CHOWN PLACE LEAVES THE NEST

Diversifying a Senior Community

WHAT THIS DOCUMENT DOES

The main objective for Chown Place is to create a plan for the site that contains between 300 and 400 units, incorporates a mix of housing sizes to accommodate families, and increases the number of affordable units as well as the current senior residents. For this reason, an additional 58 units in a new 4-story building is planned to begin construction this year (2021).The new building provides the greatly needed increase in units; however, that is only one of the goals stated in the Burnside Gorge Neighborhood Plan. There are other opportunities that could be incorporated into the design project at this site.

This is one of the challenges to our project, that the planning and design of Chown Place has already begun, which necessarily influences many of the possible outcomes of our design process.  Number Ten Architects is a firm that has been contracted to develop Chown Place.  The plans Number Ten Architects have produced will allow for a greater density and meet the planned 300-400 units; however, we discovered many opportunities to make Chown Place special for its residents and the surrounding neighborhood.  We have chosen to build on the work of Number Ten Architects while attempting to provide for a range of other desired outcomes as expressed by the stakeholders, residents, neighbors, experts, and other governmental entities.  

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So far Chown Place has been considered a “nested” community within the Burnside-Gorge Neighborhood: within the community but not really a part of it.  This is a situation that needs to change, and while we have specifically focused on Chown Place we have also looked for opportunities to incorporate objectives found the Burnside-Gorge Neighborhood Plan.  This document is meant to be complimentary to that plan, and our intent is that the development of Chown Place could help facilitate the goals expressed in the Burnside-Gorge Neighborhood Plan and thereby rejoin Chown Place to the greater community.