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A utopian community of sorts is in the works in San Jose, California.

SERA Architects has designed for nonprofit developer First Community Housing and design-builder Lendlease a mass-timber housing development with 365 affordable units. The McEvoy and Dupont Apartments will be two 13-story (including a podium level) towers with numerous amenities. Also, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating is being targeted.

鈥淭here’s so much to tell about the project,鈥� said Veronica Hinkley Reck, a principal in SERA Architects’ Oakland office, 鈥渂eing in that it’s 100 percent affordable, high-rise, tall timber and LEED platinum.鈥�

The McEvoy Tower will have 224 apartments (142 studios and 82 one-bedroom units) intended for individuals and couples. The Dupont Tower will have 141 apartments geared toward families with one, two or three bedrooms each.

The complex will be located next to San Jose Diridon Station. Nicknamed 鈥淕rand Central Station of the West,鈥� it’s near Google’s Downtown West mixed-use site now in development.

The McEvoy and Dupont Apartments developer, Hinkley Reck said, was interested in trying a lot of different things to ensure the project would be both sustainable and affordable to build. Starting with the structure, there will be a concrete podium, but then towers with cross-laminated timber slabs and glulam timber columns with a steel lateral core system.

The entire facade will be prefabricated and lifted in whole unit-size panels, some even with balconies attached. The mega wall panels are designed to be up to 30 feet long, but final dimensions are still to be determined. The structural panels (billets) will be up to 10 feet by 40 feet. Use of all factory-cut mass timber will reduce construction time, Hinkley Reck said.

PAE is the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design engineer for the project. The podium, ground-floor amenity space and two towers will be 100 percent electric with on-site solar panels.

Agriculture has long been an important part of San Jose, and Hinkley Reck said the project team wanted to celebrate this history in the architecture. The white, gray and green colors of the building facades are intended to represent the agricultural fields that one might have seen when flying over San Jose before it became a metropolis.

Inside the structures, the project team sought to highlight mass timber anywhere they could. 鈥淐urrently we are exposing wood at unit and amenity space ceilings at some columns,鈥� Hinkley Reck stated via email. 鈥淲e are also using timber storefronts at the retail and amenity spaces, instead of aluminum.鈥�

Residents will have access to many communal features on the 1.13-acre site. There will be an urban farm on the podium level and gardens on the roof as well as a playground and play area in between the towers. Inside, people will be able to use a yoga studio, bike rooms with a bike repair station, a computer lab, a communal kitchen, laundry facilities and support services. Four rooftop terraces will serve as gathering spaces.

鈥淵ou are thinking of it as a micro-city,鈥� Hinkley Reck said.

The project team started by determining 鈥渨hat do you need to put into it for people to survive,鈥� she said, and then 鈥渉ow to include it,鈥� and finally 鈥渉ow to make it beautiful.鈥�

A lot of collaborative work took place, Hinkley Reck said, to provide options for SERA Architects’ clients and paint a picture of what’s possible.

鈥淲e’re trying to do a whole lot in a really unique way in a challenging construction cost climate,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e are really excited to have designed a healthy and highly sustainable project where people can thrive,鈥� Hinkley Reck stated via email. 鈥淎nd we are particularly delighted that by using timber in lieu of concrete we are not just creating a more inviting design, but we are reducing embodied carbon by 32 percent. And if you look at the systems that PAE has designed, our operational carbon savings on top of that is tremendous.”

Currently, the McEvoy and Dupont Apartments project is in the permitting phase.

Design Beyond Borders is a 91视频 feature offering a look at the projects outside of Oregon being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact the 91视频 newsroom at 503-802-7222 or [email protected].

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect incorporation of clarifications throughout.