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Windowless Apartments

  • 1.  Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-27-2012 01:30 PM
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee on Design and Historic Resources Committee .
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    A little help please:

    Richmond (VA) has numerous historic warehouses where the footprint of the floor plates are very large.  There seems to be a Richmond, renovation vernacular, which supports designing and renovating this building type with a large percentage of apartments without windows. These units are surrounded by corridors and have legal egress.  Many have skylights or light tubes to compensate for the lack of windows.

    These projects receive historic rehabilitation tax credits.  The National Park Service, which reviews these projects, does not permit removing roof areas to create courtyards and natural light (and air) wells.  

    I am concerned that we are developing substandard housing in my city by supporting this level of development; however, I lack any back-up regarding my opinion.  I would like to disuss my concerns with our architectural community.  To begin with, I have a couple of basic questions:
    1. Do others agree with my perception that windowless, cookie cutter apartments are a form of substandard housing? 
    2. Is it  standard practice in other regions of the country, to develop multi-family (renovation) projects with windowless apartments?

    Could you please reply to the questions with examples of local zoning codes that respond to the issue of windowless dwelling units.  Providing information on other regions of the country, and providing professional opinions on this topic could substantiate my concerns and provide me with the necessary tools to present to our city planning commissioners and our city's planning staff.

    Additionally, if this is a strong concern, and if the National Park Service is in effect promoting this type of renovation work as part of the very much, needed government rehabilitation tax credit program, then maybe the discussion should extend beyond the AIA.

    Thanks for your responses.

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    David Johannas AIA
    Johannas Design Group
    Richmond VA
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  • 2.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-30-2012 01:42 AM

    When we first developed the technology to put living things in orbit, after some discussion it was decided that, rather than dogs or monkeys, we would use humans (even though they weren't needed to control the space craft). The capsule was windowless, which was ok for other species in the eyes of the engineers, but even engineers understood that a human would need a window. It was considered to be some sort of travesty not to. Some sort of affront to our humanity. Thanks to the window, the rest of humanity benefitted from countless epiphanies and metaphoric poetic outbursts from the astronauts, giving us a vicarious feel for our place in the universe.

    I suggest looking to the humanities for the answer to your question as to the need for windows in housing. Even NASA has an artist-in-residence (Laurie anderson was one). Maybe the AIA should have a poet-in-residence.


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    Art Busse
    Art Busse Design
    Ross CA
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  • 3.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-30-2012 08:41 AM


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    Michael Ytterberg AIA
    Principal
    BLT Architects
    Philadelphia PA
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    Building codes do not allow living spaces without light and air. You wrote once before about these windowless apartments in Richmond. To my my knowledge there are no such buildings in any of the cities in which we practice, and multi-family is one of our core specialties.







  • 4.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-30-2012 11:35 AM
    So the units will be built with bedrooms that don't have code required emergency rescue / egress windows?

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    Ken Brogno AIA
    Architect AIA LEED AP
    San Francisco CA
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  • 5.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-30-2012 11:48 AM
    Windows, from a Code and Life Safety point of view, provide required ventilation.  Mechanical ventilation is an alternative, certainly for bathrooms...perhaps the way to go after this problem might be that as a "fail-safe" back-up modality we need windows in case mechanical ventilation fails -which it inevitably can.

    "Light and view" are not necessarily mandated by Code.  Your concerns if we rally around them, could make them so.  We know that light deprivation has been proven to be psychologically damaging.  Unfortunately, the social isolation increasingly dominating our culture (and the younger generations), certainly is only exacerbated by this very disturbing trend discussed here, despite being "cool" or truly historic renovations.
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    Steven Gottesman AIA
    Senior Architect
    URS Corporation
    Sacramento CA
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  • 6.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 04-30-2012 05:54 PM

    My concerns not only extend to light and view (a humane environment) but to the basic economic sustainability of the districts where windowless dwelling units are being developed.  I am concerned that these buildings and districts have a product that will fall out of favor as more humane housing is developed.  

    Right now they are new, edgy, and in edgy, urban locations.  However, the movement towards providing better natural, lighting and stronger connectivity, with our environment, will continue to gain strength, even in Richmond. I would like to prevent the potential of these districts being impacted by today's poor development attitudes.

    I look to this forum for help and guidance. Your comments suggest possibly going one step further.

    Thanks 
     



      
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    David Johannas AIA
    Johannas Design Group
    Richmond VA
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-01-2012 07:23 PM

    What makes the park service qualified for this function?
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    Charles Graham AIA
    Architect
    O'Neal, Inc.
    Greenville SC
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-02-2012 10:13 AM
    .
    For the benefit of the Committee on Design members who do not follow the Historic Resources Committee discussion forum I am cross posting Andrew Smith's reply to David Johannas original question. David's original query was cross posted to both discussion forums. Alas it's seems impossible to crosspost a response. So I am copying Andrew's response below.

    I have to say, that I have been a federal historic preservation tax program reviewer at the state level, and I have presented over a dozen workshops on how to successfully prepare the federal historic preservation tax credit forms. Most of my presentations were made with the assistance of NPS tax credit program staff. 

