Cities and suburbs all over the country face the same problem: not enough affordable housing for their own police, firefighters, EMTs, teachers, and lower-level administrative staff in schools and government agencies. C. Kat Grimsley, PhD, has a suggestion: If your school district is building a new school, build housing in the air space above it and put lower-paid public employees at the front of the line to live there, at subsidized rental rates.
Grimsley, who directs the master’s in real estate program at George Mason University, won a competition for best paper from RCLCO Real Estate Advisors for this idea. She tested her theory out using the third-largest school district in Virginia, Loudoun County, where the Area Median Income is $134,464, but where there’s a need for 10,000 affordable rental units for families.
Her scheme envisions a three-story concrete school at the base topped by a three-story wood-framed apartment building. (Such a configuration would meet most local fire codes for wood buildings.) This could yield 42 one-bedroom units (for, say, young single teachers or EMTs making almost nothing), and six each of two- and three-bedroom apartments for families, for a total of 54. The mix could be juggled depending on local needs.
There's a lot to like about this idea. First, land costs for the residential structure would go down to zero, or there could be some cost sharing with the school district. But still a bargain. The school district would already be paying to bring in utilities to the site, so that would be another savings for the apartment portion of the project. The scheme would also step around the “taking issue,” since any land that the school district acquired through eminent domain would be primarily for a public purpose (building the school), not a private one.
Parking could be shared. The school would get use of the parking lot from, say, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days; the residents could use it after 4 and at night.
Teachers could roll out of bed in the morning and take the elevator to school (there would be separate elevators and entrances for the school and residences). Police, firefighters, EMTs, and school maintenance staff could live in the same town where they work, instead of having to live in a more distant town where the housing is more reasonably priced.
Grimsley focused on using her scheme for new school construction, but the real payoff would come with using existing schools. Loudoun County, for example, has more than 90 education facilities for its 81,622 students. Building in the air rights over an active K-6 would be difficult to impossible, of course. But what about that ground-level parking lot? Could it be converted to structured parking (at school district cost) with housing above? That would be a piece of cake for any builder. School districts need to look into their real estate portfolios to see if there’s land on school properties that could be turned into housing.
Sure, Grimsley’s modest proposal needs more work, but something tells me there’s a brilliant idea here. Do you agree? Disagree? Send me your thoughts at the email below.
Related Stories
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
| Jan 27, 2011
Perkins Eastman's report on senior housing signals a changing market
Top international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to announce that the Perkins Eastman Research Collaborative recently completed the “Design for Aging Review 10 Insights and Innovations: The State of Senior Housing” study for the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The results of the comprehensive study reflect the changing demands and emerging concepts that are re-shaping today’s senior living industry.