Creating affordable housing and a new permanent home for the Chinatown Branch of the Boston Public Library

Parcel R-1 in Boston’s Chinatown

Working alongside Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), we provided architectural design services to bring life to the community’s vision of redeveloping a Chinatown parking lot, Parcel R-1, into a space that offers learning, community, public space, and cultural celebration.

Our design incorporates an all-electric, Passive House sustainable strategy, targeting LEED Gold certification, for a mixed-use tower with 110 affordable rental and condo units. This 100 percent affordable housing project will also include the much-anticipated future permanent home for the Chinatown Branch of the Boston Public Library on the ground floor. Uniquely situated in the Chinatown neighborhood, the site is within walking distance of numerous public transportation opportunities.

In addition to the benefits it brings the surrounding community, Parcel R-1 advances goals from Boston’s 2030 Housing Plan to create housing and introduces the concept of “development without displacement” in a neighborhood with limited development opportunities.