Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom

Casa Adelente 2060 Folsom makes the most of its walkable, transit-rich, park-adjacent site to provide infrastructure for social equity and a low-carbon future. A mixed-use building with 127 permanently affordable homes and a rich offering of resident and community-serving spaces on the ground floor, the project is the first large all-electric multifamily housing in San Francisco and boasts a net EUI of 14.9. Located in San Francisco’s vibrant Mission District, the site forgoes parking in favor of ample bike storage and an on-site bikeshare program. A series of overlapping interior and exterior common spaces support the well-being and community life of residents, showcasing the possibilities of integrated design as a vehicle for social equity. The lobby leads to a generous south-facing courtyard overlooking the park that filters stormwater, provides biohabitat and play space, and acts as a “town square” for residents.

“This project checked all the boxes for me with community engagement, the affordable housing aspect, and the impressive research and development efforts from the firm itself.”—Jury comment 

The project’s massing, a deep mid-block courtyard flanked by two wings, increases the south-facing perimeter. This layout generated the highest housing yield—key for funding—and park views for most units. The interconnected courtyard, second-floor patio, and childcare play area draw the park exposure deep into the heart of the building, creating a series of dynamic spatial experiences and a welcoming residential environment. 

Reimagining what was originally a narrow fire easement between the housing site and the park as an east-west pedestrian paseo added much-needed public outdoor social space, pedestrian connectivity, space for the arts and afterschool organizations, permeable area for stormwater management, and biohabitat.  

Likewise, the midblock garden courtyard is central to fulfilling the project’s overlapping ecological and social goals. Flanked by the park, community room, social service offices, and the route from the lobby to elevators, the courtyard is the heart of the building. Residents coming and going casually check out what’s happening in the community room and meet with each other, building staff, and service providers in an easy daily routine. Native sycamores thrive in organically shaped stormwater planters. Structural soil cells promote healthy root volume beneath the courtyard paving, optimizing both ecological function and useable outdoor space for residents. 

The nine-level, open-air walkway takes advantage of the city’s mild climate to reduce conditioned space. Part of the building’s distinct architectural identity, the playful scrim casts biophilic shadows throughout the day and presents an intriguing form when viewed from afar. 

The multiple benefits of the building’s all-electric systems include reduced first costs, easy maintenance, healthy indoor air quality, reduced vulnerability to earthquakes and fire, and proof of concept for other projects seeking to decarbonize. 

In a neighborhood reeling from housing insecurity, displacement, low air quality, lack of open space, cultural erosion, health disparities, and gaps in early education resources, 2060 Folsom responds with the following: 

Housing stability 

High-quality, permanently affordable housing for low-income households and at-risk youth. 

Education resources 

On-site services offering birth-to-career comprehensive support, including an Early Education Development Center, two in-home family daycare units, counseling, and afterschool programs for residents and the wider community. 

Cultural place-keeping 

Prominent public art celebrating Latinx identity and new headquarters for environmental activism, arts, and youth organizations. 

Decarbonization 

All-electric, net-zero-ready design that points the way to a low-carbon future. The transit-rich location, ample bike/stroller room, and zero parking help lower VMT and GHG emissions. 

Health and well-being 

Healthy materials, advanced indoor air filtration, and generous common spaces that foster connection. 

Social justice 

The result of decades of grassroots planning and advocacy, the project serves the underrepresented Latinx immigrant community and supports the next generation of community leaders, artists, and activists. 

Sanctuary during a pandemic 

Affordable housing was identified as critical infrastructure during the pandemic, and as 2060 Folsom opened its doors in one of the hardest-hit Latinx neighborhoods, it provided safe outdoor spaces for residents to connect and begin to rebuild their lives. 

Explore how Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom houses several community organizations that work with youth, unhoused, and immigrant populations in Fig. 1 Design for Equitable Communities. 

Design intent 

Who does the project serve? Identify the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly impacted by the project. 

