Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation, Inc., the Affordable Housing Affiliate of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, Awarded in Third Round of Buildings of Excellence Competition
Competition Highlights Model Projects to Bring Low-to Zero Carbon Multifamily Buildings to Scale in New York State
Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation (CCPOP), the affordable housing affiliate of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, was recently selected a winner in Round Three of New York State’s Buildings of Excellence Competition for the design of a low-carbon emitting multifamily building. This competition supports Governor Kathy Hochul’s nation-leading climate goals outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act), which places New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality and mandates an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Located in the Brownsville community of Brooklyn, the new Livonia C3 Senior Residence, a $111 million development, is proposed as a fully electric, mixed-use building providing 142 affordable rental apartments for seniors, including wraparound case management services for a portion of the building’s formerly homeless population. The 13-story, 138,000 square-foot sustainable housing development will include an older adult center doubling as a community area of refuge, focusing on improving community resilience to energy disruption, flood-related events, and adverse health effects of extreme heat. The project will feature state-of-the-art heat pump water heaters for domestic hot water, a central VRF system for space conditioning, energy recovery ventilators, solar photovoltaic system for on-site energy generation, battery back-up for resilience, drought-resistant landscaping and outdoor shading features. The project will be developed by Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation in response to the City’s community-led Brownsville Plan, a process that will identify neighborhood goals, form strategies to address local needs, and find resources to fill gaps in service. The Brownsville Plan will result in the creation of over 2,500 new affordable homes, representing more than $1 billion of investment in housing in the neighborhood. Livonia C3 Senior Residence is designed to Passive House and Enterprise Green Communities standards offering cost-effective solutions that reduce energy consumption, providing low-carbon materials, and increasing community resilience to heat vulnerability, energy disruptions, and flood-related events while helping the industry advance towards a low-carbon future.
The Livonia C3 Senior Affordable Housing team consists of architect and team lead, Magnusson Architect & Planning; sustainability consultant, Bright Power; MEPFP consultant, Ettinger Engineering; and structural consultant, CityScape Engineering.
In 2021, CCPOP launched the Laudato Si Corporation, a non-profit corporation that serves as a framework for administering sustainability strategies within Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens programs. The corporation currently owns and operates several solar arrays across the Catholic Charities housing portfolio and Livonia C3 Senior Residence is another example of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens’ commitment and execution of this sustainable vision. Eight years ago, Pope Francis release the Papal Encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, where he asks for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. In response, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has endeavored to build affordable housing with a greater focus on sustainability. Further, in 2018, Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D., D.D, led an interreligious delegation to Rome to present a collaborative sustainability initiative to Pope Francis; where during his weekly audience, Pope Francis shared words of support and encouragement for the work envisioned by Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens.
“Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, stating: ‘it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”, said Monsignor Alfred P. LoPinto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens and Affiliate Agencies. “We are honored to receive New York State’s Buildings of Excellence Award, allowing Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation to build upon Pope Francis’s vision as well as our mission of providing affordable and sustainable housing for New Yorkers in need.”
Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens is one of the largest faith-based social service agencies and providers of affordable housing in the United States and, through CCPOP, currently provides 4,567 units of affordable homes, with over 260 additional units currently in pre-development for older adults, families, the formerly homeless and those struggling with mental illness.
The Buildings of Excellence Competition, launched in March 2019, is a $48 million initiative that has awarded 63 projects to date – 56 exemplary new construction demonstration projects and seven early stage design projects. It is the only competition of its kind, with the awarded projects becoming part of a comprehensive data collection effort that will help determine how to cost-effectively deliver superior performing buildings that will serve as an essential building block of a carbon-neutral future and advance the design and construction of multi-family buildings. The Competition is administered by NYSERDA with the support of key stakeholders comprised of a cross-section of experts from the design, real estate and. For a complete list of the winning projects statewide, please visit NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence website at: www.nyserda.ny.gov/boe
Livonia C3 Senior Affordable Housing was selected under Round Three for its low-carbon performance, profitability, ability to be adopted broadly, and for creating a healthy and safe living environment.
NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “The Livonia C3 project will provide sustainable affordable housing to Brownsville seniors while also serving as a model for clean and resilient construction. We congratulate the Catholic Charities team on being selected for a Buildings of Excellence Round award and look forward to seeing the progress on this important low-carbon community project.”
This project will also provide comprehensive data on design, construction and cost that can be analyzed and shared to increase the number of low- to zero-carbon buildings in New York State. For a complete list of the winning projects statewide, please visit NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence website for more information.
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About Catholic Charities Progress and Peoples Development Corporation:
For over 124 years, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has been providing quality social services to the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens and currently offers 160-plus programs and services for children, youth, adults, older adults, and those struggling with mental illness. Since 1975, Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation, the affordable housing developer of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, has been transforming vacant land and buildings into affordable housing units and transforming the lives of individuals and families, and completed more than 4,567 units with supportive services for seniors, families, veterans and the formerly homeless. Since the pandemic began, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens has provided much-needed food packages and services at 60 Catholic Charities parish-based food pantries and has distributed over $11 million in food assistance. Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens continues to deliver crucial mental health counseling, housing services, family services, early childhood education, and emergency services. For more information, please visit www.ccbq.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @cathcharitiesBQ or @catholiccharitiesBQ.
5 photos below:
Credit: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
Credit: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
Credit: Magnusson Architecture and Planning PC
Credit: Magnusson Architecture and Planning PC
Credit: Magnusson Architecture and Planning PC