ENTERPRISE ROSE ARCHITECTURAL FELLOWSHIP ITHACA NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES, ITHACA, NY

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1 ENTERPRISE ROSE ARCHITECTURAL FELLOWSHIP ITHACA NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES, ITHACA, NY Opportunity for a two-year fellowship beginning in January 2019 JUL. 15, 2018 SEP NOV JAN. 01, 2019 Fellowship application deadline (Midnight, PST) Finalists selected Final decisions/notifications Fellowship begins

2 ABOUT ORGANIZATION Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services (INHS) is a 41-year old non-profit corporation with a mission of providing long-term, affordable rental and homeownership opportunities to low- and moderate-income people. With a full-time staff of 40, INHS serves a seven-county region in Upstate New York. Primary lines of business include lending; home repair; homebuyer education; real estate development and rental property management. INHS real estate development activities include the new construction and preservation of multifamily rental properties, townhomes and single-family homes. INHS currently owns and manages a portfolio of 942 affordable housing units and has 146 more under construction. WHY WE NEED A FELLOW Home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, Tompkins County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the State of New York and the City of Ithaca has one of the highest rent to income ratios in the entire country. With vacancy rates typically less than 2 percent, families at very low and moderate incomes are being priced out of the housing market as they compete with students for a very limited supply. This has resulted in a regional crisis; with over 15,000 people commuting into the County from the more rural surrounding areas where housing is less expensive. To address this critical housing need, INHS has dramatically increased its real estate development capacity. Adding real estate development staff to locate new opportunities and project manage a growing pipeline. Expanding who we serve by developing mixed income housing diversifying the type and number of residents we reach and expanding our service area to include the seven surrounding counties. This expansion has required the real estate development department to re-focus on community engagement and place based planning. The INHS Rose Fellow will collaborate with a team of developers and designers to plan high quality, energy efficient housing that is contextually appropriate to the urban and rural environments in which we work. As important, the INHS Rose Fellow will engage with residents, community stakeholders and policy makers to ensure that every INHS development provides our residents with housing that they can be proud to call home. PROJECTS Project Name: Service Area Expansion In 2015, INHS formally approved a significant expansion of its geographic service area. The expanded service area includes Tompkins County and the six contiguous counties. The expanded service area is mostly rural, but includes the cities of Cortland, Elmira and Auburn as well as numerous established villages and hamlets. The total population of the expanded service area is nearly 450,000. The Rose Fellow will play an integral part to identify, prioritize and implement development opportunities in this expanded geography. 2

3 Which communities should INHS prioritize? Is the greatest need for new construction or preservation? Assuming competing opportunities which meet the INHS goals for site location, affordability, green infrastructure etc.? What will the impacts, financial and otherwise, be on the organization by taking on these new projects often several hours from our headquar ters? Project Name: Expanded Pipeline INHS continues to grow its real estate development efforts by taking advantage of new opportunities. The pipeline of new projects includes over 130 new or renovated units. A project example includes investigating the adaptive reuse of an abandoned school building on a 2 acre site in Ithaca s urban core. This project has the potential to include multi-story new construction of townhomes as well as selective demolition and adaptive reuse of the existing buildings. Located in the heart of a diverse neighborhood the project will address the City s need for mixed income rental and homeownership housing. It also provides opportunities to engage the neighborhood in a comprehensive community planning process that informs the design of the site and buildings. The Rose Fellow will collaborate with real estate staff to develop a minimum of 80 units in one or more pipeline projects from initial concept design through application and construction management. Project Name: Community Engagement and Design Expanding and codifying our unique participatory design process. Over the past decade INHS has developed a robust public planning process that engages neighborhood stakeholders and community leaders to help design projects that meet the community s needs. The INHS process results in cutting edge, context specific designs with high community buy-in. The INHS Rose Fellow will work to expand this process so that even better design outcomes - both aesthetic and functional are achieved. The Rose Fellow will apply the process to at least two pipeline projects, one that is a planned mixed use, mixed income development in the urban core, the other a project that will test the process application in integrating organizational and community needs into a built environment. How can our process do an even better job avoiding the designed by committee pitfalls that are too often the result of a public design process? Can this model be scaled to the smallest projects? How does affordable housing financing requirements influence what is possible in cutting edge design and how can we respond to those constraints? How do we engage a more diverse population to participate in the design process? What use is best suited to a particular site? How should the community be involved and engaged in the design process? How can architectural design bring together the new and the extant, not only on a site but within a very diverse neighborhood? What sources of financing are available to ensure financial viability? 3

4 PROCESS AND PROGRESS Integration of green building technologies and innovative healthy housing into existing affordable housing and new developments requires careful consideration and planning. The INHS Rose Fellow will be asked to undertake a research project that explores how best to integrate existing and emerging technologies into new and extant developments. Examples include community solar; innovative outdoor recreation for the public and tenants; community agriculture; and air source heating and cooling. Evaluating how to increase amenities and reduce the impact of construction while not increasing costs above what is financeable is a challenge that requires research and investigation. What existing and emerging technologies can best help us improve energy efficiency in our existing housing? What green building techniques help improve the overall comfort and performance in our new projects? What green specifications and building techniques should be included in all INHS housing? Where are opportunities to create a unified building specification for every INHS development? What green building and healthy housing innovations would our ten ants most benefit from? WHAT YOU CAN LEARN HERE Ithaca provides a unique introduction to the process of affordable housing development. The INHS Rose Fellow will collaborate on mixed-income and mixed-use housing in a very competitive housing market, where land values and construction costs continue to rise and competition for funding is intense. At the same time New York State has committed to investing several billion dollars in affordable housing and the City of Ithaca and County of Tompkins have recognized the need for an additional 7,000 units of affordable housing. As the premier non-profit developer in this region INHS is strategically positioned to implement a range of diverse projects that include new construction in the urban core, adaptive reuse in historic neighborhoods, and rural preservation. A Rose Fellow working with INHS will learn about implementing cutting edge green technologies; engaging the public in participatory design and most importantly that the right affordable housing can change lives and communities! 4

5 FELLOW WORK PLAN: ACTIVITIES, TARGETS AND MILESTONES FOR FIRST YEAR+ PROJECTS Goals Projects Role/Responsibility Milestones/Deliverables Supervisor/Partners Better integrate healthy housing and green building practices into INHS specifications Research current healthy housing literature and case studies; research solar and heat pump literature and case studies Primary Researcher Draft report and presentation Develop outline specification for implementation Project Manager Draft Specification Outline/ Design Standards Geographic expansion planning and development Research existing strategic planning material and data to determine where to target Initiate a draft implementation plan that would outline who to contact, how to contact and what community outreach is needed Primary Researcher Project Manager FH VI evaluation completed; FH 2 construction documents created (if FH model is viable for Green River). Plan to locate development opportunity and community/ stakeholder outreach Project Manage adaptive reuse of existing school building into office space Work with architects, contractors, development staff, other INHS departments to develop a renovation, rezoning and relocation plan and timeline Support Project Manager with development milestones Draft relocation plan Draft relocation plan for INHS departments Renovation and rezoning plan with costs and timeline FELLOW LEARNING Goals Knowledge of Community Development Design Leadership To be determined by fellow. 5