J.J. Carroll House places first in Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Award for affordable housing
2Life Communities’ J.J. Carroll House, completed in early 2024, placed first in the Affordable Housing category in the nationwide Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Awards.
J.J. Carroll House, located in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, illustrates the power of public-private partnerships to address the region’s growing housing crisis and serves as a model of affordable, service-enriched living. The Boston Housing Authority selected 2Life to redevelop its John J. Carroll Apartments in 2019, with a plan to modernize the existing 64 public housing units and enhance the quality of housing and support services for existing J.J. Carroll residents, while simultaneously adding much-needed affordable senior housing with supportive services and onsite health care services.
The new J.J. Carroll House contains 142 apartments in a single, modern building that exceeds sustainability standards and serves as a model of affordable, service-enriched living. All apartments are affordable to households up to 60% of the area median income and have universal design and adaptability features aimed at keeping residents living independently as their physical needs change. Once certified, it will be the largest multifamily Passive House building in Massachusetts and in the top 10 in the United States and Canada.
Other notable features include:
- A lively ground-floor “Village Center” that features accessible and flexible common spaces such as a multipurpose room, resale shop for upcycling household goods, and salon
- A Program of All-Inclusive Care (PACE) center, operated by Element Care, also on the ground floor, allowing extremely low-income seniors with advanced healthcare needs to receive care close to home
- An enclosed pedestrian bridge creating year-round accessible connection to the rest of 2Life’s Brighton Campus and all it has to offer, including libraries, state-of-the-art auditorium, fitness and computer centers, and art rooms
Judging criteria include design and aesthetics, community integration, and amenities and lifestyle. For the Affordable Housing category in particular, nominees are new development projects that take into account local definitions of low-to-moderate income housing programs, as well as projects that are specifically developed to lower the costs of construction and land acquisition to drive down monthly rental costs as low as possible.
Learn more about the award on the nomination page and see more about our Brighton Campus on our website. Thank you to our partners MASS Design Group and Dellbrook JKS for helping us bring this project to life.
