Hope VI funds new urban neighborhoods

The first major round of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hope VI grants under the Bush Administration, totaling nearly $500 million, focuses on principles of the New Urbanism. Begun in 1993, the Hope VI program has distributed $4 billion in grants to redevelop failed modernist public housing projects into mixed-use, mixed-income communities. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) was instrumental in providing design guidelines and training for HUD in implementing the program. Architectural firms garnering the most Hope VI work have been CNU members. The latest round of grants shows that the program, developed under the Clinton administration, is moving forward with goals and techniques intact. The Philadelphia firm Wallace Roberts & Todd designed 5 of the 16 projects receiving grants in this round. These developments — accounting for $166.5 million in Hope VI funding in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Jersey City, and Hagerstown (MD) — focus on restoring an urban fabric to blighted superblocks of public housing. The Capitol Gateway project in Atlanta is an example of Wallace Roberts & Todd’s approach, in this case working for the Atlanta Housing Authority. The revitalization, funded in part by a $35-million Hope VI grant, will total $155 million. The site is within walking distance of two MARTA rail stations, the downtown, and the Georgia State University campus. When completed, Capitol Gateway will include 873 new mixed-income residential dwellings, 160 new affordable apartments, 45,000 square feet of neighborhood commercial, and early childhood development and Sylvan Learning centers. The site is located in a wedge between two interstate highways, which currently create substantial barriers to the north, south, and west. This condition is mitigated in the plan by a proposed freeway cover, which is the key to connecting the new neighborhood with the closest MARTA station and the university. The project’s commercial center straddles Memorial Drive, turned into a boulevard with streetscape improvements to provide better access to the university and downtown. Capitol Gateway employs two- to four-story townhouse typologies, many built in the form of stacked flats. On Memorial drive, three floors of residential are placed above retail. In Chicago, the firm takes on the infamous Robert Taylor Homes, reportedly the largest public housing project in the nation. “Although Robert Taylor Homes represents one of the nation’s worst public housing designs — 4,500 units compounded into a 2.5-mile march of highrises along Chicago’s South Side — its site holds great promise,” according to Gilbert Rosenthal of Wallace Robert & Todd. Among its assets are excellent transit access, nearby schools, churches, and community organizations, and proximity to downtown and jobs. Hope VI funding and nearby revitalization efforts will pour $687 million into this part of Chicago, Rosenthal says. In place of the highrises on superblocks, the plan calls for Chicago-style townhouses and detached single-family houses on small blocks. New retail is planned for State Street, a significant thoroughfare. The Hope VI grant calls for replacing 1,103 public housing units with 894 homes. These will consist of 297 public housing units, 400 affordable and market-rate rental units, and 197 market-rate homes. Torti Gallas & Partners of Silver Spring, Maryland, a new urbanist firm with substantial Hope VI experience, designed two new projects, in Washington (DC) and North Charleston (SC). The $35-million grant for Arthur Capper /Carrollsburg in Washington will help to pay for the replacement of 780 public housing units with 707 public housing units, plus 525 affordable rental units, and 330 market-rate homes — a total of 1,562 units. The site will also include 600,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 to 40,000 square feet of retail — making it one of the largest Hope VI projects to date. The plan calls for 11 new city blocks, directly aligned with the city’s historic street grid. Buildings mostly consist of four-story townhouses and apartment buildings based on the District’s vernacular. A handful of neighborhood greens provide open space. Urban Design Associates (UDA) of Pittsburgh, another new urbanist firm involved in many Hope VI projects, designed the redevelopment of the Arthur Blumeyer Housing Development in St. Louis. The $35-million grant will leverage $104 million in public and private investment to build 815 new units — 231 of them public housing, 284 affordable and market-rate rental apartments, 25 affordable homes, and 275 market-rate homes. These units will replace 639 existing public housing units. McCormick Baron will manage the project for the St. Louis Housing Authority. In Portland, Oregon, $35 million was granted to redevelop the Columbia Villa housing project. The redevelopment was designed by Mahlum Architects and Carleton/Hart Architecture. A focal point of the new community will be a village square that consolidates community services currently housed in decommissioned units throughout the project. The square will be defined by four multistory buildings — a child and youth services center, a community center, senior housing, and a building for workforce training and family self-sufficiency programs with loft-style apartments on the third floor.