Common Ground Community and Architectural League select design winners for First Step Housing competition

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 5, 2003

Common Ground Community and The Architectural League of New York's First Step Housing design competition ended last week with five entries sharing top honors.

Competitors were asked to design a prototypical individualized dwelling unit and the layout of 19 such units on a typical floor of The Andrews--Common Ground's lodging house on the Bowery--which will shortly be renovated to house the First Step Housing Program. First Step will offer private, safe, clean and affordable short-term accommodations to individuals who are transitioning to housing, facing homelessness, or who have rejected or failed in other programs.

"First Step Housing will reach out to homeless individuals who do not access the City's shelters by reinventing the traditional lodging house and offering private, safe, clean and affordable short-term accommodations," said Rosanne Haggerty, president and founder of Common Ground Community.

"We're overwhelmed not only by the response to our competition but how each entry reflected the importance of addressing the needs of these individuals with well-designed living spaces that are attractive, functional, and cost effective to build."

180 entries were received from 13 countries, ranging from individual applicants to school groups to design firms. Jurors for the competition included Steven Holl, Architect and Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University; Michael Bell, Associate Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University; Julie Eizenberg, Koning Eizenberg Architecture; Andrew Freear, Director, Rural Studio, Auburn University; Toshiko Mori, Professor in Practice and Chair, Harvard Design School; Rosalie Genevro, Executive Director of the Architectural League and Haggerty.

"There were a number of interesting submissions for this extremely constrained problem," said Holl. "Five submissions stood out for different reasons, including material invention in one, concept in another, etc. I look forward to the individual development and realization by each talented young team."

"We were extremely impressed with the thoughtfulness many of the competitors brought to the challenge of creating comfort and accommodation in these very small spaces, and with the ingenuity, skill, and attention to detail they brought to issues of replicability and cost," said Genevro. "The economic and technical pressures that constrain this housing are fierce, but we believe these fresh ideas can help open a new realm of possibility for First Step housing."

Moil said "the winners embodied five essential practical issues in addition to conceptual strength in their design: units designed as a kit of parts; material innovation; spatial unity; the need for improved common spaces for community interaction, and the pre-fab and modular construction necessary for phasing the project. They gave their units a sense of individuality and privacy at the same time."

An exhibition featuring the 180 entries from the competition as well as the winning designs will open in The Ballroom at The Prince George on Wednesday, November 12 and will run through December 12.

The Prince George is located at 14 East 28th Street. For more information on exhibition hours and how to get to The Prince George please call 212-389-9300 or visit www.commonground.org.

The winners of the First Step Housing Competition are: "Soft House", Forsythe MacAllen Design, Vancouver British Columbia, Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MaeAllen; "Nesting", Harvard Design School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Students David Gwinn, Basil Lee and Tom McMahon; "Kit of Parts", LifeForm, New York, New York, Raft Elbaz, Nanna Wulfing and Julia Tate; "Ordering of Things", New York, New York, Katherine Chang and Aaron Gabriel; "Cocoon", Brooklyn, New York, Daniela Fabricius and Stephen Burks.

Each team will receive a $2,000 cash prize. The winners whose final designs are manufactured and installed at The Andrews House will also be paid a design fee.