Kings Beach affordable housing wins design award

The Kings Beach Housing Now is one of four California affordable housing developments to earn the 2014 HUD Secretary’s Housing and Community Design Award.

The other projects selected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the American Institute of Architects are the 28th Street Apartments in South Los Angeles; Kelly Cullen Community in San Francisco; and Sierra Bonita Apartments in West Hollywood.

“California continues to demonstrate that it is an incubator for innovation, energy efficiency and livability,” Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal said in a statement. “The four design award winners are examples of the best and reflect the value of community and re-use of historic sites. These four recipients proudly show that affordable housing is a great place for award-winning architectural design.”

For Community-Informed Design – This award recognizes design that supports physical communities as they rebuild social structures and relationships that may have been weakened by outmigration, disinvestment, and the isolation of inner-city areas.

Kings Beach Housing Now (owned by Domus Development) is an affordable sustainable workforce housing project consisting of nine building on five sites in Lake Tahoe. The development provides low-income workers and families who previously lived in substandard converted motel rooms, cabins, and trailers with safe, energy-efficient places to live. The sites replace dilapidated, inefficient housing with new, LEED certified silver apartments that reduce negative impacts on the environment while reusing infill land and preserving Tahoe’s beautiful open space. The project offers 77 apartments at five sites in Kings Beach (Brook, Chipmunk, Deer, Fox, and Trout) consisting of a mix of apartments sizes.

The Kings Beach Housing Now development team formed partnerships with community advocates and nonprofit groups to sponsor the first housing needs assessment in Kings Beach. A total of 335 surveys (conducted in English and Spanish) were collected at community events and at local social service organizations during September 2007. The results of the assessment are now available to all organizations seeking to plan new affordable housing and services for the Kings Beach community. The development team listened closely to the community in its effort to create sustainable housing and strengthen the community as a whole. During the planning and design phases, the development team had more than 30 bilingual community meetings to receive feedback on strategies and insight into the needs of the workforce and business owners.

This state-of-the-art LEED certified silver housing places people near jobs and amenities, drastically reducing dependence on cars in a region of heightened environment sensitivity. Additionally, an advanced biofiltration system filters 100 percent of onsite storm water, preventing sediments and pollutants from impacting the health and clarity of the world-renowned water of Lake Tahoe.