MSR-Designed Housing Complex The Rose Receives Urban Land Institute Jack Kemp Award

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing has honored The Rose, a 90-unit mixed income housing complex in south Minneapolis, with the 2016 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award.  The development, at the intersection of Franklin and Portland Avenues, is part of the South Quarter housing development. 

The award honors housing developments that ensure affordability for people with a range of incomes.  It was presented on Wednesday evening at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas. 

Minneapolis-based MSR served as the architectural partner on The Rose, working with owner Aeon and co-developer Hope Community, along with project partners the University of Minnesota Center for Sustainable Building Research and Weis Builders. The project was completed in June 2015.  

"We are thrilled that the project is receiving this well-deserved recognition from the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Housing," said Paul C.N. Mellblom, AIA, MSR principal in charge of the project.  "The Rose represents a new way to design and build affordable housing, using the Living Building Challenge as a framework that exceeds typical energy efficiency standards and uses building materials that are both energy efficient and healthy but also cost-effective."    

The Rose includes 47 affordable and 43 market rate apartments, underground parking, outdoor spaces designed for a variety of activities, and a 5,000 square-foot urban garden.  MSR also designed the rehabilitation of Pine Cliff, the adjacent 30-unit apartment building. 

Sustainable strategies for the project include a solar thermal system for hot water, a rain garden, and on-site treatment of 90 percent of the storm water. The design team conducted extensive research to identify energy-efficient, healthy, cost-effective building materials. This research included wall systems and windows, paint, flooring, and other materials, such as countertops and trim, which the design team chose for their lower level of off gases and toxins. 

"The efforts of Aeon and Hope Community, with their many public and private sector partners, prove that previously disinvested communities can point the way forward for mixed-income, environmentally sustainable redevelopment in our cities," said Stockton Williams, executive director of the ULI Terwilliger Center.

"Aeon is honored that The Rose is receiving recognition for serving individuals and families facing the greatest barriers to home," said Alan Arthur, president and chief executive officer at Aeon. "With this project, we sought not just to provide homes, but to build sustainable homes that use less water and energy, helping maintain quality and affordability for the next 100 years."

ULI established the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award in 2008, naming the award in memory of Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ULI Terwilliger Center national advisory board member. The award is given annually to affordable and workforce housing developments that represent outstanding achievements in several areas, including affordability, innovative financing and building technologies, proximity to employment centers and transportation hubs, quality of design, involvement of public/private partnerships, and replicability of the development, among other criteria.

This year's Jack Kemp Award jury members include Beverly Bates, senior vice president of development, the Community Builders Inc.; Dara Kovel, vice president of multifamily housing, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority; Linda Mandolini, president, Eden Housing Inc.; Pamela Hughes Patenaude, president, J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America's Families; Mike Pitchford, president and chief executive officer, Community Preservation and Development Corp.; and Joe Reilly, president and chief executive officer, the Community Development Trust.

About MSR

Founded in 1981, MSR is an award-winning architecture, interiors, and urban design firm committed to excellence. The firm works both locally and nationally and has a reputation for creating exceptional spaces of enduring value for a diverse mix of building types, including libraries, office space, higher education facilities, cultural centers, affordable housing, and single family residences. Notable projects include the adaptive reuse of an old Walmart big box store into the new McAllen Main Library in Texas; a multi-phased conversion of abandoned buildings in Philadelphia's historic Navy Yard into the Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus; and the adaptive reuse of the Washburn A Mill ruin into the Mill City Museum complex, where the firm's main Minneapolis office is located.

About Aeon

Aeon is a responsive nonprofit developer, owner and manager of high-quality affordable apartments and townhomes which serve more than 4,500 people annually in the Twin Cities area. For 30 years, Aeon has been committed to helping people create a home in a safe, secure environment and connect to the community around them. We believe that Home changes everything.

SOURCE MSR