Living Future Roundtable

Join the BE+ Living Future Roundtable, a venue for architects, designers, construction managers, and sustainability professionals to discuss topics and issues related to International Living Future Institute (ILFI) programs.

June Topic: Supportive Housing

How does housing development provide more than just shareholder profit? Join the BE+ Living Future Community as we explore various models of housing development that go beyond generating private wealth to creating lasting community value.

Supportive housing, co-housing, and land trusts all lean on community engagement and empowerment to foster more equitable real estate development. By designing these projects with, rather than for, the community, the outcome is more likely to reflect their actual needs and concerns. Furthermore, the returns on such investments can take the form of stable housing, social capital, or financial wealth that remains within the community itself.

We’ll hear from various perspectives that illustrate the key differences between supportive housing and land trusts to offer bespoke solutions that expand the definition of a project’s success.

Subject Matter Experts:

Kyle Barker founded Primary Projects, an architecture firm committed to more communal, affordable, and sustainable housing. He’s a member of the Design Advisory Council for the Cohousing Association of the United States, teaches at RISD, and has taught several housing studios at Northeastern University. As the Rotch Traveling Scholarship recipient, he traveled across Europe, Australia, and Japan to study collective housing models. Over the past few years, he’s designed nearly a dozen projects with Croft, a Maine-based prefabricated panel manufacturer, furthering the use of straw as a building material. He’s an active Boston Society for Architecture member and the Small Practices Network Knowledge Community Co-Chair. He holds an MArch from MIT, a BSID from the Univ of Cincinnati, and is licensed in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and Michigan.

Katrina Van Valkenburgh has more than 30 years of experience in social services and housing development. As the Central Region Managing Director at CSH, Ms. Van Valkenburgh provides leadership and coordination for the agency’s work throughout the center of the country, directly supervising CSH staff and their teams deployed in five offices, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Upper Midwest. She helps develop and implement strategies to maximize impact on high need communities in the Central Region, while also assisting with development of CSH’s national priorities, strategy and management, loan and program monitoring, and continuous quality improvement. She has a BA in Sociology fr om Kalamazoo College and completed the Urban Developers Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ms. Van Valkenburgh currently serves as Secretary of the Deborah’s Place II and Deborah’s Place III Board of Directors. She received the Gem of the Community Award from Archi-treasures in 2009 and the Legacy Award from the Chicago Rehab Network in 2014 in recognition of exceptional commitment and contribution to building strong communities.

Philip Crean is a Project Manager at the Planning Office for Urban Affairs. He has over six years of experience in affordable housing development and has worked to create over 800 affordable units, including 240 supportive housing units. He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Brown and a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers. Phil is also a United States Marine Corps veteran.

Mike Newman has more than 30 years of experience in architecture and design in Chicago. His work has focused on issues of public interest design, sustainability, affordability in housing, and social justice projects. As a co-founder of SHED Studio, Mike has worked on affordable housing, supportive housing, community planning design charrettes, small scale non-profits, urban farms, and even some market rate developments. Mike has been Adjunct Professor of Architecture for over 25 years at various universities teaching everything from design studios to technical systems classes and professional practice seminars, including at SAIC, IIT, UIC, and Andrews University, and has also been involved with Archeworks, an innovative design school that develops solutions for projects focusing on social issues. Mike has also been deeply involved with working with young architects trying to get licensed through in person classes with the AIA and as the content provider and presenter for the Black Spectacles online video courses. Mike is also a co-founder of Territory, a place-based program for young people building the(ir) future through urban design. Overall, he has been working for many decades at finding innovative ways to impact communities through design.

Reach out to livingfuture@builtenvironmentplus.org with any inquiries, questions, or concerns.

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