    My experience with NPS on tax credit projects has been the same as Andrew's in all instances. It is hard to explain David's experience in Richmond, VA. Courtyards, atria and light wells have been employed in numerous warehouse conversion to hotel or housing rehabilitation projects across the country.

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    James Malanaphy AIA
    James J. Malanaphy AIA NCARB
    Saint Paul MN
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     These projects receive historic rehabilitation tax credits. The National Park Service, which reviews these projects, does not permit removing roof areas to create courtyards and natural light (and air) wells. 

    David-

    I have been involved in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings using Federal Historic Tax Credits for the past 15 years. Across the country, there are many examples of historic buildings, particularly large, former industrial and warehouse buildings, which have had portions of the interior structure removed in order to create lightcourts, courtyards and even enclosed atrium-type spaces.  I have personally been involved in several of these projects, all of which have received Historic Tax Credits.

    Some of the spaces are only a few hundred SF in area, and some are several thousand SF, depending on the type and scale of the structure.  But in every case, the projects were approved by the NPS because the alterations did not significantly alter the historic character of the buildings.  In the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, Standard #1 reads:

    A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships.

    In practice, this allows for natural light and ventilation to be brought to the core of a large building, which is particularly important in converting historic buildings to residential and hotel uses.

    I am strongly opposed to apartment units which lack natural light and ventilation.  I would likely decline to be involved with a developer who proposed such a plan.  Fortunately, the NPS recognizes that it is sometimes necessary to alter less character-defining elements in order for a historic building to be put back into productive use.

    I hope this helps with your efforts in Richmond.  Best of luck.

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    Andrew Smith AIA
    Trivers Associates, Inc.
    Saint Louis MO
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-01-2012 02:42 PM
    David,
    I'm amazed the windowless apartment is again an issue. Please Google the New York State Tenement House Act for a background discussion in Wikepedia. It was passed in 1901 as part of the "Progressive Era" to correct the problems associated with this design approach. I'm dismayed that an agency of the federal government is promoting this discredited design concept for the sake of historic preservation. There is much in our history that should not be preserved. For more information, just Google "tenement". 

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    Walter Hosack
    Author
    Walter M. Hosack
    Dublin OH
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  • 10.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-01-2012 07:24 PM
    Please amend the second to last sentence in my previous note to read: "There is much in our history that should not be repeated." It's one thing to preserve a mistake as a reminder of the error and quite another to repeat it.

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    Walter Hosack
    Author
    Walter M. Hosack
    Dublin OH
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-02-2012 12:01 PM

    What is the AIA's involvement with historical preservation guidelines? Seems to me that we should advocate for the National Park Service and other historic registries to take a flexible stance on architectural improvements. Adding courtyards for daylighting, ventilation and perhaps access to the outdoors would increase the livability, as well as the value, for these old warehouses. If historic buildings can't be modified (appropriately) to serve a new function, then that hampers their viability to be redeveloped. Adaptive Reuse is the best way to preserve the historic fabric of our cities. Otherwise, these buildings will go unused and ultimately condemned and demolished.

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    Forest Payne AIA
    Mahlum
    Seattle WA
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE:Windowless Apartments

    Posted 05-03-2012 09:04 AM

    Forest,

    I don't know the extent of the AIA's involvement in historic preservation guidelines, but I have found that some preservationists can take a very narrow view of acceptable remodeling. In this case it appears that their desire to preserve historic warehouses ignores human dignity for the sake of architectural accuracy. Building codes prevail until the federal government is involved, which may be why windows for habitable spaces are being ignored.

    If they can't find a more compatible use for the building they should consider the adaptive reuse you mention, but adaptive logic conflicts with a desire to preserve buildings as monuments to the past. In this case, it appears that the buildings must pay for themselves; but the approach involves tenement decisions that will return immediate benefit to a developer and leave the city with eventual decline. This outcome was acknowledged by the New York Tenement Act of 1901 when our nation was first recognizing the public right to health, safety and welfare. (Their right to light, air and ventilation actually had to be legislated.) They were hard-won improvements to a quality of life that still suffers from a failure to recognize open space as an essential ingredient.

    We continue to believe that movement systems and parking lots weave a city together when the divisions they produce can only be woven together with a combination of project and public open space. I'm getting off the track, so let me finish be repeating something we all know. History often repeats itself when its lessons are forgotten.

    By the way, I'm not familiar with national historic preservation guidelines. They may not include a requirement to adhere to building and zoning codes when renovating, remodeling, changing use, etc.; or they may allow discretion beyond adaptive re-use.

    There may be no distinction between renovating to preserve a historic bookmark and renovating for active use in society. If there isn't, there is a loophole in the effort to protect the public health, safety and welfare from the freedom to dominate. This freedom prompted the "Progressive Era". I can't believe our government wants to return to the days of Oliver Twist, but this is where unrestrained private interest can lead us.

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    Walter Hosack
    Author
    Walter M. Hosack
    Dublin OH
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    Original Message