The project serves 127 households earning below 60% of area median income, including 29 transition-age youth (TAY) households. The current occupants are over 50% BIPOC and 36.6% Latinx. Nonprofit organizations Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, PODER, First Exposures, and Youth Speaks provide birth-to-career supportive service for residents and the greater community. The general public also benefits from the new public restrooms serving the park, new midblock paseo, and powerful public art. Pollinators (bees and hummingbirds) and birds benefit from bird-safe practices. Shared research on the project’s all-electric construction benefitted legislators and municipalities statewide, supporting California and the nation’s move to a low-carbon future. 

Describe the stakeholder engagement process over the course of the project. 

The project design was deeply informed by MEDA and PODER’s two decades of outreach, surveys, and advocacy prior to their selection as developers for this site. The design team held numerous listening sessions with neighborhood place-keepers and designs were shared with targeted local organizations. There were three public meetings, including an open house event. All were conducted in English and Spanish. Design sessions for the public restrooms with San Francisco Recreation and Parks resulted in a welcoming gender-inclusive design that allows privacy but discourages unsafe long-term occupancy. 

Identify project goals that support equitable communities and describe how those goals were developed. 

MEDA and other neighborhood organizations conducted studies and vulnerability assessments that highlighted public health, environmental, social, and economic disparities impacting low-income Mission District residents, small businesses, and community-serving nonprofits affected by gentrification. This work and early sustainability charettes led to the following goals for this site: 

1. High-quality, healthy homes for households earning below 60% of area median income, including at-risk transition-age youth (TAY) 
2. Amenities and open spaces to enhance the lives of residents and the broader community 
3. A mutually beneficial relationship with the adjacent public park 
4. Promotion of the cultural identity of the Mission District 

Describe the project team's explorations or design strategies that respond to the above-stated goals. 

Split massing increases the south-facing perimeter, optimizing unit count per floor and units with southern exposure and park views. Moving to all-concrete construction maximized residential area within the mid-rise height limit, adding three floors and 26 more units at the same cost per unit. 

The split massing created a mid-block courtyard at the heart of the building with a strong visual interrelationship with the park. This, along with the public paseo, creates welcoming, sunny frontage for the project’s many amenities. Plantings emphasize pollinators to support the adjacent community garden. An 80-foot-tall mural facing downtown by a local artist celebrates cultural identity. 

Describe stories or evidence that demonstrate how the project successfully contributes toward more equitable communities. 

The project provides 127 low-income households, over half of which are currently BIPOC, with healthy, permanently affordable housing with comprehensive on-site support. A Latina single mom struggling with high rent and job insecurity exacerbated by COVID now runs a family daycare unit that provides both a stable home and self-employment. Youth arts organization First Exposures, once forced out of the neighborhood, can return to help restore the ecology of local artists who are the soul of the Mission. Sixty-eight percent of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) respondents reported that the building reflects their culture and identity, and more than 70% use the public park for walking and play. 

Every community is unique, and every project has unique opportunities to respond to issues of equity and inclusion. Describe any exemplary practices or outcomes for this project. 

MEDA and outreach partner PODER are bilingual, Latinx-led organizations with the deep cultural competency to serve Spanish-speaking immigrant communities. Since the 1990s they and their coalition partners have led multiple community-based assessments and advocacy initiatives for Mission District residents. Leadership and staff bring insights from their own experience as members of the community. This base of knowledge and understanding was further refined during community design discussions. A partnering service provider since project inception, Larkin Street Youth Services championed the needs of transition-age youth (TAY) and centered their voices in community outreach. 

These engagements resulted in design outcomes that fully center the needs of the underrepresented and underserved. The resulting ground floor program focuses on daycare, youth arts programs, and neighborhood empowerment. The addition of two family-daycare apartments responded to community demands for more early-learning options. At discussions with clients of Larkin Street Youth Services, young TAY parents championed changing the TAY unit mix from 100% studios to include 24% one-bedroom units. Finally, MEDA’s strong community ties meant that the design team’s proposal to add three stories and 26 more units to the original six-story design was overwhelmingly welcomed rather than opposed in public forums. 

