The Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute and Klyde Warren Park have been selected as the 2018 recipients of the Collaborative Achievement Award, which recognizes and encourages distinguished achievements of allied professionals, clients, organizations, architect teams, knowledge communities, and others who have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession. The recipients will be honored at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute funded by Enterprise Community Partners
Photo: Michael Walmsley
For nearly a decade, the Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute (AHDLI) funded by Enterprise Community Partners, has been a quiet but powerful force shaping social impact design. Modeled on the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, it assembles development and design leaders to focus on the ways in which architecture can produce more livable and sustainable housing for low- and middle-income people across the United States. During its short life, the institute has had a profound effect on the affordable housing ecosystem and has cultivated partnerships with more than 70 nonprofit and community groups in several communities.
Whether it’s improving four-unit historic buildings that serve a primarily refugee neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, or single-family homes for 300 Native American families in Arizona, the AHDLI process begins with a two-and-a-half-day charrette bolstered by a rigorous design curriculum. In that short time, the institute can radically alter the trajectory of development projects while equipping a new class of leaders with the tools to champion design excellence. Surveys have shown that as a result of AHDLI participation the vast majority of participants work more effectively with designers, address design much earlier in the development process, and ask more of their architect.
AHDLI, founded by Katie Swenson, Lawrence Scarpa and Maurice Cox, is the embodiment of what can happen when architects are fully engaged with leaders from outside the profession. Participants often become instant advocates, and the resulting innovative collaborations directly benefit people and communities in need.
Photo: Dillon Diers Photography.
Klyde Warren Park healed a rift in Dallas where a freeway once divided two vital sections of the city, overcoming an obstacle that many residents feared was permanent. The park, completed in 2012, required significant funding and buy-in from the public and private sectors, but the efforts resulted in 5 acres of activated, world-class green space that has redefined the city and its self-image.
Designed by The Office of James Burnett, Klyde Warren Park is perched above Spur 366 and caps what was once a high-speed concrete canyon. A feat of engineering, the park’s deck was constructed with more than 300 concrete beams and slabs, a combination that creates trenches that play the role of planting boxes for 37 native plant species and more than 300 trees. LEED Gold–certified, the park relies on a number of practical sustainable strategies resulting in a 40 percent reduction in potable water use. Its trees intercept nearly 25,000 gallons of stormwater runoff and sequester approximately 18,500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.
Recent studies have shown that the urban oasis has improved the quality of life for more than 90 percent of Dallasites, and has generated more than $1 billion in new development within a quarter-mile radius since the project was announced in 2009. Further bolstering the city’s Arts District, the park abuts the Renzo Piano–designed Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Museum of Art. The entire district saw its economic impact triple, due in large part to a significant increase in street activity since Klyde Warren Park’s completion.
The $97 million project was funded through a combination of city bond, state highway, and federal stimulus funds as well as $55 million in private donations. The project is now managed by the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helped secure early funding for feasibility studies and maintained its momentum during the depths of the Great Recession.
The jury for the 2018 Collaborative Achievement Award includes: Rik Master, FAIA (Chair), USG Corporation; Patrick Burke, FAIA, Columbia University; Lindsey Graff, Assoc. AIA, Ayers Saint Gross Architects; Libby Haslam, AIA, GSBS Architects; and R. Steven Lewis, FAIA, TRC Energy Services.
Related Stories
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 20, 2014
Gensler envisions 'law firm of the future' with pop-up office project
Called "The Legal Office of the Future," the pop-up demonstration project made its debut this week at the annual conference for the Association of Legal Administrators in Toronto.
| May 20, 2014
Using fire-rated glass in exterior applications
Fire-rated glazing and framing assemblies are just as beneficial on building exteriors as they are on the inside. But knowing how to select the correct fire-rated glass for exterior applications can be confusing. SPONSORED CONTENT
| May 20, 2014
World's best new skyscrapers: Renzo Piano's The Shard, China's 'doughnut hotel' voted to Emporis list
Eight other high-rise projects were named Emporis Skyscraper Award winners, including DC Tower 1 by Dominique Perrault Architecture and Tour Carpe Diem by Robert A.M. Stern.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 19, 2014
Why e-commerce won't kill 'bricks and mortar' retail sector
Despite emerging structural challenges and newly-announced store closings, such as those of Radio Shack and Office Depot, the U.S. retail sector has continued on its solid recovery.
| May 16, 2014
BoA, USGBC to offer $25,000 grants for green affordable housing projects
The Affordable Green Neighborhoods Grant Program will offer 14 grants to developers of affordable housing in North America who are committed to building sustainable communities through the LEED for Neighborhood Development program.
| May 16, 2014
HED expands leadership in San Diego
Neville Willsmore, Thomas Christian join leadership team for Harley Ellis Devereaux.
| May 16, 2014
Toyo Ito leads petition to scrap Zaha Hadid's 2020 Olympic Stadium project
Ito and other Japanese architects cite excessive costs, massive size, and the project's potentially negative impact on surrounding public spaces as reasons for nixing Hadid's plan.
| May 15, 2014
Paints, coatings, and sealants: 10 new ways to seal the deal
Color-shifting finishes, dry-erase surfaces, and stain-blocking paints are highlighted in this round up of new offerings in paints, coatings, sealants, and finishes.
