A River Runs Through It: Lessons from Building Affordable Housing on Tough Terrain

By Deanna Savage, Vice President, Construction, Preservation of Affordable Housing

When Preservation of Affordable Housing partnered with the Boston Housing Authority to redevelop the former Whittier Street public housing site in Roxbury, we knew the work would be complex. The existing buildings had reached the end of their useful life, yet the neighborhood was changing quickly as nearby universities, hospitals and cultural institutions expanded. If we did not move thoughtfully and with urgency, the area would become increasingly difficult for low-income families to call home.

Flat 9 at Whittier and The Amp at Flat 9 is a three-phase redevelopment that replaces obsolete housing with 229 new apartments, new infrastructure and two public streets where none had existed before. It is also a case study in what it takes to preserve affordability on urban land that does not make redevelopment easy.

Start with what you cannot see

Older public housing sites are often more complicated below ground than above. Buildings constructed of concrete and brick can be remarkably durable, but once demolition begins, unknown conditions can quickly drive cost, schedule and risk. Before taking down buildings at Whittier, we investigated how they were built, what materials were embedded in them and whether hazardous materials were present. That work revealed asbestos — not a welcome discovery, but far better to find early than during active construction.

Campus-style public housing developments can also contain old power plants, boiler systems, steam tunnels, transformers and utility corridors that are not always fully documented. Because the land was city-owned, utility lines serving neighboring properties had also been routed through the site without the ordinary private easements. Some utilities had to be relocated, others had to remain in service, and anything that stayed required proper easements.

Design around the river beneath the site

Old plans revealed the project’s defining challenge: a former street crossed the campus, and beneath it ran a stream that the city had converted into a 12-foot-wide by 8-foot-tall brick culvert. The original housing had been built over that culvert. The new buildings could not be.

That single discovery shaped the entire site plan. Demolition near the culvert required extra care and close coordination with the Boston Water and Sewer Department, including camera inspections at multiple phases to confirm that the structure remained intact. Phase 1 and Phase 2 buildings were set at angles — not as a design flourish, but as a necessary response to the invisible infrastructure below.

The soil presented its own challenge. A geotechnical engineer confirmed that Boston clay, high groundwater and the buried waterway would complicate foundations and excavation. We stabilized the soil with rammed aggregate piers and adjusted garage design to the conditions we found. In Phase 1, the garage sits partly below grade and partly above grade to stay out of the water as much as possible. Even then, the deepest excavation resisted dewatering, so the garage was designed like a bathtub, with thick concrete slabs and exterior waterproofing. Closer to Tremont Street, where the water table was higher, an underground garage no longer made sense; in The Amp, the garage is elevated to the second floor.

Let phasing drive practical decisions

Each phase brought a different technical problem. For the townhomes, two new buildings were close to an existing Tremont Street building that could not yet be demolished, so we incorporated fire protection measures to achieve the clearances needed for occupancy. For the 12-story high-rise, we discovered that major neighborhood electrical infrastructure entered from Tremont Street at the front of the building site, including a transformer, switch and primary underground duct bank serving a large surrounding area. Working early with Eversource allowed us to relocate the switch temporarily and create space for new utility equipment inside the completed building.

High-rise construction also requires early alignment between design, cost and structural systems. Height and unit count increase both impact and expense, and certain structural approaches work better at certain scales. For The Amp, we selected a heavy metal stud wall and floor system produced through design-build and offsite prefabrication. Bringing that team in early with the structural engineers helped us test scenarios, manage price points and avoid designing something that would become too expensive to build.

Thoughtful phasing was just as important as engineering. Funding does not always arrive on the same timetable as demolition, infrastructure and vertical construction. Residents may still occupy some buildings while others are being prepared for demolition. Utilities must remain live. At Whittier, Phase 1 began at the rear of the site, which meant some infrastructure needed for later phases had to be installed upfront. Flexible construction contracts allowed us to release demolition work when funding was available and be ready for building construction when the next financing milestone was reached.

Build for the people who will live and work there

The most visible construction challenges can distract from smaller decisions that shape daily life for residents and staff. Long before a ribbon cutting, development, construction and property management teams need to ask practical questions: How will residents evacuate safely? How will staff access the roof deck? How will trash move through the building and where will it be staged? These questions may not be dramatic, but they determine whether a building works well over time.

They also influence how a project is received by the neighborhood. Part of selecting contractors was assessing not only price and technical capability, but also whether teams could operate in a dense urban community with curiosity and care. I often tell contractors: do not just build the building — help people understand what is being built and why it matters.

At Whittier, that meant engaging students at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, which is just down the street and has carpentry, electrical and mechanical programs. Contractors developed mock-up panels showing how walls, doors, windows and siding come together. NEI, the general contractor for Phases 1 and 2, presented to students and reviewed their mock-up work. For Phase 3, Dimeo Construction brought students to the site throughout construction for tours and conversations with project teams. The relationship gave students a window into real construction and helped connect the project to the community around it.

The lesson: complexity is not the obstacle — unmanaged complexity is

I attended Wentworth Institute of Technology nearby years ago, when this part of Roxbury looked very different. Today, seeing Flat 9 and The Amp come into view — bright, welcoming and active — is a reminder that affordable housing development is not only about producing units. It is about solving layered problems in a way that preserves opportunity for residents and strengthens neighborhoods.

Difficult sites are often the sites that matter most. They require early investigation, honest risk assessment, close coordination with public agencies and utilities, flexible phasing, disciplined cost decisions and a team willing to think beyond the property line. When those pieces come together, tough terrain can become the foundation for long-term affordability.