................................................................................................................

P R O J E C T  O F  T H E   Y E A R

"MIXED HOUSING TYPES CREATE A DIVERSE COMMUNITY"

Metro Senior Housing & City Park - Foster City, California

A high-rise office building looms over this community of market-rate townhouses and affordable seniors housing. In the shadow of the high-rise sits a 1-acre park that serves the residential and office parcels, plus an adjacent retail complex. Together, they form the new town center of Foster City, a small city south of San Francisco.

The successful integration of two housing types with existing non-residential development garnered this Community the Builder's Choice Project of the Year award. The judges called the site plan a model solution to many of the challenges facing the building industry today, such as affordability, mixing residential and commercial uses, and working with a difficult site. "This project celebrates connection to—rather than buffer from—its surroundings," said one judge.

But Metro Senior Housing & CityPark accomplishes much more than successful integration with an existing community. The 2.5-acre project completes the town center vision begun in Foster City during the 1960s. The 100-acre downtown was largely undeveloped in 1983 when Rick Marks, community development director for Foster City, began to work on the town center project. Fourteen years later, only 1.3 acres remain vacant.

The judges applauded the diversity of the new Metro Senior Housing & CityPark neighborhood and its attempts to encourage interaction among residents, office workers, and shoppers.

The community consists of 60 apartment units for low-income seniors and 40 townhouses for singles, couples, and empty-nesters. The park between the two residential parcels eases the density of 40 units per acre. The pedestrian-friendly site plan links residential areas to public streets and the central park.



PREVIOUS                                  1    2    3                                        NEXT