Posted by Beth Miller, Executive Director:
Since we’ve been celebrating our 20^thanniversary, 2011 has been an action-packed year at the Collaborative. But even in this extraordinary year, the ribbon cutting for APM’s Sheridan Street Housing stands out as one of the highlights.

Like all good things, these 13 contemporary, sustainable homes took time, perseverance, and partnerships. I feel lucky to have seen this project take shape, gain momentum, and get built.

While Sheridan Street Housing remained true to the original design concept developed at its start with the Collaborative—a minor miracle in itself—it also ended up being much more. It opened up new horizons for an experienced community development corporation and a young design firm. It inspired policy change. And it influenced what private developers offer homebuyers. Read Full Story

The Community Design Collaborative hosted a peek behind the construction fence at the soon-to-be completed Sheridan Street Housing at 7th and Montgomery Streets last night. Neighbors spontaneously joined the crowd of mostly architects and planners to see, touch, and talk about these sustainable, L-shaped affordable homes.

The design concept for Sheridan Street was originally developed for APM during the Collaborative’s 2005 Affordable Infill Housing Design Challenge.  The design was refined further through a Excellence in Design grant from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

Brian Phillips and Daryn Edwards of Interface Studio Architects showed everyone around these 13 sleek, simple, and sustainable units, which offer a strong palette of recycled materials, solar thermal panels, energy-efficient HVAC, green roofs, and rain barrels. The units are also visitable, built with zero-step front entries and first floors with accessible baths and generous hallways.

Brian Phillips, Principal of Interface Studio Architects observed that market-rate  home buyers in Philadelphia now have an intriguing set of housing choices– loft space, condos, apartments, and single-family homes– with a strong sustainability component.  “Affordable home buyer should have the same options–so we’re proud that this product is for affordable home buyers,” he added.

Photos by Carryn M. Golden.

Check out the funny take on Mt. Tabor Cyber Village Senior Housing via a Philebrity reader’s cameraphone and footage of Greenfield Elementary School, co-star of the Philadelphia Water Department’s new video Green City Clean Waters.

Rotating the rowhouse: the long elevation of the Sheridan Street Housing units face the street to make the most of a narrow site.

Meet up with the Community Design Collaborative and Interface Studio Architects on Wednesday, July 27 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM for a tour of Sheridan Street Housing— 13 newly-minted, affordable green homes designed by Interface and developed by APM. Walk the site and go inside with us. Get the scoop on the joys and pains of designing and building infill urban housing—and the challenge of developing innovative affordable homes.

We’ll be meeting at 6:00 PM at the corner of North 7^th Street and Montgomery Avenue, six blocks above Girard. Taking transit? Hop on Bus 47 heading north on 7^th Street. Drinks afterwards at El Camino! Sign up.

The original design concept for Sheridan Street Housing came out of the Collaborative’s Affordable Infill Housing Design Challenge in 2005 when APM, best-known for developing dozens of affordable housing units in the neighborhood just east of Temple University, collaborated with Interface Studio Architect to come up with a green option to homebuyers.

The project attracted the attention of Postgreen, which partnered with Interface Studio Architects to develop the 100K Houses. As contemporary, light-filled homes plugged into small sites in rowhouse neighborhoods, the affordable Sheridan Street Housing and the market-rate but modestly priced 100K Houses share many of the same qualities.

Interface Studio Architects and architect Brian Phillips, a member of the Collaborative’s board,  were featured this week in a New York Times article on the ins and outs of prefab design, Squeezing Costs, Builders Take a New Look at Prefab.

There’s new excitement around urban prefab housing, but its design and cost-savings potential only comes through extreme attention to detail. Brian learned his way around prefab through the design and construction management of The Modules, the 100K Houses, and the soon-to-be completed Sheridan Street Housing. He notes, “You really do need to embrace the modular constraints. That’s where you save time and money.”

Be sure to check out some great construction assembly footage of  The Modules. Just keep reminding yourself about all the coordination that led up to that day!

Take action to preserve federal funding for affordable housing and community development. The City of Philadelphia will lose nearly $149 million in federal funding under the FY 2011 budget proposal passed by the US House of Representatives last month, which seeks to cut $61 billion from the current fiscal year federal budget. These cuts will have a huge impact on our ability to continue to meet the housing needs of the most vulnerable people in our communities and advance neighborhood revitalization.

You can show your support by signing on to the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania’s Letter to Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation by Tuesday, March 8th at 5:00 p.m.

Rachel Schade and Jeff Wyant collaborate during last month's charrette. Rachel shares her new appreciation of visitability in the Plan Philly story.

The Collaborative’s design charrette, Vistability for Urban Neighborhoods, is featured in Plan Philly’s recent post, Should Philadelphia homes have first floors that are accessible to all?

Visitability also popped up elsewhere last month in public conversations about creating age-friendly neighborhoods and reforming the zoning code. Plan Philly took the time to interview some of visitability’s local advocates and skeptics. Check it out!