Walnut Street Senior Affordable Housing

Utile is working with the Walnut Street Joint Venture on an affordable housing project for seniors in Foxborough Massachusetts. The project consists of three buildings, with 200 affordable units and integrated amenities, including a generous community room and network of open spaces. The design minimizes disruption to the site, a wooded lot at the intersection of Rt-140 and I-95, through its compact site design. This preserves a vegetated buffer between the development and the adjacent single-family residential neighborhood. The approach for site design prioritizes community by creating a continuous landscape between the three buildings and keeping vehicular traffic and parking along the periphery of the development. Three buildings are sited to give shape to outdoor spaces and walking paths. 

Responsive to its small New England town, semi-rural context, the design approach breaks down building massing into discrete segments. Groupings of pitched roofs intermixed with flat roofs help to give an overall effect of small building clusters around a village green. To accommodate seniors, the  buildings will meet enhanced accessibility standards, there will be numerous building entry points with easy access to parking, and the entries and outdoor paths will be accessible without the use of ramps or steps. 

The project is PHIUS+ 2021 Design-Certified, and optimizes energy performance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower operational costs, enhance resident comfort, and improve indoor air quality.