Selection criteria for the program partners and mural artist emphasized deep roots in the Mission District and understanding of local needs and cultural values. Local artist Jessica Sabogal’s mural celebrates the Mission District’s history of Latinx struggle and resilience. While fair housing laws governed final tenant selection, the 25% local preference and MEDA’s roots in the Mission allowed it to successfully target a deep pool of potential applicants, resulting in more than half of the tenant households self-identifying as BIPOC. 

The project features 30 units designed for people with impaired mobility and six units that meet the needs of vision- and/or hearing-impaired residents. 

Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom is located in what was once the complex habitats of Mission Creek and its associated wetlands. Those important ecosystems were degraded over time as the riparian areas were infilled as part of the urbanization of San Francisco. This created largely impermeable surfaces and flood-prone conditions, both on the site and within the neighborhood. The design reestablishes some of the fragmented functions of the historic ecology by combining ground-level, landscaped amenity spaces with contemporary stormwater design techniques that reconnect site drainage with the sandy, highly permeable soils that lie beneath the existing urban fill. This strategy is enhanced with native plantings that promote biodiversity by focusing on pollinator habitat patches. This ecosystem service attracts native bees and hummingbirds to support the pollination of the adjacent community food garden. Interpretive signage throughout the common spaces shares the story of the historic ecology and the project's strategies to reconnect to it. 

Design intent 

How does the design minimize negative impacts on animals? 

The design carefully balances providing habitat support for bird life while also minimizing negative impacts through the detailing of the building and site design. The introduction of habitat-enriching native plants, particularly pollinator attractor species and native sycamore trees, helps promote the site as a habitat patch for birds. This habitat service is balanced with bird-safe design, including placing new plantings in close proximity to glazing to minimize disorienting reflections. In addition, the nonreflective bridge scrim, rhythm of glazing to the solid façade, and deeply shrouded upper windows contribute to the project's bird-safe approach. 

How does the project support biodiversity and improve ecosystem services? 

The paseo, a public pedestrian spine, uses permeable pavers to reconnect stormwater to the native permeable subgrade, recharging groundwater to support plant diversity on-site and in the adjacent park. Stormwater gardens in the courtyard absorb roof runoff and feed the roots of the native ferns and sycamores, supporting biodiversity from insects to small avian life. A linked R&D project tested pollinator attractor plants in the adjacent public park to understand which plants best attract native bees and hummingbirds. Working with neighbors and the city’s parks department, the team planted 24 different native pollinator attractor species, stretching the project’s biodiversity impact beyond the site limits. 

Metrics 

0% of site area was vegetated (landscape or green roof) pre-development. 

4.6% of the site area is vegetated (landscape or green roof) post-development.   

There was a 4.6% increase in vegetated area, post-development. 

80.4% of the vegetated areas are planted with native species. 

Please explain if a mandatory metrics is unavailable or a metric requires additional interpretive information. 

The “percentage of the site area supporting vegetation post-development” includes both the square footage of the planting area and the square footage of the site that provides active healthy soils and root volume through the use of structural soil cells (Silva Cells). Each native sycamore in the courtyard has access to 1,000 cubic feet of healthy soils to promote full maturity growth and wide canopy coverage for the benefit of the ecosystem and human microclimate comfort. 

The approach to designing with water begins with a careful unpacking of the predevelopment hydrology of the site. That research revealed the history of Mission Creek wetlands on the site and provided clues to the highly permeable soils that lie several feet beneath the contemporary urban fill. Given this, the design team developed a stormwater approach that over-excavates the subgrade to reach the former wetland soils to use their high permeability for infiltration from permeable pavers and planting areas, supporting the ecosystem services those plants provide and greatly decreasing the burden on the city's combined sewer system during rain events. 

The project's irrigation system limits water consumption and loss from evaporation by employing a system sensor that automatically adjusts irrigation flow daily based on weather conditions, exclusive use of subsurface drip emitters, and a planting palette consisting of more than 80% native or low-water-adapted species. In the building, low-flow fixtures, including 0.8 gpf toilets, 1.8 gpm showerheads, and 1.0 gpm faucets, are WaterSense rated. Together, these measures result in a measured 37% reduction in potable water use. 

