SOUTH RIVER PLAZA

SOUTH RIVER PLAZA is an affordable housing mixed use and civic development designed for to provide housing security in downtown in Fort Lauderdale, and to address the neighbourhood need for a Fire Station. It proposes a dignified solution to the national crisis of housing affordability.

Located on one and half city blocks on 3.4-acres, the project includes one building with a fifteen-story 500-unit residential tower, four-stories of structured parking, ground floor community grocery store and a Fire Station.
Developed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the Healthy Housing Foundation, residents earning 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI) and below are eligible to rent an apartment at no more than 30% of their annual income. This unique public-private partnership integrates a civic use with mixed-use retail and studio, one and two-bedroom affordable residential units. With three indigenous landscaped plazas, a “health path”, resident micro gardens and landscaped terraces, the project creates a pedestrian friendly walkable urban space south of the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Using conventional masonry construction, familiar to local trades, prefabricated bathroom, and kitchen pods, with prefabricated GFRC brise block panels and large balconies, the apartments are designed for sustainable living in the South Florida environment and reflect upon traditions of the mid-century modern architecture of Charles Mc Kirahan and others.

Along with energy and resource efficient equipment and appliances, the building’s second skin and balconies moderate solar infiltration with passive shading for cooling of the units and provide building texture and detail. This approach provides housing security to the tenants by reducing utility costs. A cistern captures condensate run-off and rainwater, for plant irrigation.