Bernice Elza Homes | Undergraduate Architecture

2006_Bernice Elza

Bernice Elza Homes, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“The work of the Urban Studio in the undergraduate program is based on a concept of whole architecture which seeks to take into account cultural expression, economic constraints, and social issues,” said Wesley. The students’ design for Bernice Elza Homes was based on research including numerous interviews with members of the Mantua community. During the summer and fall of 2006 PennDesign students worked on the construction documents for the project in the office of Blackney Hayes. One of the students, Julia Cox, continued as architectural project manager during construction.

Bernice Elza Homes is LEED certified at the silver level and is the most energy-efficient of all of PEC’s buildings. Beyond producing energy-efficient affordable housing, Bernice Elza Homes is successful on other levels. The project offers a model of how a university can partner with a local social services agency to address a real-world issue. It demonstrates how a major academic and research institution can listen to the residents of an adjacent residential community and, in collaboration with others, use its resources to provide a meaningful response to a social need. Above all Bernice Elza Homes offers an optimistic message to the next generation – both to the young mothers, who will reside there with a renewed sense of hope and pride, and to the young university students, who will go into the world with a renewed sense of social responsibility and a can-do attitude.

Bernice Elza Homes

PennDesign was one of only five schools in the United States to be awarded a COPC grant to work with a development partner to design and build new models of energy-efficient affordable housing. Obtained under the leadership of PennDesign’s Eugenie Birch and Harris Steinberg, the COPC grant underwrote the research and design of the project. Following a semester of courses on affordable housing offered by PennDesign’s Department of City and Regional Planning, a team of 18 undergraduate students in architecture designed the project in 2006 while enrolled in the Urban Studio, an undergraduate course in architecture for seniors offered each spring semester. The studio was led by Richard Wesley, undergraduate chair of the program, and co-taught by John Hayes, principal of Blackney Hayes Architects, an architectural firm with experience in affordable housing. Ali Malkawi, Director of Penn’s TC Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy Studies, acted as the energy consultant for the students during the design process.

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