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Architects: David Baker + Partners
- Year: 2010
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Photographs:Brian Rose
Text description provided by the architects. This new neighborhood, situated on seven-and-a-half acres in the southern end of Oakland, has a range of affordable housing, green pathways, pocket parks, and open spaces. The development has achieved one of the first LEED ND Certified Gold Plans.
All buildings are designed to the highest level of green standard—LEED for Homes—incorporating a wide range of complementary green strategies including solar power for on-site generation of electricity and hot water. Elements of the neighborhood include apartments, the Village Square, a past factory, and habitat for humanity houses.
A three-story apartment building features affordable rental units in multiple configurations. Apartments flank a hidden parking structure, setting a residential rather than industrial tone, and also enclose a second-level open-air courtyard. The front of the building is topped with a rolling green roof.
Tassafaronga is anchored by a large public plaza known as the Village Square. Each of the three new areas of housing also has a semi-private shared space, creating sheltered play and gathering areas for children and residents.
Pasta Factory
A defunct pasta factory and parcel of unused industrial land are reclaimed as small affordable apartments with a neighborhood-serving medical clinic.
Twenty-two family townhomes are going up in cooperation with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The recipient families of these homes personally participate in the construction of the buildings, with 500 hours of sweat-equity labor, which they are then able to purchase with an extremely low-interest mortgage.
