPUR website at:

http://www.spur.org/documents/2008.01Interiors_FINAL.pdf

This is sure to be an exciting topic for BDA members, and has great applicability to Berkeley’s current debates on downtown development (where the fringes of downtown are proposed for 65 foot heights), as well as the on-going density bonus discussions.

George Williams is the former deputy Director of the San Francisco Department of City Planning and a longtime SPUR and BDA member. Anne Torney AIA is Principal and Director of Housing at WRT/Solomon E.T.C., an architecture, urban design, planning and landscape architecture firm, and designers of both the Fine Arts building and the David Brower Center/Oxford Plaza, now under construction. Her 20 years' experience as an architect have focused on urban and mixed-use projects, and, in particular, affordable housing for non-profit clients and City agencies.

All breakfast presentations at The Vault, 3250 Adeline St, near Alcatraz.

For more information: berkeleydesignadvocates@yahoo.com

Pro-bono--1% Opportunity

From the Northern California Land Trust:

"I am putting out the call for a licensed architect to help this permanently affordable co-housing project with it's city of Oakland permitting process. Basically we need a set of as-built plans for a couple of renovations, & windows and advice on minor work to make this project conform to building codes per the Certificate of occupancy requirements.

The Project is Mariposa Grove (828, 832 & 834 - 59th Street in oakland), and is comprised of 3 existing, inhabited buildings. Its an amazing co-housing project undergoing condo conversion so that the current low-income residents can buy their own units at an affordable price. This is why we asking for help, since we would really like to get pro-bono work or perhaps a reduced rate, in order to keep the overall project costs down and keep the project affordable to low -income households."

Here is the Mariposa Grove group's website:
http://www.healthyarts.com/mariposagrove/

Roughly we need:
- amending existing drawings to include windows to an enclosed 2nd story back porch addition
- plans for existing windows (3 or 4) which were added w/o permits
- plans for minor renovations which resulted in the merging of 2 units (addition of door & removal of kitchen)

For more information:
Francis McIlveen
Northern California Land Trust
3126 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94705
p: 510-548-7878 x369
f: 510-548-7562
francis.mcilveen@nclt.org
http://www.nclt.org

Downtown Oakland: the 10K Report Card

Wednesday 5/30/07

Downtown Oakland--the 10K Report Card
Now that it has been about 8 years since former Mayor Jerry Brown put the 10K Housing Initiative forward – 10,000 new residents in downtown Oakland by encouraging 6,000 new market-rate housing units – it is time to look at the results and think about the possibilities to build from this initiative and continue the reinvigoration of downtown Oakland. The AIAEB Chapter and its Regional and Urban Design Forum are hosting a panel discussion to review and critique the results of the 10K initiative and talk about the future.

Moderated by SF Chronicle Columnist John King, this panel discussion will be a frank look at the 10K Housing Initiative begun by past-Mayor Jerry Brown. Panelists include Peter Waller, AIA of Pyatok Architects; Colland Jang, AIA past Oakland Planning Commissioner; Dan Parolek, AIA of Opticos Design; Kate O’Hara, Community Benefits Program Director, East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy; and Susan Friedland, Affordable Housing Associates.

Time: 5:30pm-8:00pm
Location: AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay Street, Oakland
Cost: $10 chapter members; $20 non-chapter members. Cost includes program and dinner.
This meeting open to all. RSVP's are mandatory.
Click Here to Register
1 CES/LU

For more information: Kellie Hewlett, Program Coordinator

Green Affordable Housing Coalition (GAHC) Brown Bag: Energy Efficiency and Solar Resources for Multifamily

Build it Green: Green Affordable Housing Coalition (GAHC) Brown Bag: Energy Efficiency and Solar Resources for Multifamily

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Time: 11:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.
Location: AIA East Bay
1405 Clay Street
Oakland, CA

Transportation: BART accessible. Take the train to the 12th Street/City Center station and exit to
Frank Ogawa Plaza. AIA East Bay is at the corners of 14th and Clay Streets, near the Federal and State Buildings.

Cost: $10.00 Brown-bag lunch & drinks provided

Registration: Space is limited. RSVP required.
Register online at http://www.builditgreen.org/registration/index.cfm?fuseaction=events

Affordable housing professionals are invited to join the Green Affordable Housing Coalition for a brown-bag session on energy efficiency and solar resources for multifamily construction new projects.

Attendees will learn how to qualify for a range of cash incentives and technical support available to designers and developers through PG&E’s 2007-2008 residential new construction incentive programs. The California Multifamily New Homes Program offers cash incentives, technical resources, design assistance, program coordination with related programs, and marketing benefits to affordable and market rate multifamily high- and low-rise projects.

Attendees will also learn how to access funding for high-performing solar systems through the New Solar Homes Partnership and how participation in the Multifamily New Homes Program can help projects meet the energy efficiency threshold criteria for accessing solar incentives through the Partnership.

Presenters:
Heather Larson,Assoc. AIA, Heschong Mahone Group, Inc.
New Construction Energy Efficiency Incentive Program
Nehemiah Stone (KEMA) and Laurie Schrager (PG&E), CEC New Solar Homes Partnership and Affordable Housing

For More Information:
www.h-m-g.com/multifamily/cmfnh
www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/nshp