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Exemplary Buildings Program

The Exemplary Buildings Program is a regional collaborative effort targeting nothing less than transformation of the affordable housing market.

We believe it’s possible to create equitable access to healthy, safe housing that is both affordable and ultra-efficient. Through the use of performance standards and building practices that reduce the additional costs of implementing ultra-efficiency, we can bring buildings to the point where the premium can be financed through the operational savings generated by ultra-efficiency.

What are Exemplary Buildings?

Exemplary Buildings are Ultra-Efficient Affordable Housing that: maximizes housing units produced, offers long-term life-cycle cost benefits, an improved quality of life for residents, and significantly reduce energy and water consumption— first  through state-of-the-art building design strategies and efficiency measures, and then through on-site renewable energy generation.

Our guiding principles

We have a multi-pronged goal: creating healthy homes; preserving the environment; producing extremely durable buildings; and balancing first costs in a way that does not minimize overall units produced.

As a result, we seek to:

  1. Define standardized building practices and specifications that support early integrative design and create consistency. This will transcend the challenges that arise when each nonprofit-developed affordable housing project is a one-off design-build, each typically completed by a newly assembled development team.
  2. Garner opportunities for volume purchasing and discounted supplier agreements for essential building materials. This will help reduce the incremental premium and overall costs of producing ultra-efficient and healthy affordable housing at scale.
  3. Develop and deliver professional training and certification programs and expand a diverse contractor and workforce capable of erecting, installing, and operating ultra-efficient housing.
  4. Marshal funding from sources that typically don’t support affordable housing. This will offset premium costs that remain after implementing the previous three steps and mitigate concerns by developers regarding how to make the project viable.
  5. Provide stellar tools and methods to help affordable housing owner-operators modify end-user resident behavior and manage utility allowance approaches. This will leverage the value created by producing ultra-efficient buildings.
  6. Focus on widespread adoption and persistent improvement by conducting all work in the early demonstration phases with an open source intentionality and deliberate monitoring and evaluation that feeds learning back into future projects.

Demonstration Projects

Several of our area’s affordable housing developers share the vision of HDC’s Exemplary Buildings Program and have committed to using one of their upcoming developments as a test of the model.

Owner/Developer: DESC

Building type: Mixed-use residential + commercial (permanent supportive housing with integrated physical and behavioral health clinic)

Residents: Adults with disabilities who have experienced homelessness

Units: 92 studio apartments

Construction start date: May 2020

Targeted completion date: Completed January 2022

Passive House:  Pre-certification achieved June 2021

Energy Data: O’Brien360’s 2021 energy study on Hobson Place S. (prepared for Seattle City Light) available here

Architect: Runberg Architecture Group

General Contractor: Walsh Construction Co.

Development Consultants: Lotus Development Partners

MEP Consulting Engineer: Rushing Company

Owner/Developer: HomeSight

Building type: Mixed-use commercial + family-affordable co-op units

Residents: 100 percent of units reserved for households with annual incomes at or below 80 percent of area median income at time of purchase

Units: 68 family co-op units

Construction Start Date: early 2023 (estimated)

Completion Date: 2024

Architect: SKL Architects

General Contractor: Marpac Construction LLC

Development Consultants: Barrientos Ryan

Landscape Architect: Weber Thompson

Energy Data: Ecotope’s 2020 energy study on Othello Square (prepared for Seattle City Light) available here

Owner/Developer: SCIDpda

Building type: Residential, mixed-use (+ 25,000 SF Elderly Care Facility, 10,000 SF Childcare Facility)

Residents: Affordable family (2 and 4 bedroom) + senior housing with integrated facilities for elderly care

Units: Approximately 160

In service: Spring 2024 (estimated)

Architect: Weber Thompson

Development Consultant: Edge Developers LLC

Energy Data: Rushing’s energy study on North Lot (prepared for Seattle City Light) available here.

Owner/Developer: Seattle Housing Authority

Building Type: Residential

Units: 110 affordable homes

In Service: February 2024 (estimated)

Architect: Ankrom Moisan Architecture

Energy Data: Ecotope’s 2021 energy study on Sawara (prepared for Seattle City Light) available here

Owner/Developer: Imagine Housing

Building type: Residential

Residents: Seniors

Units: 76 studio apartments

In service: 2023

Architect: third place design co-operative

Design Guidelines

Tools

EBP Project Specifications
  • Exemplary Buildings Specs 2.0 – This document compiles the recommendations included in the various HDC Exemplary Building Guideline documents listed above. It is intended as a template for design teams to edit and incorporate as they see fit into their own project-specific basis of design or specifications documents.
  • Spec Sheet for our Phase I demonstration projects
EBP Technical Briefs

Case Studies

Energy Studies and Case Studies from EBP Demonstration Projects (new construction)
Case Studies from Other Local Multifamily Affordable Housing (retrofits & new construction)

Workshops & Presentations

EBP Promising Practices Workshops
EBP-Related Presentations
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