21st Affordable Housing Development Competition Winners Announced

The 21st consecutive (and 1st virtual) Affordable Housing Development Competition drew to a close with the recent announcement that Lancaster Commons, a proposal for a multi-phased, mixed-use project with 48 affordable rental units that aims to rehabilitate and reactivate an underutilized rural site of historic significance in Lancaster, received the first-place prize. Lancaster Commons was developed by a student team from Harvard University and MIT in collaboration with Metro West Collaborative Development, Davis Square Architects, and a finance mentor from Community Development Assistance Corporation.

Graduate students in architecture, real estate, planning, finance, public health, and policy, from Harvard, MIT, Tufts, UMass - Boston and Wentworth Institute of Technology, some studying in distant time zones, joined together to form seven teams in partnership with New England affordable housing organizations.

Second place went to Baycrest Commons, a proposal to create a 100-unit mixed-income apartment complex on an underutilized site in Portland, ME. Reservoir Village, which proposes to create 58 affordable units for families and seniors at the site of an Episcopal church in Franklin, MA, as part of a community inspired by the themes of sanctuary, belonging, and nature took third place with an honorable mention going to Remond Green, an all affordable family housing development in Salem, MA.

Please view the full press release from the Federal Home Loan Bank Boston.

The full development proposals can be viewed at:

• Andrews Mill, North Smithfield, RI
• Baycrest Commons, Portland, ME
• Lancaster Commons, Lancaster, MA
• Remond Green, Salem, MA
• Reservoir Village, Franklin, MA
• The Paraclete Residences, South Boston, MA
• Willow Park, Watertown, MA