El Borinquen Residence

This development is a national model for the integration of art into supportive housing design as a fundamental pillar for successful quality of life, treatment, and healthcare. Named “El Borinquen Residence” after the indigenous name for Puerto Rico, the 90,000-SF building was commissioned by non-profit developer Comunilife to have a Latin American sensibility since their social services are focused on the Latino community. Along with the 148 apartments, the development’s program envisioned a community where art would be a part of everyday life, from the art gallery in a multi-purpose space for local artists, the opportunity to create art in studio spaces, to the entire building being inspired by art. The massing is based on Latin American modernist slabs raised on pilotis, here to invite the community in, and create a higher ceiling for the common spaces on the ground floor. The façade is an abstraction of Comunilife’s heart-shaped logo. Here, the façade has a warm red “heart” surrounded by the colors of the Latin flags, which also symbolize nature—yellow for the sun, blue for the sky, and green for Latin America's lush vegetation. The elevator core of the lobby is tiled in layers of the colors of the Latin flags, and a powerful mural the full length of the corridor connecting the two internal courtyards has been painted by Aurelio del Muro and Marta Blair based on a poem by Puerto Rican author Julia de Burgos. Each hallway above picks up the colors of the façade, providing a cheerful interior but so that some of the elderly can recall where they are with purely visual cues. Of the 148 residential units, ninety are supportive apartments for youth aging out of foster care, sixty-one are set aside for formerly homeless adults, and the remaining fifty-seven are for low-income seniors and working families. Designed to meet Enterprise Green Communities standards, the building envelope is tightly sealed and highly insulated, aided by the choice of UPVC casement windows. Operating energy usage is improved by energy-efficient heating and cooling boilers, PTAC units for each apartment, low-flow water fixtures, and ENERGY-star appliances.