Ramp Wall viewed from the Yard

Lincoln Street Apartments
Fremont, CA

Affordable Housing for People with Developmental Disabilities

SUMMARY: This 11-unit of new affordable housing in a residential neighborhood close to Fremont's increasingly-vibrant small downtown. Designed with a two-story ramp as the sculptural centerpiece of a two-story lobby, this project incorporates many creative ideas of universal design for people with disabilities.

The Lincoln Street Apartments further develops the idea of community as the source of integral design that Mikiten Architecture brings to its work.

Located in an older section of Fremont, this 11-unit project for people with developmental and physical disabilities emerged through a process of study and response to site, neighborhood, and client. The result is an architecture that integrates these often-disparate demands into a design that contributes to the quality of life for residents and neighbors.

Developed through neighborhood meetings, the form and siting recall a not too distant agrarian past while responding to adjacent houses. A low sloping, timber framed roof and two story gable façade are dominant from the street, the two story scale mitigated by a composition of stepped roof forms and exterior siding details. The L-shape plan orients the building to embrace the site, allowing landscape planting and structures to shield the parking while providing entrance pathways and community lawns and gardens.

All parts of the project incorporate universal design. An interior ramp provides safe and dependable access throughout the facility and creates a vaulted two-story space with lounge and lobby areas at the entry and second floor. Common areas also include a community room and computer room that serve as the facility living room, allowing residents to enjoy time and activities together outside of their personal living units. The spaces can be opened up to one another for flexible functionality.

The community room opens on two sides to outdoor patios and gardens. What began as an idea for a butterfly garden at the back of the site has developed into an integrated landscaping design that effectively uses the entire site as a pollinator garden. This will bring back native flora to the site, allowing the project to provide homes not only to people, but formerly homeless butterflies!

Individual dwelling units are designed to enhance lives through designs that create accessibility with ample storage, integrated with circulation, light, and solar orientation. Materials both interior and exterior are selected to be durable and appropriate as well as environmentally sustainable.

Funding sources: HUD 811 Program, City of Fremont (HOME program, CDBG program, and Redevelopment Agency), California MHP Program, the Federal Home Loan Bank AHP program, and Bank of the West

Project Data:
Building: 11 units (11,700 s.f.)
Construction Cost: $2,100,000 (budget)
Site: 0.5 acres (34 units per acre)
Parking Spaces: 9 (0.8 per unit)
Features: Full-story ramp, community room, computer room, butterfly/pollinator garden

Project Team
Clients: Housing Consortium of the East Bay (HCEB) and Satellite Housing, Inc.
Contractor: James Roberts-Obayashi Corp.
Principal Designer: Erick Mikiten, AIA
Project Manager: Bethany Opalach

Project Team: Kristina Charbonneau, Kristel Phears, Nerissa Tanjuatco

Entry Arbor

Lobby Ramp

Sculpture Wall

Common Yard

Design Sketch - Street Façade