2023 Housing Awards
Recognizing the best in housing design
Argyle Gardens, Portland, Ore.; Architect: Holst Architecture
The 2023 Housing Awards, presented by the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community, emphasize the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource. This year, 10 projects were recognized for this honor across five categories:
- Category 1 - One- and Two-Family Custom Residences
- Category 3 - Multifamily Housing
- Category 4 - Specialized Housing
- Category 5 - Excellence in Affordable Housing
- Category 6 - Mixed-Use Community Connection
Alta Vista Residence
The Alta Vista Residence slips nonchalantly into Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood and deftly situates itself at the edge of the Blunn Creek
Argyle Gardens
Argyle Gardens is the first implementation of a modular, low-income single-adult housing model developed by the design team and Transition Projects, an organization dedicated to providing life-changing assistance to Portland’s most vulnerable residents.
Canyon Drive
When it was adopted by Los Angeles in 2005, the city’s Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance was envisioned by smart growth proponents as a viable solution to the city’s extraordinarily tight housing market. Situated just south of LA’s Beachwood Canyon community,
Flex House
Flex House is a vital three-story infill project that mends a decades-old gap in the fabric of Sacramento’s Boulevard Park neighborhood, an important district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The home, designed for a young family of four, was envisioned as a building that can adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of life and familial composition while also generating income and accommodating future growth.
Gramercy Senior Housing
Built on a block-length lot that was once owned by the city of Los Angeles and served as a towing yard, Gramercy Senior Housing is one of the first developments in the city to capitalize on supportive housing funds. The project, guided by extensive public outreach, delivers 64 sorely needed apartments to low-income and homeless seniors in one of the country’s most expensive housing markets.
MLK1101 Supportive Housing
Just a short jaunt from Los Angeles’ famed Coliseum and the University of Southern California, the LEED Gold-certified MLK1101 Supportive Housing shapes an environment that nurtures health and community. Accommodating families and individuals through 26 one- to three-bedroom units, the project has transformed a vacant lot and improved an aesthetically impoverished block.
Sister Lillian Murphy Community
Shaped by community concerns about the large mixed-use and industrial buildings that characterize the Mission Bay redevelopment area in San Francisco, this project cracks the perimeter block typology into four articulated wings.
The Block
Along one of Philadelphia’s major north-south connectors, The Block adds 49 apartment units through a building that successfully navigates the rift between the pedestrian-focused and car-centric realms. At a moment when many cities are struggling with soaring land and construction costs,
The Rambler
Surrounded by the immense trees of Indianola on Washington’s Puget Sound, The Rambler is a home shaped by intimate familial connections. The concept for the home was inspired by the client, who grew up in the village-like setting and was gifted the site by her grandparents. Her stories and personal history merged to form the home’s narrative and reinforced the design team’s responsibility to honor the community and the site itself.
Woodward Lofts
In 2016, when St. Louis faced a 20,000 housing unit shortfall, this project’s developer turned to the Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company, a massive factory that landed on the National Register of Historic Places for its pioneering application of the daylight factory style.
Image credits
Christian Columbres