MNN - Mother Nature Network

My post yesterday on FLATS, several ambitious SRO conversion projects in Chicago’s Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods, got me thinking: although transforming foreclosed, down-and-out, and, in some cases, completely abandoned, single room occupancy hotels into hip, micro-apartment communities is a prime opportunity for real estate developers to freshen up derelict buildings and invest in gentrifying neighborhoods, what about similar projects that don’t displace low-income and often physically and mentally disabled tenants? Developments that continue to provide shelter to the disadvantaged — read: not boutique hotels on the Bowery — while moving away from the sad, unsavory realities of flophouse-dom?

 

Turns out, there are plenty. Although new builds and not conversion projects, the LifeEdited blog recently featured a couple of properties, one in the Bronx and the other in Chicago, that challenge the preconception that many have about SRO buildings (i.e. “synononymous with drugs, crime, totaliarian architecture, and poor building quality.”) And as David Friedlander suggests, many SROs “enjoy a pass on restrictive building codes, allowing smaller unit sizes and larger communal areas than their conventional residential counterparts. Perhaps these developments presaged the upcoming micro-unit movement we’ve been talking so much about.”

And then there’s the Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson Apartments, a 120-unit SRO building in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood that’s not only garnered a fair amount of acclaim for its architectural significance (the American Institute of Architects bestowed the striking five-floor complex with both the Excellence in Affordable Housing Award and a Housing Award in the multifamily category back in May) and its commitment to sustainability (the infill development is GreenPoint certified), but because of its overall livability. In a great recent profile by Ariel Schwartz, Co.Exist dubs the Richardson Apartments as “low-income housing that anyone would want to live in.” High praise indeed.

 

There’s a whole lot to like about the David Baker + Partners-designed Richardson Apartments. For starters, there’s the rooftop solar arrays and allotment garden, solar hot water heating, a vegetated roof, rain gardens, sunshades, the use of low-VOC paints and finishes, and reclaimed and sustainable woods found throughout the structure. In addition to big honors from the AIA and other organizations, the complex also received a 2012 Merit Award from the Northern California chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.