Page 43 - Designing for Zero Carbon-Volume 2_Case Studies of All-Electric Multifamily Residential Buildings

ROSECRANS PLACE CASE STUDY NO. 2
(Opposite Page) Project site in June 2018, at the time of the site acquisition by the devel- oper.
Design Process and Low-Energy, Zero-Carbon Design Strategies
As developer and general contractor for the project, G3 Urban assembled the design team based on previous experience with similar projects. Planning began in 2018, when the site was purchased. The design was developed and the permits secured, with construction beginning on the first phase of the project in 2019.
Building Program
The building program was largely dictated by the site constraints and the financial consider- ations around the marketing and sale of the units. To target the potential young buyers working in the general area, Borstein advised building three distinct housing types: live-work townhomes (mixed residential/commercial), regular townhomes (all residential) and some freestanding sin- gle-family units.
The addition to the program mix of the live-work units, where the residential space in the unit would sit above a ground-floor commercial space, was seen as a way to increase purchase op- tions and speed up absorption of the project units in advance of construction. Also, city planning regulations for this type of unit are generally somewhat less prescriptive than residential-only and can be marketed with a less refined finish. Therefore, they generally can be built at lower cost than comparably-sized residential units, in addition to their appeal as unconventional living spaces—all attractive to modern young buyers.
The developer team felt that there also would be buyers interested in single-family detached units rather than the townhouse designs. These could be added to the development in a fairly dense manner using the common architectural design language of the project. This departure from the conventional, less-dense suburban model for single-family detached houses was also seen as appealing to the target market of younger buyers.
The net result, after intensive design study, was a program resulting in 113 units composed of 57 three-story attached townhouse condominiums, 15 live-work condominiums and 41 detached houses. The overall final site plan is shown on the following pages, along with the detailed project data for each type of multifamily unit and the single-family detached housing.
The initial phase of construction, completed in the fall of 2021, consisted of the live-work units and a formal entry gateway to the second and third phases of the development to be built on the remaining portion of the site. Most of the multifamily units were completed in the second phase of construction and occupied in 2022. The remaining buildings are scheduled for completion in the spring of 2023 in the third and final phase.
Site Constraints
The site is surrounded on three sides by warehouses and self-storage facilities. No trees or nearby built objects of any size obstruct the solar access to the rooftops. This was an important consideration in the site evaluation.
Designing for Zero Carbon: Volume 2
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