BOSTON, MA May 5, 2009 – A conceptual proposal titled “Chinatown Crossing” to convert the 1920’s Verizon building and its adjacent annex in Boston’s Chinatown into 105 units of mixed-income rental housing and the Chinatown branch of the Boston Public Library received the top award in the 2009 Affordable Housing Development Competition. The winners in the 9th year of this competition were announced at an awards ceremony on April 28th. This is the second year in a row that the student team working with the Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) won the first place in the competition. ACDC's teams have placed in the top three in four out of the past five competitions; this is the third time the ACDC team has won first place.

Download full release [pdf, 113kb]

(team photo)

Sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, Boston Society of Architects/AIA, Kevin P. Martin & Associates, and ICON Architecture, the competition pairs graduate students from Boston-area universities with nonprofit developers to develop innovative affordable housing proposals for neighborhoods in the New England region. The ACDC student team was supported by ACDC project manager Janelle Chan, faculty advisor Tunney Lee of MIT, finance mentor Michael Rosenberg of Bank of America, and design mentor Kendra Halliwell of ICON Architecture.

The proposed $44.5 million “Chinatown Crossing” development is located at the historic intersection of Essex and Harrison Streets in Boston Chinatown. The approximately 168,000 GSF building offers 63 market-rate and 42 affordable apartment units that address the urgent need for low-income and workforce family housing. Chinatown is one of the few Boston neighborhoods without a branch library and the proposed ground-floor library would reactivate Phillips Square and create a memorializing gateway at the north end of the neighborhood. The open space design provides additional open and civic space as well as a new through-block connection that brings an alley lined with historic Chinatown rowhouses into prominence.
Student team members Daniel Daou, Laura Delgado, Christopher Gaudet, Haley Heard, Aditi Mehta, Kristin Simonson, and David Teng of MIT and Samuel Lee of Harvard will split the $10,000 first-place award with ACDC.

ACDC’s participation in the competition builds upon its success at completing complex projects that incorporate creative design and financing solutions. The ideas generated during this competition assist the community in envisioning the potential alternatives for sites in the neighborhood. ACDC is currently focused on Parcel 24, a joint venture project with New Boston Fund, to create a mixed-use development with approximately 70 affordable rental units and 255 affordable and market-rate homeownership opportunities in Boston’s Chinatown. ACDC is also working on a 34-unit affordable rental development in Quincy, MA in an effort to rehabilitate a vacant commercial building into much needed workforce family housing in the area.  

View the final project document below!

Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston is a bank for banks, cooperatively owned by more than 450 New England financial institutions, to provide reliable access to wholesale credit for the members and other qualified borrowers.
Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is a non-profit umbrella organization for affordable housing and community development activities throughout Massachusetts.
Boston Society of Architects/AIA is a nonprofit professional service organization that provides programs and resources to enhance the practice of architecture and the public and professional understanding of design.
Kevin P. Martin & Associates, P.C. is a public accounting firm with many nonprofits and affordable housing groups as its client.
ICON Architecture is a design firm focused on complex urban projects, recognized by over 25 years of awards. ICON has designed over 14,000 housing units—from infill developments to urban villages to innovative adaptive use, mixing high-design condominiums with affordable housing, artist live/work communities and retail environments.