99-Unit Affordable Green Project to Open at Ironhorse at Central Station in 2009

By Lisa Iannucci, Green Building CorrespondentOakland, Calif.–Bridge Housing Corp., a nonprofit developer of affordable housing in California, is developing Ironhorse at Central Station, a 99-unit affordable housing project that incorporates numerous sustainable or green building and landscaping features.Ironhorse is located in the Central Station neighborhood in West Oakland. It will open in late 2009, and will include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for families with annual incomes ranging from $18,000 to $50,000. Twenty of the units will be available to the lower income levels through rent subsidies.“Bridge is incorporating measures that are cost-effective as well as assist in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the community through reduced operating costs and enhanced quality of life,” says Lyn Hikida, director of communications and media, Bridge Housing Corp. “It is doing so by encouraging recycling, waste reduction and the use of recycled materials, and lower carbon emissions.”Ironhorse is designed to include numerous sustainable or green-building and landscaping measures, including extensive green roofs, roughly 90kW of photovoltaics, premium efficiency pumps and fans, a 92 percent efficiency condensing boiler, radiant hydronic heat, fly ash concrete admixture in certain areas, Trex recycled planks for the unit patio decks, and high-efficiency irrigation systems. For landscaping, Ironhorse will use Mediterranean or native Californian plants, or plants that are drought-tolerant and do not require shearing.The project is projected to exceed California 2005 Title 24 energy-efficiency requirements by 17.76 percent. The project architect is David Baker + Partners and the general contractor is J.H. Fitzmaurice, Inc.Ironhorse is part of a reintegration of approximately 29 acres of abandoned former industrial land into the surrounding residential neighborhood. It forms part of Central Station, a new master-planned undertaking by several developers including Build, an affiliate company of Bridge. Altogether more than 1,200 new homes will be constructed, along with new neighborhood-serving retail and the anticipated restoration of the historic 16th St. Station.