Design intent 

Describe how the project's stormwater and potable water strategies contribute to site and community resilience. 

The project lies within the city of San Francisco’s combined storm sewer system. Untreated sewage overflows into the bay if this aging infrastructure is overtaxed during intense rainfall. It is therefore crucial that projects in this combined sewer area treat stormwater on-site and, more importantly, reduce the peak flow of stormwater into the combined system. The reduction in both volume and runoff of stormwater and wastewater noted above benefits the combined sewer system at the city and bioregional scale and helps mitigate recurring backups and flooding in this low-lying neighborhood. 

Describe the quality of the water that runs off the site. 

In terms of stormwater, more than 30% of the runoff volume during a two-year, 24-hour storm is cleaned by plant root uptake, bioretention soil, and gravel media layers before soaking into the site’s permeable soils and recharging groundwater. Additionally, stormwater runoff is filtered through sand traps—for primary settling and debris and oil removal—before distribution to the gravel layers and site soil recharge. Overflows and remaining runoff flow to the city’s Southeast Treatment Plant, where combined stormwater and wastewater are further cleaned to California Water Board standards before discharge in San Francisco Bay. 

Describe how and where the project's black water is treated. 

Blackwater is treated conventionally by the city’s utility system. 

[H3] Metrics 

Water use intensity (gal/sf/year) 

Benchmark: 40.3 

Predicted: 29.4 

Measured: 25.5 

Reduction in potable water use (from benchmark) 

Predicted: 27.1% 

Measured: 36.7% 

Total annual water demand met using potable sources 

Predicted: 100% 

Measured: 100% 

43.2% of stormwater is managed on-site. 

Please explain if a mandatory metric is unavailable or a metric requires additional interpretive information. 

The provided "percentage of stormwater managed on-site" is based on a maximum anticipated 24-hour, two-year storm event. 

Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom performs 79% better than baseline, exceeding the 2030 Challenge target by 8%. The energy strategy pairs integrated passive design features and high-efficiency, all-electric equipment to deliver significant reductions in operational carbon.

Building orientation, a high-performance envelope, optimized window-wall ratio, and fixed exterior shading provide enhanced indoor environmental quality through daylighting and views without significant heat gain or loss. Operable windows oriented to prevailing winds provide adaptive comfort and reduce energy use, particularly in shoulder seasons.

Explore how Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom boasts an 80% reduction in operational carbon emissions relative to the U.S. national average in Fig. 3 Design for Energy.

Heat recovery ventilators in each unit provide night-flush ventilation and heat exchange to mitigate cooling and heating loads, respectively. As a result, unit cooling is entirely passive and unit electric resistance heaters can be used without a significant energy penalty. An all-electric, high-efficiency air-source heat pump greatly reduces hot water energy use. The integrated energy design strategies deliver a net EUI of 14.9 and mitigate HVAC load intensity and local grid load.

High-efficiency fixtures and daylight dimming in common areas and retail/office space reduce LPD by over 50%. A rooftop PV array covers a significant portion of common area loads, providing energy stability and benefiting the nonprofit owner’s annual operating budget.

Design intent

Describe any energy challenges associated with the building type, intensity of use, or hours of operation, and how the design responds to these challenges.

Affordable housing has a much greater potential energy use intensity due to the typical density of occupants. For example, up to seven occupants are allowed on the lease of a three-bedroom unit, with two people per bedroom and one in the living room. The means systems need to be designed for higher use than typical residential projects while operating efficiently to keep utility bills down for low-income residents. Local lockdowns due to COVID-19 likely affected assumed building use schedules, likely intensifying residential energy use. The extremely low measured EUI is even more remarkable given these factors.

Metrics

Is the building all-electric? Yes.

In its measured usage, including on-site renewables, did the project achieve its 2030 Commitment reduction target (70% reduction by 2015, 80% reduction by 2020)? Yes.

