Dattner Architects is pleased to share that Santaella Gardens is the Multifamily Northeast Regional winner for the Metropolis Planet Positive Awards!
Located in the Soundview area of the Bronx, Santaella Gardens offers exciting opportunities to revitalize this portion of Westchester Avenue, providing urgently needed workforce and affordable housing. Adjacent to an elevated railway, the 12-story building includes 249 units of mixed-used affordable housing with ground floor retail and community facilities. This Passive House development is a partnership between Phipps Houses, the oldest and largest not-for-profit developer, owner, and manager of affordable housing in New York City, and Acacia Network, one of the leading social services organizations in New York City and the largest Hispanic-led nonprofit in the state.
Santaella Gardens exemplifies an innovative sustainable affordable housing development model that leverages a building system (Passive House) not typically used in the affordable market, proving that you don’t need to design a luxury condominium in order to get the benefits of Passive House. The design details and solutions provide a precedent in utilizing emerging building construction systems to address larger regional health disparities. Projects such as this help to further the mission of many non-profit developers in giving their affordable housing tenants a high quality of life and healthy living environments needed to tackle larger social issues such as climate justice and housing affordability.
Metropolis’ Planet Positive Awards recognizes the most creative projects and products from around the world that benefit people and planet. Judged by four expert juries across project types, regions, and product categories, award winners represent the highest achievements in design that addresses climate change, ecosystem health, human health, and equity.
