Harvey Rice Heritage Affordable Housing

Connection and representation in NE Portland affordable housing

The Harvey Rice Heritage Affordable Housing development aims to lessen the impacts of gentrification in NE Portland by not only expanding housing opportunities but also by honoring and preserving the rich history of the Black community in this neighborhood. It is named for Sabin CDC’s Board Chair, Harvey Rice, and consists of two sites, Isaka Shamsud-Din and Charlotte Lewis. While separate sites, both complexes are inspired by their artist namesakes, iconic Black artists from Portland, and prioritize bringing communities together through the arts with public gathering spaces, creating highly accessible dwelling spaces, offering a variety of apartment types, and designing for longevity and sustainability. Scott Edwards Architecture uses forms, massing, and color to tell an important story and provide vibrant, comfortable places to call home.

Client
Sabin CDC

Location
Portland, OR

Size
Isaka Shamsud-Din: 29 Apts
Charlotte Lewis: 12 Apts

Year
2023

Achievements
2023 Earth Advantage Gold

Exterior of Isaka Shamsud-Din Apartments — Isaka Shamsud-Din Apartments

SEA drew inspiration from Isaka Shamsud-Din and Charlotte Lewis’ legacies and artwork when designing Harvey Rice Heritage. Both complexes start with simple building massing to achieve the programmatic needs and then apply playful facade articulation, vibrant color stories, and deliberate form shifts to tell a cohesive story. Architectural choices place communal spaces at the forefront, decidedly accessible and visible as they’re intended to serve residents as well as the larger community. Both also offer access to outdoor communal spaces and prioritize environmental impact—Isaka and Lewis achieved Earth Advantage Gold certification.

Exterior elevation of Isaka Shamsud-Din apartments — Hardie fiber cement board was used for all exterior siding. Instead of a typical board and batten construction, SEA varied the battens in spacing and size. This gives a different texture, quality, and movement to the exterior.

The Isaka building places communal spaces and two apartments on the ground floor. The second through fourth floors are only residential homes, a mix of studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom apartments. The lobby is both a welcoming entrance and an art gallery. The deliberate placement of the white recess in the building massing accentuates the lobby as a gallery, as does our decision to wrap the space’s exterior edges entirely in glass so that it is perceived from both important street fronts. The building’s color story draws directly from Shamsud-Din’s artwork— rich, saturated oranges and blues, opaque, and black.

Isaka’s location on a busy street is ideal for the art gallery lobby that will showcase rotating pieces from community artists. The glassy lobby lets in ample natural light and offers passersby an opportunity to engage with the art. The communal room is a flexible space designed to support many types of gatherings. The room can be divided using a movable partition, has a kitchenette, and opens directly to an exterior courtyard space. The upper three floors create a moment for pause in the daylit corridor—large built-in planters below the corridor windows create space for biophilia while allowing residents opportunities to have views outside and access to additional art. The planters reinforce the exterior siding’s articulation, integrating the architecture with the interior design.

Community flexible space — SEA collaborated with Sabin CDC to fund their inaugural “Our Shared Palette” art scholarship program. The scholarship is open to LGBTQIA+ individuals and members of minority communities between the ages of 15-24 and aims to recognize and reward exceptional artistic talent. Our Shared Pallete provides financial support, mentorship, and a platform for artistic expression, removing some barriers to participating and tying to Sabin's mission to "Re-Engage Community." Selected pieces from the program will hang at Isaka, Lewis, and other Sabin properties.

A group of neighbors to Isaka came together to turn the adjacent paved cul-de-sac, known as the 14th Avenue Plaza, into a community parklet. The plaza was designated as a “Better Block” project and made into a pleasant, functional outdoor space that can be easily navigated by foot, bike, or wheelchair.

Exterior of charlotte lewis apartments and community garden

A gable form helps Charlotte Lewis integrate into this site’s surrounding residential neighborhood context, different from Isaka’s more urban location. The scale of the building development is broken down into two separate volumes to address the existing neighborhood scale and arranged to accommodate a residential courtyard between the two volumes. Shifted slices of the buildings gave opportunities to present a color story inspired by Charlotte Lewis—vibrant pastel blues, purples, and pinks. A leasing office and community space are placed at the front of the property to welcome residents and visitors, and the space between the buildings provided us with an opportunity to include an outdoor communal space.

Family at dining room table with grandmother in kitchen — The Charlotte Lewis color story continues to the interior. Blue kitchen cabinets and green, yellow, and blue flooring in bathrooms are playful connections to the overall concept.

main floor desk space with kids looking out window

Charlotte Lewis was developed with families in mind and offers two-and-three-bedroom accessible ground-floor apartments and three-bedroom townhomes. The townhomes are designed in a way that allows unrelated individuals to live together by incorporating communal spaces that provide privacy—the living room is not entirely open to the kitchen and dining space, and small moments like a desk nook also contribute to this arrangement. Sabin recognized a need for this type of flexible living arrangement in NE Portland and SEA’s approach was to have the home be highly accommodating of a variety of scenarios.

Exterior close up elevation of Isaka Shamsud-Din apartments

Exterior close up of entry to apartment at Charlotte Lewis

The concept of “voice” played an important role during the design and development of Harvey Rice Heritage. Artists Shamsud-Din and Lewis express their heritage within their art as a means of strengthening and giving voice to the community, an act of creation and activism. While each worked in unique mediums, they often collaborated to produce a permanent history of disbandment of the area due to gentrification. Expanding housing opportunities for long-time and returning neighborhood residents who would otherwise be displaced by gentrification motivated this development and the direction the team took with it.

Alongside giving voice to this place’s past, the project also gives voice to its present and future. SEA partnered with Sabin CDC to collaborate with their staff and maintenance team, the community, and advocacy organizations to ensure the design was representative. Sabin engaged local community artist, Mr. Bobby Fouther, to assist in the naming of the buildings, art history, and the development of the community art spaces. Mr. Bobby was integral to our understanding of how community spaces would be used, and he assisted in color selections and participated in neighborhood meetings to introduce the buildings to community members.

We also worked with Community Vision, an organization that provides services, education, and advocacy to ensure that people with disabilities direct their own lives, and Iron Tribe Network, an organization that provides peer support, housing, and family reunification services to previously incarcerated individuals—a population that is disproportionately Black and at high risk of experiencing homelessness. Both of these organizations helped SEA use design to meet the current and future needs of residents.