Ground Broken on Eight Affordable Units in Newhallville
The Yale Urban Design Workshop (UDW) celebrated the groundbreaking on four two-family homes on New Haven’s Hazel Street, in Newhallville, on December 3.
The eight units are the outcome of the first iteration of the Yale housing clinic, coordinated and taught in 2022 by UDW director Andrei Harwell (MArch ’06) with faculty and students from the School of Architecture, the Law School, and the School of Management in partnership with the State of Connecticut Department of Housing, as part of the Connecticut Plan for Healthy Cities. The clinical course, “ Housing Connecticut: Developing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods,” and its faculty received the 2024 AIA/ACSA Housing Design Education Award.
Construction of the eight units is expected to take six to eight months. The developer Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of New Haven, a former partner for the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project, will sell the homes to four families; the homeowners will be able to rent out the second unit in each house, creating a total of eight affordable units. Neighborhood Housing Services builds and renovates homes to sell to first-time homebuyers at a fraction of the construction cost. The organization aims to increase neighborhood economic stability, civic engagement, and overall community development through homeownership.
The ceremony was attended by neighborhood residents and future homeowners, as well as city and state officials including New Haven mayor Justin Elicker. The “ Housing Connecticut” and UDW faculty —senior critic Andrei Harwell, professor Anika Singh Lemar (BA ’01), senior lecturer Kate Cooney, and professor Alan Plattus (BA ’76)—each took part.
“Housing Connecticut,” now in its third iteration, wrapped up the Fall term with a final review in Paul Rudolph Hall, on December 17. Working in multidisciplinary teams with local community-based nonprofits, architecture, law, and management students developed detailed development proposals and architectural designs anchored by affordable housing and engaged with a range of community development issues, including environmental justice, sustainability, resilience, social equity, identity, food scarcity, mobility, and health. The student presentations were discussed by this year’s nonprofit partners, the Connecticut Commissioner of Housing, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and other state and local officials and stakeholders. Proposals have the opportunity to receive state funding toward implementation through the CTDOH Urban Investment Pilot Program.
