| Your Name | Roxine Plummer |
|---|---|
| TRP Cohort Assignment | Americas with In-Person Intensive in Santa Fe, Summer 2023 |
| Study Cohort Members | Peter Talbot (Connecticut) |
| Working Title of The Project (which we will use to refer to it throughout the series) | 340+ |
| Project Location | 340+ Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, CT |
| Nature of The Project (e.g. building, new community, economic development, etc.) | Mixed – Use |
| Why do you think this project is appropriate for the course assignment? | The 340+ project allows us to study an initiative that has the potential to evolve beyond its objectives and create value for its surrounding community by encouraging skills training and economic development around the use of a renewable building technology resource: mass timber. This is a “new and replicable system for delivering quality, healthy housing for an urbanizing population in need of affordable housing,” that also has the capacity to reduce the carbon footprint of current construction practices. All team members have a common interest in how sustainable affordable housing can be scaled and stitched into a community and improves quality of life. We are also deeply interested in how 340+ was able to collaborate with the U.S. Forest Service to bring this project to fruition. These driving factors support the course assignment’s requirements to study a project that has a green aspiration and is working to bring a new social and economic infrastructure into being. We find ourselves in an advantageous position where the 340+ project is near completion, set out to be ecologically and socially responsible, and has architects on board who are willing to be interviewed. |
| Additional Useful Information | Partially funded by the U.S. Forest Service, the 340+ project is the first affordable housing development of its kind nationwide to use mass timber. Mass timber buildings exist in the West Coast of the United States, Boston and other cities but are either commercial buildings or high-end, market-rate housing. The 340+ project will serve one of New Haven, Connecticut's most economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, opening doors to homeownership, creating job opportunities and fostering economic development. |
| Date Created | August 3, 2023 |