Jury comments: The renovation of this 1970’s precast multi-family affordable apartment building involved gutting every apartment in a fully occupied building, stack by stack. The project is incredibly sophisticated for its type, accomplishing a lot with very little, including the achievement of curtailing energy and water consumption beyond the federal requirement, while also greatly reducing carbon emissions. The interior is unremarkable and the building is not wonderful, but the architect and client clearly intended to give good architecture and good living spaces to people who normally don’t get them, while squeezing as much excellent design thinking into the process as possible.
Client: Cambridge Housing Authority
Contractor: Skanska USA Building
Consultants: Norian/Siani Engineering; Vincent A. DiLorio Engineering; Roger Hobeika Associates; Allen & Major Associates; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates; Conservation Services Group; Katherine Schreiber Associates; Wellesley Design Consultants
