Houston’s first “green” living affordable housing community with attractive, functional, and sustainable spaces.
The Sakowitz single room occupancy (SRO) development is Texas’ first LEED certified affordable multifamily housing at the Platinum level. Asakura Robinson incorporated design elements that were driven by green infrastructure, including permeable paving, a rain garden, and rain barrels.
Sakowitz is the first ‘green’ affordable multifamily development in Houston. Asakura Robinson joined this project to support New Hope Housing’s mission to provide life-stabilizing, affordable, permanent housing with support services for people who live on very limited incomes. involved with community aspect.
Asakura Robinson worked closely with Val Glitch Architecture Studio to ensure that design elements and plantings did not look out of place on the property and that they fit into the spaces where they were placed. The firm also added education signage throughout the site to help people recognize and define design aspects and green infrastructure elements.
Sakowitz Apartments is a 2 acre low-income housing development located in the Fifth Ward area of Houston, Texas. The $8 million project, which is the first “green” SRO development for New Hope Housing, consists of 166 efficiency apartment units, also known as “single room occupancy”, leased to adults who live alone on limited incomes. Asakura Robinson Company worked with New Hope Housing and Val Glitsch Architects to create an attractive, functional, and sustainable environment that promotes independent living for the Sakowitz residents. The $100,000+ landscape improvements include a variety of “green” techniques designed to enhance the aesthetics and improve the environment, including bioswales for stormwater filtration in parking lots, rain gardens in courtyards, alternative paving surfaces to increase stormwater infiltration, and an abundance of shade trees to reduce reflective heat.
Asakura Robinson put careful consideration on the colors, types of plantings, and green infrastructure they used on site, as well as the placement of these elements. The project team led discussions on best practices and lessons learned for proper on site maintenance of elements. The firm also created community gathering spaces by adding an outdoor pavilion, horseshoe fountain, and barbeque grilling areas. In addition to planning services, Asakura Robinson provided landscape architecture on this project to put together construction documents and help see the project through to construction.
