Developers add modern touches to affordable homes
A mong the humble brick and vinyl suburban-style houses along Hyde Park Avenue in Roslindale, the Hyde-Blakemore Condominiums stand out.
There are the mahogany-louvered fences, the solar panels, and the flying-V roof line on the main building, which besides looking cool, channels rainwater into a landscaped rock garden.

Such modern flourishes are rare in a city that cleaves to architectural convention, but they are especially striking considering that Hyde-Blakemore was built for lower-income families. The newly completed buildings defy the tacky stereotype of government-subsidized housing, and for the architects and developers behind a new crop of affordable projects, this is the whole idea.

"People come in and see wood floors instead of carpet, granite countertops instead of Formica, and it casts the whole project in a different light," said architect Matthew Littell, a principal with Utile, a Boston firm that has made its mark with ultra-modern residential buildings, most notably in South Boston. "It`s a lot of bang for the buck."

Indeed. A two-bedroom unit at Hyde-Blakemore is priced at $167,000 and a three-bedroom is $247,000. Each unit cost $328,000 to build, with $1.8 million of the project`s $4.2 million budget coming from city and state affordable housing funds. The condos are available to households making less than the median annual income, $74,000 for a family of three.

Utile worked with the nonprofit developer Urban Edge on the project, which is about a half-mile south of Forest Hills and consists of 13 units in two duplexes and a three-story building.

Utile is also collaborating with Urban Edge on the residential portion of the Jackson Square complex in Jamaica Plain, and the firm is working with Chelsea Neighborhood Developers on a 48-unit affordable apartment complex, part of the city`s massive Box District redevelopment plan.

Littell said Hyde-Blakemore represents a new stage in the evolution of affordable housing.

"Starting in the 1980s, after the big brick public housing model became invalid, these woodframe Easter egg-colored villages began appearing," he said. "Gradually they became more in synch with the adjacent neighborhood. What we`re seeing now is a much better second generation of that."

It`s not just in the Boston area that affordable housing is getting sexier. Last year, actor Brad Pitt commissioned a national competition to come up with model low-cost homes for New Orleans`s hurricane-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward.

Glossy design journals regularly feature affordable projects, and affordable housing design is one of the awards bestowed annually by the American Institute of Architects.

High-quality materials and design, however, serve a more practical purpose in projects like Hyde-Blakemore. In a city where half the residents can`t afford the average market-rate unit, low-cost housing developers must compete for buyers.

"There are still a lot of homeownership units floating around in the city, so we`re trying to do the best we can to attract buyers," Littell said.
www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2008/08/03/looking_good/