Architect: Joseph Wong Design Associates. Contractor: Emmerson Construction.
Our City San Diego: Alpha Square Wins Affordable Housing Development Of The Year
This project is all about providing housing — very sweet housing, at that — for San Diego’s less fortunate.
At seven stories, it boasts 201 furnished studio apartments. It’s located in East Village, where many of San Diego’s homeless congregate.
For years, new apartment and condominium developments rose all around them. How many dreamed that one might be built for them?
“Alpha Square is going to be a home for those who need a little bit of help. It’s a new beginning for San Diegans looking for a fresh start on their lives,” said San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in November 2015.
The apartments are restricted to tenants with incomes ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent of the San Diego area’s median Income. Thirty percent is about $16,600 a year.
The project cost $47.6 million and is considered a key component to helping battle homelessness. Many homeless advocates are calling for a so-called housing-first method to battle the problem. With that, the homeless are given shelter, as well as services, to help them stabilize their lives.
That’s what Alpha Square provides.
Peralta said “Alpha Square presents the opportunity to integrate the most vulnerable actors of our city into its urban growth plans. Inclusive housing is fundamental to a humanized and democratic development of our cities. The architects have been able to make the building fit right in with the rest of new development happening for some time in downtown San Diego. Inclusive low-income housing can also be an asset as well as interesting architecturally.”
- See more at: http://ourcitysd.com/our-city-development-of-the-year/#sthash.SlOSb2lD.yzpovn28.dpuf