Full Spectrum regularly partners with design teams to enter competetive design competitions and municipal or private request for propsals. Although not all lead to built projects, the effort and work represents how Full Spectrum continues to innovate and explore new solutions.
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Global Green Design Competion
Sustainability Honors
Fred Schwartz Architects designed this super sustainable multi-family housing improves the lives of New Orleans’ post-Katrina population by utilizing efficient planning and passive and active environmental systems. Re-inventing time-proven Southern housing and landscape principles and proportions of the city’s revered shot-gun houses, we offer an economical, flexible, new typology for New Orleans: the NOLA ShotgunLOFThouse. The project is designed to LEED Platinum rating and zero carbon footprint.
The residents of Holy Cross requested a mix of single- and two-story ShotgunLOFT houses. In the multi-family dwelling, 12 ShotgunLOFT studios and 1 to 3-bedroom units combine open loft living space with pre-fabricated bathroom and kitchen modules. Common sense planning includes the use of post-Katrina regional, renewable and recycled materials (telephone poles, southern pine, recycled steel, recycled wood floors and wall panels) and passive design (through cross-unit and chimney-effect cooling, deep porch shading, green and PV-panel shaded roofs) to reduce energy needed primarily for cooling (preserving natural resources and reducing carbon emissions). Our design, construction and operation factors a 93% reduction in energy costs for the multi-family units while the single family homes will actually produce more energy than they consume.
Windows, waterproofing, insulation, air barriers and finishes are prefabricated off-site to insure a tight and efficient building envelope (an important aspect to low-energy consumption construction). Roof water collection nourishes a lush landscape that includes filtration pools for treatment of grey water and storm run-off.
Site density is achieved by a 3-story, 12-unit ShotgunLOFT with Mississippi River views and super-efficient floor plans. Density minimizes the exterior exposure of the units, conserving materials and energy. The building is lifted four feet off the ground for ventilation. The northeast garden elevation is a vertical stack of deep southern porches with stairways covered by lush vines. The porches are outfitted with a dual-protection shade and hurricane shuttering system.
The Aviary would have been located in the Soundview section of the Bronx, on the former Loral site in Community Planning District 9. The site, approximately 12 acres, is bounded by Story Avenue on the north; the Bronx River on the West; Soundview Park and the Long Island Sound to the South-Southeast. The site offers about 400 yards of frontage along the Bronx River with commanding views of the Long Island Sound. From the upper floors, residents will have unobstructed views of Manhattan, Westchester, the Long Island Sound, and a bird sanctuary which has inspired the name of the project.
The Aviary project represents an important contribution to Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to build or rehabilitate 165,000 units of housing, particularly in light of the community’s 2% vacancy rate. The project is comprised of four green buildings totaling approximately 1,242 condo and rental units of affordable, middle and market rate housing, 1,242 slots of parking, a clubhouse, pool, and tennis courts and 30,000 square feet of community-based retail. The gross square footage is approximately 1.7 million square feet.
Full Spectrum adds value by structuring public and private partnerships that enable families across the income range to benefit from healthy and high performance housing, as well as amenities and services in underserved communities. The Aviary would have included a riverfront promenade, and landscaped open space accessible to residents of the Soundview community.
New Housing NY
Bronx, NY
The New Housing New York Legacy design competition was part of New York City Mayor Bloomberg's initiative to bring more quality affordable housing to New York City. The proposed site in the South Bronx provided many challenges and opportunities for the design-development teams. Full Spectrum's team approach was named one of the
"thought leaders" in an exhibit shown at the AIA's NY Center. The thought provoking approach was unique in housing proposals seen NYC with it's inclusion of natural and cross ventilation, attention to daylight and views and orientation on a somewhat challenging site plan. The team's attention to connective vegetative passageways and
preservation of the neighborhood's cultural context was what led to the team being named runner-up in the AIA's design competition.
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