We’re constantly thinking about designing for equal experience, no matter residents’ backgrounds. Attainable, supportive housing should be a joy to live in.
With the Vera neighboring one of Portland’s most expensive market-rate buildings, and with 90 of its 203 affordable units reserved for households earning 0-30% of median family income, we based our design concept on the idea of weaving.
In many cultures, weaving is a social activity: People working together to create something beautiful, with individual stories making up a community’s identity. Our design concept imagines these stories as interconnected threads, woven together to create a unifying character. As the most visible example, the Vera’s exterior panels are made of six types of intertwined metal—high-quality materials threaded with efficient materials—affordably creating a unified facade and beautifully expressing interconnection. We collaborated with Hoffman Construction to assemble these exterior wall panels off-site, improving safety and keeping the overall cost down.
Not only is our design inspired by community gatherings, it fosters them. The exterior itself draws people in: Visitors approaching the Vera can see straight through the community room to the courtyard beyond. Exterior glass panes visually connect to the outside greenspace and walkways, beckoning and promoting transparency. To support residents with on-site services for job training and continuing education, the Vera’s ground floor houses Impact NW offices and offers a variety of programs designed to help people become, and stay, self-sufficient. The courtyard, community kitchen, and other amenity spaces help residents engage with each other. Amenities in many traditional affordable housing projects are often separated by function, but the Vera’s ground-floor amenities are interwoven—open, homey, and connected. Residents here interact by design.
Structurally, we used post-tension concrete slabs as an efficient and cost-effective high-rise construction method. By leaving these slabs exposed in the lobbies and other community spaces, our contemporary aesthetic feels true, accessible, and sophisticated. Targeting LEED Gold for Home certification, efficient plumbing fixtures, high-efficiency irrigation systems, and drought-resistant landscaping lower the Vera’s overall water use, and daylighting, increased insulation, and other measures reduce its overall energy footprint.
Home is a place both individual and collective, safe and inspiring, where the threads of people’s lives weave together. Each of the Vera’s design elements unify to express this idea beautifully.
