Active Design For “Healthy Buildings”

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6 min read

NYC Center makes cities more livable 

There is a small but growing worldwide movement to incorporate modern health best practices into building designs. Health problems, after all, continue to be manifold in developing and developed nations alike. Meanwhile, there’s a growing body of research saying that the design and layout of buildings and public spaces can help contain the spread of certain diseases, and make cities more livable. One organization, the Center for Active Design (CfAD), is leading this “healthy building” concept. Recently, I visited its Lower Manhattan office to learn which types of projects they propose, and how developers and financiers of tax credit projects can participate.

CfAD was formed in 2013 by a group of professionals in the health, architecture, planning and development fields. This included Joanna Frank, current president and CEO, and Reena Agarwal, the COO, both of whom worked under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. During Bloomberg’s three-term mayoralty, the city’s health department was aggressive about promoting certain health goals, from a commercial smoking ban, to posting PSAs against unhealthy food. One aspect of Bloomberg’s agenda to curb obesity was promoting “active design,”or the idea that buildings and public spaces could be retrofitted to encourage exercise or other health goals. Public sidewalks, for example, could be more open and inviting, while buildings could feature stairwells near their entrance, so that tenants were impelled to skip the elevator.

During Bloomberg’s mayoralty, Frank and Agarwal branched off together to create CfAD, helped in part by the billionaire mayor’s money. The point of the organization is to advance this active design concept, publishing guidelines and consulting with key public and private players.

To determine whether buildings or spaces are healthy, CfAD uses the Fitwel metric system, which the organization formulated in-house, in collaboration with different health and government organizations. Dozens of metrics determine a building’s Fitwel score. On the site’s workplace scorecard, factors include the neighborhood Walk Score, proximity to public spaces, number of stairwells, access to sunlight, clean water supply and more. The scoring is through a points system that determines whether a project gets one, two or three stars, with three being the highest.

Affordable Housing’s Achievements
Some of CfAD’s money is foundational, including from the Knight Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. But a lot of it is fee-for-service consulting, paid for by clients who want high Fitwel scores. Many cities aim to copy the health-first approach of New York City under Bloomberg. New Orleans hired CfAD to help make Bourbon Street—of all streets—healthier by closing it to automobile traffic and making other subtle design changes. One of CfAD’s main private clients, said Agarwal during an interview, is the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a think tank that advocates for development best practices. ULI hired CfAD to give presentations or work with specific developers. The organizations partnered to publish a report, “Healthy Housing For All,” that, according to ULI’s website, “Explores the affordable housing industry’s achievements in creating healthier housing environments and translates them into lessons for the broader housing marketplace.”

CfAD is also hired by individual developers, so that they can leverage the government incentives available if they build healthy projects. Fannie Mae has a “Healthy Housing Rewards” initiative that, according to its website, “Provides financial incentives for borrowers who incorporate health-promoting design features and practices or resident services in their newly constructed or rehabilitated multifamily affordable rental properties. Borrowers can follow one of two pathways to qualify for discounted financing.”

One of those paths is by completing properties that meet Fitwel’s minimum certification standards. The other is by providing resident services that meet the Certified Organization for Resident Engagement & Services (CORES) or Enhanced Residential Services (ERS) guidelines. In either case, three-fifths of the units on these properties must be available to tenants making below 60 percent of area median income.

Examples
One example of a project that used CfAD to leverage this cheaper Fannie Mae capital was the Edgewood Court Apartments. It was developed in Atlanta by Jonathan Rose Companies, and includes 222 new or renovated low-income housing units. The project, in fitting with the Fitwel model, includes a 4,500 square foot community center, and upgrades that improve the building’s energy- and water-efficiency.

Another government incentive that has helped propel CfAD projects are the tax credits at multiple levels of government. Several case studies come from Blue Sea Development, which won CfAD’s 2014 design excellence award. The firm has built sustainable projects across New York City. The Melody, a low-income co-op in the South Bronx, was the first development to receive a LEED Innovation Credit for Health through Physical Activity. The Prospect Plaza public housing revitalization, which Blue Sea partnered with the New York City Housing Authority on, added 364 units. And the Arbor House, another low-income project in the South Bronx, is an active design unicorn. It features a 10,000 square foot hydroponic rooftop farm, which enables residents to purchase healthy food within their own building. Mount Sinai Hospital is evaluating Arbor House to assess the health impact of this model. The $37.7 million project, which includes 124 affordable units, benefited from several million in city and state funds, and $12.8 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity. Blue Sea Development is owned by Les Bluestone, who has been a prominent developer in the active design movement, even sitting on CfAD’s boards.

These are just the highlights. In five years, CfAD, which now has ten full-time staffers, has influenced the decision-making of many other developers. According to the organization’s public relations department, CfAD’s work has led to the certification of over 600 projects, with 150 more in the pipeline, affecting 35 million square feet. The global users of their research and products are 1,300. There have been 35 countries represented, and the total people impacted is an estimated 465,000.

This doesn’t mean that incentivizing healthier buildings will solve all the world’s chronic diseases. But it is one way to incorporate a powerful profession that, up to this point, has largely avoided the public health conversation.

“It’s been a missed opportunity in the last 50 years to prioritize and elevate health within the built environment,” Agarwal says of the CfAD mission. “It’s not brain science. It’s something that just takes a reprioritization of the work that architects and developers do to ensure that health is a critical component of their work.”

Story Contacts:
Reena Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer, Center for Active Design
reena@centerforactivedesign.org

Sara Scheineson Karerat, Senior Analyst, Center for Active Design
sara@centerforactivedesign.org