Fairmount Avenue Townhomes is an 18 unit, LEED Platinum certified, affordable townhouse development. The project is designed for the Chattanooga Housing Authority and provides low income housing in the desirable North Chattanooga Neighborhood. Only thirty-six projects from across the United States were selected to receive grants for building sustainable and affordable homes from the 2009 American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Fairmount Avenue Development in Tennessee was one of them – and it’s an attention-getter. Designed by local firm Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects, project is built in the saltbox vernacular common to the American South – with long, sloping roofs, perfectly angled for photovoltaic panels.
The project brought three organizations together with complementary goals. The Chattanooga Housing Authority (CHA) provides affordable housing to families, the elderly, and the disabled. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was the conduit for the stimulus-act funding, which was awarded according to criteria written by Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), a 30 year old national nonprofit. Since 2004, ECP has partnered with HUD to channel $1billion in public and private funding toward building 20,000 homes. The organization says that green, affordable homes in vibrant communities can be a springboard to a good life, and the Chattanooga project met that criteria.
The 18 unit development consists of 9 three bedroom units at 1383 sq.ft. and 9 two bedroom units at 1103 sq.ft. All units with the exception of the FHA accessible unit are two story and are typically organized in buildings made up of four units. Three all-weather pathways are provided to better connect the project to the surrounding pedestrian circulation system and adjacent amenities. The topography of the project location, in North Chattanooga, enabled the buildings to both make use of sunlight and provide shade where needed, even as they’re situated on a steep curving hilltop.
Perhaps the material with the greatest impact is the developments exterior paving, most of which is pervious to allow the infiltration and capture of stormwater on–site, minimizing runoff. This region of Tennessee is prone to heavy rainfalls as well as hot summers. Fairmount‘s Kynar-coated, standing-seam metal roofs direct runoff to a cistern that feeds an automatic sprinkler system, which waters the native landscaping – plants that can tolerate both wet and dry conditions. The coated metal roof was also selected for its high emissivity, and carries a 40 year warranty though Kronenberg says “It will probably last a century.”
The project received LEED Platinum certification while complying with ECP criteria. Many of the Green strategies are passive ones. The form naturally provides attic insulation, and the design maximizes access to the natural light. An array of 189 photovoltaic panels attached to the roof provide roughly 10% of the townhomes’ total electrical needs. The houses were oriented to maximize daylight and passive solar heating to further reduce the load on the grid.
