FIREBAUGH, CALIFORNIA: A BREATHABLE CONNECTED COMMUNITY

In September 2020, shortly after the Civic Art Lab workshop, our group of students learned about the 8th annual Innovation in Affordable Housing (IAH) Student Design and Planning Competition initiated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). The competition invited teams of graduate students pursuing degrees in planning, public policy, architecture, real estate finance or development, and business to participate.

Kats Tamanaha, Pankti Mehta, and Browne Sebright were joined by Nella Schools (Pratt Institute MFA in Interior Design) and Sabyasachi Das (NYU Real Estate program). The faculty advisors for the project from Pratt GCPE were Gita Nandan and John Shapiro. We joined forces to be a part of this IAH competition to propose a highefficacy, innovative solution for the chosen community. We as a team shared the ethos of working with communities to build a climate-ready, climate-forward, socially responsible future world. The diversity in our team helped us to learn from each other and to propose effective solutions through culturally informed, socio-innovative design.

For the 2021 Innovation in Affordable Housing competition, PD&R partnered with the Fresno Housing Authority in California to select a real-world affordable housing challenge for the competition. Located in rural Firebaugh, California, the Fresno Housing Authority owns a site with five contiguous properties which serve lowincome families, seniors, and farmworkers. These sites are located adjacent to one another but have been disconnected and separated because of fencing.

The competition sought innovative, creative, forwardthinking solutions that demonstrated originality, incorporated best practices in design and finance, with highlevel consideration given to the affordability and sustainability of the project. In particular, proposals needed to address the social, financial, environmental, planning & design, and construction issues found at the site—all while recognizing the creation of true, vibrant neighborhoods goes beyond attention to physical structure.

The competition consisted of two parts—first was Phase I, in which all eligible teams were invited to submit their proposals to the jury for initial review and selections. Our team submitted our proposal in January of 2021, and by February the team was notified that they had been selected as one of the four finalists to submit for Phase II. Phase II included a virtual site visit of the community in Firebaugh and a final presentation and award ceremony to the representatives of the Fresno Housing Authority, the municipality of Firebaugh, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and their Office of Policy Development and Research.

The five contiguous properties of the site provide affordable housing units which serve a number of low-income seniors, families, and migrant farm laborers. There is a need for planning to protect residents from displacement and for a development that may be expanded into a mixed-use and mixed income property.

With their experience from the GIDB studio in Brownsville, the students recognized the familiar patterns that divided and isolated neighboring communities, and built environments that were built with short-term objectives of affordability without systems to enable longterm socioeconomic sustainability.

Our project sought to build on the existing patterns of Firebaugh to create a living, breathing system across scales. The proposed concept embeds breathability and permeability into the site by creating self-sustaining energy, water, and waste systems, promoting longterm social and economic growth, and encouraging connections and community building through active placemaking. The site of the housing authority is connected by a multi-modal corridor that links the entire housing authority site across what were originally five separate complexes. From its initial participatory planning to the eventual ownership of units by their residents, this community will not only meet the needs of Firebaugh’s low and moderateincome population but enable the residents themselves to build a more equitable, sustainable, and vibrant neighborhood in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley.

Our design envisioned the site of the housing authority as a place where residents, migrants and visitors alike can live, work and play. The site would change from multi-family residential, to a residential mixed-use land use. Existing buildings would be repurposed to create the central vein of the proposed design: the car-free corridor, Calle Rio. Celebrating the community history with the original architecture, Calle Rio would be used for public and commercial amenities, acting like a hyper-local main street that will provide for residents’ needs and welcome the rest of Firebaugh via entrances across the park and along the main road to downtown. The multi-modal corridor is the pulsating vein that links the entire housing authority site across what were originally five separate complexes. On a larger scale, it connects the site with the rest of Firebaugh by providing an access point for community integration, and serves as an economic generator for Firebaugh through the creation of new commercial spaces, jobs, education, and small business incubation. Residential buildings will be treated in three different typologies, ranging from minor upgrades to full rebuilds. By offering a mix of construction techniques, this project includes architectural diversity and cuts down on costs, material usage, and waste, while providing for additional unit density.

Uniquely, our project was the only submission into the final four that utilized an existing, unbuilt plan for replacement apartments at the southern end of the project, which was done in an effort to mitigate cost overruns—and due to our finding that the design was well done and could be easily integrated into our proposed concept. Additionally, our submission sought to preserve a number of existing buildings from the various developments.

Our project utilized a dignityinfused community engagement style of participatory planning. This planning process intentionally and holistically incorporates the viewpoints, lived experiences, and perspectives of those most impacted by the planning project.

After presenting on April 14, 2021, Team Pratt and NYU were declared the winners of the competition.