Affordable Housing Development Competition Participants

The following student coordinators will be the main points of contact for participants throughout the 2025 Affordable Housing Development Competition: 

• Rory Carrara
  Clark University
  
  
• Lilly Saniel-Banrey
  Harvard University
  Graduate School of Design

Below is some important information about how to form a team. 

There are no specific educational or professional credentials required to participate in the Affordable Housing Development Competition. Graduate students of diverse backgrounds are encouraged to compete. Students with educational or professional experience in design, planning, public policy, law, management, and advocacy will contribute different aspects to a development proposal. We request that participants have some familiarity with housing issues and a strong desire to learn about affordable-housing development.

Finding Teammates: The student coordinating committee will help students form teams through the registrations and at the introductory sessions. The meetings will explain how the competition works and introduce students to one another. The coordinators will place students on teams based on the information provided at the introductory sessions. Students who are registering with teammates will have an opportunity to provide this information to coordinators at the introductory sessions. 

Students do not need to establish a relationship with a development organization before registering their team. The competition sponsors and the student coordinating committee will host meetings to: 

1. Introduce the organizations and the development sites, and,
2. Finalize the pairings of student teams and development organizations.

Attendance at these meetings is required to participate in the competition. 

Team Requirements: At least two universities must be represented on each team. The ideal team will consist of six to eight interdisciplinary graduate students and include at least two members with strong design skills.  

Teams should be able to address some technical issues related to architectural design, project proformas, and financial feasibility. We recommend that you draw from diverse educational and professional backgrounds. Teams should expect to spend about 15 hours per week developing their proposals, with more time as the proposal deadline approaches. 

Teams are encouraged to work with a faculty advisor and can invite any faculty member with whom they have a relationship. 

In addition to FHLBank Boston, below are the sponsors of the competition. 

The Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) is a partnership between the Boston Society of Architects (BSA/AIA) and the BSA Foundation (Foundation). As a member-led association, the BSA is one of the oldest and largest chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in the United States. Comprised of world-renowned architects, designers, engineers, builders, and other industry professionals, the BSA benefits from a committed membership who are some of the leading thinkers and innovators in professional practice today. The BSA operates as a convener, educator, and action leader to ensure that the power of design is fully employed in creating solutions to the equity and climate crises of our time. 

CohnReznick is a leading advisory, assurance, and tax firm, and helps forward-thinking organizations achieve their vision by optimizing performance, maximizing value, and managing risk. Clients benefit from the right team with the right capabilities; proven processes customized to their individual needs; and leaders with vital industry knowledge and relationships. Headquartered in New York, NY with offices nationwide, the firm serves organizations around the world through its global subsidiaries and membership in Nexia International.

The Kuehn Charitable Foundation supports three interests threaded through the late Bob Kuehn’s 35-year career as a real estate developer: affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space. KCF’s major program is the Kuehn Fellowship, a two-year fellowship pairing vetted Boston-area nonprofits with Fellows eager to address and gain real-world experience in one of our region’s most pressing challenges — affordable housing. The next cycle of Fellows will be chosen in 2025.

ICON Architecture, Inc., a Boston-based, women-owned firm with 50 staff, believes that everyone should love where they live. Our new paradigms for living range from infill transit-oriented development to innovative adaptive reuse, creating sustainable communities that energize residents and neighbors alike. We make better places for people to build their lives.

Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is the leading statewide affordable housing policy and research organization in Massachusetts. Established in 1967, CHAPA advocates for increased opportunity and expanded access to housing so that every person in Massachusetts can have a safe, healthy, and affordable place to call home. CHAPA pursues its mission by building consensus among diverse interests in the housing field, including nonprofit and for-profit developers, advocates, homeowners, tenants, lenders, property managers, government officials, and many more.

The developers listed below are participating in the 2025 Affordable Housing Development Competition.

Allston Brighton CDC
Contact: Caitlin Robillard and John Woods
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: Boston (Allston), Massachusetts

This initiative would involve the development of two parcels of land in a highly congested neighborhood. Two dilapidated single-family houses currently sit on the two parcels, and the developer aims to utilize the site in accordance with the neighborhood's density.

Homeowner's Rehab Inc. (HRI)
Contact:  Kate Gilmore
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: Cambridge, Massachusetts

This initiative would consist of the decarbonization and refinancing effort of an existing, historically significant, 42-unit property in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The developer purchased the property in 2002 and is exploring whether it is viable to achieve meaningful decarbonization while complying with regulations.

Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation
Contact: Andrea Grimaldi
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: Boston (Dorchester), Massachusetts

As part of this initiative, two vacant parcels in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Dorchester would be developed into small-scale affordable homeownership buildings.

Medford Housing Authority and Cambridge Housing Authority
Contact: Gabe Ciccariello and Nathalie Janson
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: Medford, Massachusetts

This initiative would involve the redevelopment of a public housing site, which currently consists of more than 100 deeply affordable two-, three- and four-bedroom units of family housing, into a mix of townhouses and apartments located in two-story walk-ups. This site presents a unique opportunity to not only improve the quality of housing for existing residents but also increase the number of affordable units on the site.

RuralEdge
Contact: Becky Masure and Patrick Shattuck
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: North Troy, Vermont

This initiative is located near the Jay Peak Resort in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and is envisioned as a large-scale, phased project, that would serve primarily as workforce housing for the resort’s staff.

South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation
Contact: Donna Brown
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Site: South Boston, Massachusetts

This South Boston initiative calls for the redevelopment of a former public high school into affordable housing. The site provides unique opportunities and challenges, as its transformation would provide housing for low-income seniors, the group at greatest risk of homelessness in Boston.

Windham and Windsor Housing Trust
Contact: Bruce Whitney
Organization type: Nonprofit
Site: Putney, Vermont

The developer is working with a private landowner to develop a ~0.5-acre lot near the village center. The preliminary vision for the lot is to develop a cottage ‘pocket neighborhood’ to join Windham and Windsor Housing Trust's portfolio of shared equity ownership housing.

The following finance and design mentors and judges are participating in the 2025 competition. 

Design Mentors

• Kyle Barker, Primary Projects
• Erika DeRoche, Katelin Morgan, and John Mucciarone, ZeroEnergy Design
• Sara Paclat and Patricia Rizzo, ICON Architecture
• David Ascher, Iric Rex, Lia Scheele and Ross Speer, Davis Square Architects
• Tim Talun, Elkus Manfredi Architects

Finance Mentors

• Dave Aiken, Development Consulting
• Tom Beard, MHIC
• Kamari Durley, PNC
• Aaron Gladden and Lisa Sheehan, Eastern Bank
• David Levy, Community Square Associates
• Nick Pittman, Fenway CDC

Judges

• Lauren Baumann, Massachusetts Housing Partnership
  
• Milton Baxter, Esquire Advisors
  
• Rawn Duncan, Citizens Bank
  
• David Eisen, Abacus Architects + Planners
  
• Peter Freeman, Moriarty Bielan & Malloy LLC
• Judy O’Connor, Chelmsford Housing Authority Board of Commissioners
  
• Wandy Pascoal, City of Boston and Boston Society for Architecture
  
• Jeanette Tozer, City of Worcester Affordable Housing Trust Fund