The project's total carbon (embodied + operational) over 10 years in kg CO2e is 9,538,337.

There is a 79% reduction (inclusive or renewables) from benchmark, measured.

12.5% of total energy is derived from renewable sources, measured.

There is a 74% reduction (inclusive of renewables) in operational carbon from benchmark, measured. 

Safe, permanently affordable homes co-located with amenities and birth-to-career services provide housing stability and social support for low-income households and the wider neighborhood. Zero parking and proximity to transit, bike routes, neighborhood amenities, and the park promote healthy lifestyles via biking, walking, and outdoor play.

The entry sequence is intentionally choreographed to connect residents to nature and each other. The route from the lobby to the elevator passes through the midblock courtyard with views into the park, paseo, and community room. Services offices lining the courtyard promote casual daily connections between residents and counseling staff. The inviting stair in the lobby encourages residents to forgo the elevator. The second-floor deck, roof deck, and multilevel, open-air circulation with its biophilic scrim offer panoramic views of the neighborhood.

A striking public mural by local artist Jessica Sabogal honors the Mission’s activist history, promoting a sense of belonging for the neighborhood’s many Latinx residents.

HRVs with MERV 13 filtration ensure high IAQ, protect residents on wildfire days, and provide night flush for heatwaves that often coincide with smoke events.

Finish materials have low- and no-VOC content, are PVC-free, and have no added-urea formaldehyde wood products. Biophilic “wood-look” unit flooring is phthalate-free, supporting infant health.

Explore how Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom nourishes the social life of the complex residents and keeps them in contact with the outdoors in Fig. 4 Design for Well-being.

Design intent

Was a chemicals of concern list or other third-party framework used to inform material selection? If so, how?

The firm’s internal sustainability framework is based on and informed by best practices by many third-party systems, such as Declare, HomeFree, MindfulMaterials, the HPD Collaborative, EC3, and the Carbon Leadership Forum. Use of this framework resulted in low- to no-VOC content in materials, phthalate-free flooring in units, and nonvinyl rubber flooring in corridors. Interior murals were either painted or PVC-free film graphics. Tiles in the public restroom are Cradle to Cradle Certified. Furniture selections focused on FSC-certified, formaldehyde-free, nonvinyl/PVC, and reclaimed or recycled materials. Wood products have no added-urea formaldehyde.

How did the project advocate for greater transparency in building material supply chains?

The design team collected HPDs and EPDs for multiple specification divisions and sent letters to product manufacturers advocating for and requesting material transparency documentation when not available. The design team also prioritized efforts on products with the largest impact. For example, the team sought unit flooring that was phthalate-free while meeting owner requirements for maintenance and durability. We advocated with suppliers to make it clear that we would not consider products that did not meet this standard.

Metrics

0% of the regularly occupied area is daylit (sDA 300/50%).

0% of the regularly occupied area is compliant with annual glare criteria (ASE 1000, 250).

81% of the regularly occupied area has quality views.

73% of the regularly occupied area has access to operable windows.

The design goal for maximum C02 is 730 ppm. The goal is relative to outdoor CO2.

Please explain if a mandatory is unavailable or a metric requires additional interpretive information.

Although daylight was not explicitly modeled for this project, the team did consider access to daylight and quality views as well as glare mitigation in building massing, facade and glazing design, and external shading. 

The project team prioritized enhanced durability and function in design, focusing on material resiliency and adaptability. Architectural materials, including insulation and finishes, where used, are lower carbon and sourced from manufacturers with enhanced transparency and sustainability practices, including recycled content and clean power for manufacturing. The project team advocated for health and transparency in material selection, seeking products with HPDs and product certifications, including Cradle to Cradle and Declare. Material selection avoided chemicals of concern, including formaldehyde, PVC, and phthalates, among others.

Flexibility is built into the building program with versatile and adaptable spaces for residents and commercial tenants. An exposed structure and streamlined material concept minimize finishes, leading to significant embodied carbon reductions. A simplified LCA study performed by the University of California, Berkeley’s Development and Environmental Engineering Department showed roughly half the emission rate per square foot compared to a typical market-rate project.

