Panel II

“Approaches to Single-family Housing”

Panelists

Carol Berg

Antoine Bryant

Renee Chow

Moderator

Amit Price Patel

Across the country, cities facing growth pressures find that rapidly escalating housing prices are forcing long term residents to leave their communities when their housing needs change. Traditional Smart Growth policies, urging higher densities along transit corridors and in downtown areas address some but not all housing needs. Santa Cruz is now looking at its single-family neighborhoods as a source of additional housing. But rather than destroy these neighborhoods to build new, denser housing, the City is retrofitting existing neighborhoods by encouraging the development of second units (also called granny flats or accessory dwelling units) to form another layer of housing. Alleys become new addresses, backyards host discrete rental units, and cars are booted out of garages as tenants move in. Design guidelines and zoning protect the quality of existing neighborhoods. As a result of an aggressive program that includes zoning changes, how-to manuals, architect designed prototypes, public education, and financial assistance, second unit development in Santa Cruz has increased four-fold since 2003. With an average of about 40 units being processed per year, every five years the city can expect the equivalent of a 200-unit development of relatively affordable rental units. For a city that is only 12.5 square miles in size with a population of 57,000, this is significant housing growth. This presentation asks the questions: so how is the city doing it? What goes into a 500-square-foot unit? How do you effectively convert a 400-square-foot garage?

Carol Berg is the Housing & Community Development Manager for the City of Santa Cruz, a city of 57,000 located on the northern end of Monterey Bay. Previously, she worked for the city of Santa Ana in southern California and BFHK Inc., an urban design and planning firm in New York City. Originally from Montana, Carol went into landscape architecture because she fell off a log while surveying roads in the Rocky Mountains. With her sprained ankle, Carol was relegated to drawing with the landscape architect, and it was then that she decided trees, rather than machines, were more for her. After that, her work drifted from garden and landscape design to urban design to planning, and finally into community development and housing. That’s the problem with a curious mind and the freedom to follow it. Carol earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design from the University of Washington and Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. Carol lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her dog and two cats.

Row House CDC was formed in August 2003 as a sister organization to Project Row Houses. Its goal is a planned community, which will include new and rehabilitated housing, pedestrian amenities, neighborhood stores and service businesses that will unify the district’s artistic and historic appeal. We endeavor to return this community to its original glory, by exposing all that has already. Architecture and design play a strong and direct part in this effort, but the collaboration between design and populace cannot be more emphasized than in this model. People build, establish and comprise communities--architecture ensures that the places they live, work, play and eat, have a soul that reflects that community.

Project Row Houses was formed in 1993 in one of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, the northern Third Ward. The end of housing segregation led to the eventual departure of upper- and middle-income African American families, and the resulting decline in income and education among residents remaining in the area led to Third Ward’s designation by the City of Houston as a “pocket of poverty.” Project Row Houses (PRH) was established on a site of 22 abandoned shotgun houses in the 2400-2500 blocks of Holman Street. It connects the work of artists to the revitalization of culture and community. PRH’s core programs include: Public Art; After-School & Summer Program for neighborhood youth; Teen Education; and the Young Mothers Residential Program.

Antoine Bryant is the executive director of Row House Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit focused on housing and innovative design, and sister organization of Houston’s award-winning Project Row Houses. His interest in housing and his belief in a holistic approach to community development formed as a result of his upbringing in the Brooklyn “projects”. Antoine appreciated the closeness of his urban neighborhood, but wanted to make a difference in his physical environment. Antoine Bryant has worked in a variety of genres in the analysis, design and development of affordable housing. Antoine earned his Bachelor of Science in urban and regional studies from Cornell University and did his graduate architectural training from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in architectural design and development of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Austin and Houston, Texas. He is a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Antoine thanks his wife, Zawadi, who is his rock, his gift, and his muse.

Good communities endure through the ability to reinvent themselves. They have a capacity for incremental modifications that allow residents to participate in & transform their communities--functionally, physically, culturally--Can settings inhibit change? What settings better support change? Why is this significant?

Renee Chow is Principal of Studio URBIS in Berkeley and Eva Li Professor of Architecture & Urban Design at University of California, Berkeley, where she is also the Graduate Chair of the Master of Architecture Program. Chow's design work, research and teaching focus on the production of the everyday environment--premised on engaging built and open spaces, public and private places as a continuum that holds both communities and cultures. Her writing describes alternatives for practice and strategies for addressing contemporary problems of housing. She is author of an award-winning book, Suburban Space: The Fabric of Dwelling (2002). With her partner, Thomas Chastain, she founded Studio URBIS in 2000, and has completed numerous residential, commercial, institutional and urban design projects throughout the U.S. Renee earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Amit Price Patel is a designer at David Baker + Partners in San Francisco, working primarily on affordable housing. He was a recipient of the Branner Traveling Fellowship and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Masters in Architecture and City Planning. He has worked for firms in St. Louis, Boston, and Johannesburg, South Africa, and was on the winning teams for the 1998 Red Location Apartheid Museum Competition, 2005 Boston Society of Architects In Pursuit of Housing Competition, and the first place entry for the 2004 U.S. Green Building Council Design Competition. Most recently, his design for a sustainable mixed-use affordable housing project tied for first place in San Francisco's 2005 Octavia Boulevard Housing Design Competition. Amit lives in Oakland with his wife, Liz, and their son Niam.

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Panel II