Whittier Choice

Roxbury, MA

Transit-friendly project preserves affordability and revitalizes Roxbury neighborhood

Flat 9 at Whittier, known to Petersen as Whittier Choice, is the phased redevelopment of the Boston Housing Authority’s Whittier Street Apartments. It replaces 200 units of 1950s public housing with 320 mixed-income homes, commercial space, and resident amenities. Two public streets, Choice Way and Tenor Lane, now cross the former superblock and reconnect the site to Roxbury. On-site resident services include healthcare enrollment, food distribution, and financial services.

Phase One opened in 2020 with 92 units, 66 of them affordable to households at or below 60% of area median income (AMI), in a four-story building with townhouses along Whittier Street and Choice Way. Phase Two, completed in 2021, added two three-story walk-up buildings organized around a central courtyard. Phase Three, The Amp at Flat 9, was completed in 2025 as a 12-story building with 172 apartment homes and approximately 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The design was guided by the City of Boston’s sustainability requirements.

Challenge

The development team sought to meter heating and cooling individually, placing responsibility for energy use and cost on residents. That required sizing equipment to match calculated heating and cooling loads accurately.

Solution

Each phase began with a well-insulated building enclosure, which allowed smaller heating and cooling equipment and high-efficiency energy recovery ventilation, keeping HVAC operating costs low. Phase Three uses central HVAC systems, so the owner pays HVAC operating costs. That creates an opportunity to compare energy use with buildings where residents pay for heating and cooling.

Results

All three phases are complete, replacing 200 public housing apartments with 320 homes and new commercial space.

Awards

Flat 9 was the winner of the 2020 Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award in the HUD Housing Preservation Category.

Project Details

Client

A partnership between the Boston Housing Authority, the City of Boston, the Whittier Street Tenant Task Force, Madison Park Development Corporation, Preservation of Affordable Housing, and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

Architect

The Architectural Team

Timeline

Phase One opened 2020; Phase Two completed 2021; Phase Three completed 2025.

Services Provided by Petersen Engineering

MEP/FP Engineer of Record; Operational Energy Use Estimates