Site conditions required an extensive displacement pile foundation, and strength, durability, and cost requirements dictated the use of concrete as a primary structural material. As a result, embodied carbon reduction efforts centered on optimizing concrete mixes to limit cement content and maximize substitution rates of supplementary cementitious materials (up to 50%).

Design intent

Did embodied carbon considerations inform the design? How?

For this project, major strategies used to decrease embodied carbon include:

optimized concrete admixtures

using structure-as-finish, especially at the ground floor, to reduce total materials

low-carbon insulation

low-carbon finish materials

Did the idea of circularity/circular economy inform the design? How?

Strategies to promote a circular economy include:

exposed structure and streamlined material concept to minimize overall material use

material selection for durability

preference for products that are recyclable at end of life, contain pre- or post-consumer recycled content, and/or are Cradle to Cradle Certified

preference for manufacturers that are carbon neutral in their operations

Describe any special steps taken during design/construction to make disassembly, deconstruction, or reuse easier at the building's end of life.

The ground floor tenant spaces are designed with flexibility in mind to allow adaptation to future needs. Material selection favored products that are recyclable and/or from manufacturers with buyback programs.

Metrics

0% of the project floor area was reused or adapted from existing buildings.

Was embodied carbon modeled? Yes.

37.4 kgCO2e/sf is the project's embodied carbon intensity.

Some of the installed wood is FSC certified. 

Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom features all-electric power (no natural gas), solar photovoltaic energy generation, and readiness for net zero carbon operations. Avoiding natural gas is especially advantageous in a location where earthquakes can damage gas infrastructure and lead to explosions and methane leaks.

Building backup power serves the elevators, water pump, and community room Wi-Fi and refrigerator, creating a building resilience hub.

Each unit includes a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) to reduce HVAC electricity consumption and a MERV 13 filter to help maintain indoor air quality during wildfire events. The HRV night-flush feature supports resident comfort in prolonged heat events and helps mitigate rising temperatures due to climate change.

Passive design strategies and superior ventilation limit energy use, create good air quality, and support the thermal comfort of residents. Windows are operable and oriented to take advantage of western breezes. The south- and west-facing windows are deeply shaded.

Located at the lowest invert elevation in the city stormwater-sewer system and vulnerable to neighborhood flooding in large storm events, the building was raised two feet from grade to protect ground-floor uses.

Design intent

In what ways does the design anticipate climate change over the life of the building?

Each unit includes an HRV to reduce HVAC electricity consumption and a MERV 13 filter to help maintain better indoor air quality during wildfire events. The HRV night-flush feature supports resident comfort in prolonged heat events and anticipates rising temperatures due to climate change. The all-electric design allows for future battery storage as well as microgrid technology potential that would allow the developer to offset peak loads and further lower utility costs.

How does the design anticipate restoring or adapting function in the face of stress or shock, such as natural disasters, blackouts, etc.?

The fossil-fuel-free construction, HRVs and MERV 13 filters, and suite of passive strategies, including high-performance operable windows and shading, help mitigate the potential effects of earthquakes, heat events, power outages, and hazardous air quality due to wildfires. Based on passive survivability analysis of a similar project with equivalent envelope performance in Santa Cruz, the team expects mild to no thermal stress for 80% of a heatwave event and at worst moderate thermal stress. The building’s raised ground floor protects it from annual neighborhood flooding from winter storm events.

Metrics

Research Score: 70

Resiliency Score: 33

The building can be used as a safe harbor for the community during a crisis. Through passive sustainability, the building can function for 10.5 hours. The backup generator will run for 10.5 hours, assuming that refueling the generator will not be possible following an event. This is a very conservative estimate that does not take into consideration envelope performance and the discomfort index (DI) during heatwave events. Based on passive survivability analysis of a similar project (with equivalent envelope performance) in Santa Cruz, in the event of a heatwave, the team expects mild to no thermal stress for 80% of the time and at worst moderate thermal stress (DI of 75-82). Adaptive comfort and indoor air quality are provided for all units through operable windows and unit HRVs with MERV 13 filtration to provide resiliency during wildfire events.

