Celadon at 9th & Broadway is a mixed-use project that provides 250 units of affordable housing plus commercial space in downtown San Diego. The affordable units are targeted to a range of age groups and housing needs. It is notable for its complex arrangement for financing the affordable units, since it was the first project in the state of California to stack two low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) allocations into one building. Celadon also incorporates a number of sustainable features, including a rooftop eco-garden, solar photovoltaic walls, and a solar hot water system. The project opened for occupancy in May 2015 and is certified Gold under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
Located among the rowhouses of Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood, the eight-unit Thin Flats lives up to its name: each of the two-story units, stacked in pairs, is only 18 feet (5.5 m) wide. Developed by Onion Flats, a family-run Philadelphia-based firm, the new stacked duplexes are a rethinking of the traditional Philadelphia rowhouse—usually a long, narrow, light-deficient typology. The LEED-Platinum project uses light wells to brighten the core of the units, solar panels to provide domestic hot water, green roofing to decrease thermal gain, and rainwater-harvesting cisterns for irrigation of yards and gardens. The Philadelphia Inquirer declared that this blend of environmental and design sensibility “makes Thin Flats easily the most exciting rowhouse project to come out of Philadelphia’s recent construction boom.”
