Whittier Choice

Roxbury, MA

Transit-friendly project preserves affordability and revitalizes Roxbury neighborhood

Whittier Choice is a three-phase, redevelopment project that aims to preserve affordability while creating a balance of housing options in Roxbury, MA. The award-winning Flat 9 at Whittier, Phase One of the project, which celebrated its grand opening in October 2020, consists of a new, 4-story, 70-unit multifamily mid-rise building, a 15-unit townhouse building, and a 7-unit townhouse building, replacing a public housing community that was first opened in 1953. Phase Two, completed 2021, consists of two, 3-story, stacked townhouse buildings, with a total of 52 units. Phase Three consists of a 13-story, 172-unit multifamily high-rise building, and is slated to be completed in early 2024. All three phases are LEED Silver certifiable. The 472 units in this redevelopment replace 200 existing public housing rental apartments with 210 deeply affordable units and create 262 additional units of mixed-income rental housing, as well as 14,000 square feet of commercial space.

Challenge

The developer sought to individually meter heating and cooling to place responsibility for energy conservation and cost on the tenant. This created technical challenges such as the proper sizing of equipment to accurately match the calculated heating and cooling loads.

Solution

Each phase of this project started with a well-insulated building enclosure. This allows for downsized heating and cooling equipment and high efficiency energy recovery ventilation systems that results in low HVAC operating costs. Phase 3 of the project has central HVAC systems, resulting in the landlord paying HVAC operating costs. This will provide useful data with respect to energy usage when tenants pay for heating and cooling.

Results

Phase One of this project, Flat 9 at Whittier, was completed, and residents moved in in January 2020. We anticipate the other two phases will be completed in 2021, and we look forward to providing further updates as that occurs

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

Phases 1 and 2 are complete; Phase 3 slated to be completed in early 2024

Services Provided by Petersen Engineering

MEP/FP Engineer of Record; Operational Energy Use Estimates

info@petersenengineering.com

Boston | Portsmouth, NH

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