Studio G Architects’ E+ Highland selected to Living Building Challenge Affordable Housing Project

Roxbury, MA According to Studio G Architects, E+ Highland has been selected by the International Living Futures Institute to their 2020-2023 Living Building Challenge Affordable Housing Project pilot program. The 23-unit multifamily project, selected from 31 applications, joins 16 other innovative affordable housing projects from across North America. The project will pursue Core and Zero Energy certification as well as explore others through the program. 

“We are enormously excited because we believe the LBC Affordable Housing Pilot Program is key to help the E+ Highland team achieve our goals of advancing social equity, sustainability, and improvements in the local environment,” said Gail Sullivan, Studio G Architects managing principal. 

Project architect/manager Gabriela Shelburne said, “This project will directly benefit underserved Boston citizens by supporting high quality deeply affordable housing in a neighborhood with public transit access, rich cultural opportunities, and great outdoor spaces, both built and natural.”

Located on an infill site, E+ Highland is part of the city of Boston’s Energy Positive Green Building Program. This ambitions project applies a comprehensive design approach with strategies to meet Passive House and LEED Platinum requirements, exceed Energy Star, and establish a new benchmark for sustainable living in Boston. 

“The E+ Highland project represents an exciting opportunity to apply the most advanced principles of sustainability to affordable housing,” said Jon Rudzinski, principal of Rees-Larkin Development, the project developer. “The project will demonstrate that well-designed high-efficiency buildings and deep affordability can be compatible.”

E+ Highland will be an 100% affordable Limited Equity Cooperative. Of the 23 units, 3 units will be at 30% AMI and 20 units at 60% AMI. The affordability of the project will be maintained for at least 50 years. The development will be sensitive to the historic Highland Park neighborhood, while reflecting a new 21^st century epoch, facing the risk of climate change head on, and taking advantage of building and systems technologies.

Studio G Architects was founded in 1991 to build sustainable communities through building, urban design, and planning.