An in-house R&D initiative analyzed 2060 Folsom compared to other all-electric net zero energy-ready multifamily buildings across a variety of climate zones and identified the significant performance, operational, and safety benefits as cost-neutral or cost-saving. The findings were shared broadly at AIA and green building conferences and with policymakers, and were featured in an advocacy memo submitted to over two dozen jurisdictions as they considered adopting electrification reach codes.

A second in-house R&D effort, Pollination Innovation, resulted in community members establishing test plots in the adjacent park to identify the most successful native pollinator plant species. This research drove paseo planting choices to support pollination of the adjacent community garden. Soil specs and planting plans for eight other projects in the region were shared at several national conferences and influenced work at the Berkeley Bee Lab and the Urban California Native Bee Survey.

Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys, developed in an open-source collaboration with peer architecture firms and affordable housing developers, assessed the building’s impact on residents’ well-being. The design team shared POE findings internally, at conferences, and with peers and clients to advance green affordable housing design.

On-site signage educates residents about the historical ecological landscape and the pollinator project.

Design intent

What lessons learned through this project have been used to improve subsequent projects?

The all-electric system design has informed design and helped build acceptance on several subsequent projects by our firm and other design and development teams. The pollinator project data informed soil specs and planting plans for eight projects in the region. Feedback from POE events helped property management recognize a need to educate tenants on proper use of new technologies like the heat recovery ventilator fan boost modes in the bathroom, which were often left on high mode due to the fans’ quiet noise levels. This information is being used to improve building performance and lower residents’ utility bills.

If a post-occupancy evaluation was conducted, describe the process and outcomes.

contact the owner and occupants to see how things are going

obtain utility bills to determine actual performance

survey building occupants on satisfaction

share collected data with building occupants

analyze post-occupancy energy use

develop and share strategies to improve the building's performance

teach occupants and operators how to improve building performance

If a post-occupancy performance testing was conducted, describe the process and outcomes.

No performance testing occurred for this project. There is a large gap in available funding for affordable housing commissioning or post-occupancy testing. Developers operate on very small annual budgets and have limited resources to pay for monitoring and data logging outside of what the design team is able to assist with on a pro-bono basis.

Metrics

Post-Occupancy Evaluation Score: 70

Transparency Score: 100

Commissioning Score: 40

Feedback Score: 100

Please explain if a mandatory metrics is unavailable or a metric requires additional interpretive information.

There is a large gap in available funding for affordable housing commissioning or post-occupancy testing. Developers operate on very small annual budgets and have limited resources to pay for monitoring and data logging outside of what the design team is able to assist with on a pro-bono basis.

Year of design completion: 2018

Year of substantial project completion: 2021

Gross conditioned floor area: 167,500 sq. ft.

Number of stories the building has: Nine

Project site: Brownfield

Project site context/setting: Urban

Annual hours of operation: 8,760

Site area: 29,075 sq. ft.

Cost of construction, excluding furnishing: $68,300,000

Total annual users: 800 

Architect, Landscape Architect, Interior Design: Mithun 

Collaborating Architect: Y.A. Studio 

Consultant - Acoustical: Salter 

Consultant - Energy: Association for Energy Affordability 

Consultant - Sustainability: Global Green, Walker Wells 

Consultant - Waterproofing: Steelhead 

Engineer - Civil: Luk & Associates 

Engineer - MEP: Integral Group 

Engineer - Structural: Structus   

General Contractor: Roberts Obayashi 

Health Facilitators: Green Health Partnership 

Specifications: VVAS   

Katie Ackerly, AIA, Chair, David Baker Architects, Oakland, Calif. 

Julian Owens, Assoc. AIA, Jacobs, Arlington, Va. 

Seonhee Kim, AIA, NOMA, Design Collective, Baltimore 

Avinash Rajagopal, Metropolis, New York