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Smart Growth In Action: High Point Redevelopment, Seattle, Washington
The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) worked closely with community members to rebuild a formerly crime-ridden and dilapidated 120-acre hilltop neighborhood into a mixed-use, mixed-income, and environmentally sensitive community.
Using green building principles, High Point's more than 1,700 new units are expected to consume less water, electricity, and natural gas than the old community's 716 units. The 600 rental housing units built by SHA are all certified at the highest standards established by Built Green(tm), a building program that certifies environmentally friendly products in King and Snohomish Counties, Washington. This project is the nation's first Energy Star-rated rental housing development with tankless heating systems and front-loading washers and dryers. Approximately 10 percent of the rental units are Breathe Easy(r) homes, designed and built for asthma sufferers.
The site occupies 10 percent of the watershed of Seattle's most significant salmon stream. The old public housing site contributed significant amounts of polluted runoff to the nearby stream. The new development included a new natural drainage system under the entire site-the nation's largest. Now, water entering the stream from High Point is as clean as if it had percolated through a natural meadow-despite more than doubling the development's density.
The award-winning design of High Point addresses social sustainability by involving residents, connecting the site to surrounding neighborhoods, and mixing uses and incomes. The resident design committee met bi-weekly and participated in the design of buildings and open space. The new development includes new parks, a public library and health clinic, and retail space to come in 2009. The mixed-income neighborhood is comprised of 50/50 ratio of rental and owner-occupied units. The redevelopment has increased low-income housing opportunities by 43 percent. Additionally, owner-occupied units have sold for up to 50 percent above Seattle's median home prices, representing a growing desire to live in this once blighted community.
2007 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement winner, Built Projects.
Get a copy of this project summary in Adobe Acrobat® format.
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Conservation: An Investment That Pays from Trust for Public Land is intended to help agency personnel and community conservationists make the case for conservation as a long-term economic investment.
Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health.
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