Projects > California Senior Housing Design Competition
California Senior Housing Design Competition
NEW - finalists have been announced - see them in the design gallery.
Two San Francisco Bay Area housing non-profits, Suburban Alternatives Land Trust (SALT) and Northbay Family Homes (NFH) have, in the past 30 years, facilitated the building of 4,000 homes – half of them affordable to low-moderate income families. Together, SALT and NFH are sponsoring an open competition to develop ideas that optimize their site’s potential uses, including ideas that address the need for senior housing in a suburban setting. The Project site is located in the City of Novato, Marin County in a recently developed area known as “Bahia.” Construction is planned to begin upon securing financing.
Designers are encouraged to develop and present ideas that reflect SALT’s mission of assisting low-income individuals and families find and buy affordable housing. SALT works with donors of land to maximize and leverage tax advantages and benefits generated in the course of developing a full array of land use options for each parcel: including affordable homes, jobs, recreation, agriculture and open space.
Site planning and housing designs must demonstrate: 1) innovative, sustainable solutions that can also be applied to meet future housing needs; 2) a zero net energy goal; and 3) other benefits including job creation, carbon reduction, cost reduction and opportunities for local food production/agriculture.
This competition will be conducted in two stages. The first stage will be open to all design professionals: architects, urban designers, landscape architects, engineers, and others who are licensed to provide the requisite professional services in the State of California. Association of out-of-state professionals with California-licensed colleagues (preferably those within an hour’s drive to the San Francisco Bay area) is permitted. All first-stage submissions will be anonymous. A Competition Jury comprised of design professionals will select the five most promising submissions to become Competition Finalists. Subject to financing, the Second Stage will proceed with each Finalist team receiving an honorarium toward their Second Stage competition costs, which will include design responses to Jury and community comments regarding their First Stage designs, and preparing a study model of their design.
At the end of the Second Stage, each Finalist team will have an opportunity to make an oral presentation of their design to the Jury, SALT and NFH Board, staff, and interested community members, prior to the Jury's recommendation of a winning design. The Board will make its decision on the winning design based on the recommendations of the Jury and input from staff and the community. The competition winner selected by the Board will have the opportunity to negotiate a contract for the requisite professional services to implement their winning design. Bill Liskamm, FAIA, will serve as the Competition Advisor.
Finalists for the competition have now been announced. View finalists and all other submissions received prior to the deadline now in the design gallery.
If you have any questions, please review the online materials including the FAQ — then contact Competition Advisor Bill Liskamm, FAIA with any additional questions directly at bill@nfh.org