Palm Springs Life Magazine Covers Maria Song and CHOC's ‘Modern for the Masses’
(Palm Springs, CA). - As part of Palm Springs Life Magazine’s continuing Modernism Week coverage, freelance journalist Jennifer Pellerito recently covered Architect Maria Song and her Monarch Apartment Homes affordable housing designs for CHOC, now featured in Modernism Week’s Online Experience through March 31st.
Through interviews with Ms. Song and CHOC CFO Peter Lundberg, Ms. Pellerito distilled CHOC’s multi-prong, mission-based efforts to build Maria Song’s economically-integrated affordable housing designs for working families in Palm Springs.
Ms. Pellerito’s opening paragraph sets the tone for her thoughtful piece:
“Maria Song’s commitment to creating economically integrated communities came from her own perspective shift in early adulthood. ‘Growing up, I had this notion that everybody had [what I had], but it was not true,’ the architect says. ‘My parents had the means. Not everybody has the means.’”
After introducing Ms. Song’s design role and plans for The Monarch’s 60 affordable housing units, Ms. Pellerito focused on Ms Song’s passion for affordable housing, Song having worked “longer than 20 years to bring sustainable housing to underserved and at-risk communities.”
“Affordable housing is critical to achieving equal opportunity in Palm Springs, Song says, noting that her client, the nonprofit developer of the Monarch complex, Community Housing Opportunities Corporation (CHOC), aims to build well-designed, welcoming home environments for working families and individuals.
‘Not everybody is born with the same opportunities,’ she says. ‘The only way we can make that a little bit more equal is to have affordable housing in cities so that families who are challenged financially [have] the same amenities and opportunities.’
Song points out that building affordable housing that’s not integrated into communities ultimately forms segregation and division. Instead, she says, ‘What we (need) to create is a village or neighborhood in which it has a little bit of everything.’”
VIDEO: Why Modernism Week Features Affordable Housing
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In February 2019, The Monarch Apartment Homes was the first affordable housing development green-lighted in Palm Springs in 10 years, the City Council’s unanimous vote in favor of this development coming after months of CHOC’s neighborhood and community engagement, which included gaining local business support from the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, The Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce and other Palm Springs area businesses and business owners.
Ms. Pellerito’s telephone conversation with Mr. Lundberg netted key insights on how multifamily affordable housing in California requires various layers of financing and must be built to very high standards of construction, materials and energy efficiency:
“Building much-needed affordable housing comes with challenges, primarily when it comes to funding and approval. ‘Affordable housing really depends (upon) local support,’ says Peter Lundberg, CFO of CHOC.
‘We were touched by the outpouring of support,’ Lundberg says. A development like The Monarch Apartments sets the tone for similar projects in the future.
Other efficiency features include proper insulation, effective window treatments, and Energy Star appliances. ‘We have to meet very high energy efficiency standards,’ Lundberg says. These features add up to energy and cost savings for residents who won’t have to spend as much on heating or cooling their homes.”
Ms. Pellerito also touched on the architecturally celebrated neighborhood where The Monarch will be built, as well as Ms. Song and CHOC’s mutual decision to champion and compliment The Monarch’s famous neighbors:
“The (Monarch’s) multifamily construction will be designed to blend with the surrounding neighborhood, which includes Donald Wexler’s iconic Steel Houses, originally intended by the late Palm Springs architect as a model for low-cost housing in the 1960s.
‘The zone itself is a potpourri of different housing types,’ Song says. The Monarch development will be constructed on land bordered by San Rafael Road on the north and North Indian Canyon Drive on the west.
Incorporated into the design are single-sloped roofs similar to ‘butterfly’ roofs, a familiar midcentury architectural riff seen throughout the desert. ‘We wanted to be respectful of the composition of the neighboring single-family (Wexler) homes,’ Song says.”
In closing, Ms Pellerito speaks to how The Monarch’s site design considers the families and individuals who will one day make up the community living and thriving at The Monarch. “Features like The Grove, an open-air tree courtyard, provide space for outdoor social activities. Across the street, a water play area in lieu of a swimming pool offers a safe water option,” she writes, also noting that “careful consideration went into the natural light and cross-ventilation in each unit — which Song suggests are two factors that greatly impact quality of life.”
Ms. Song shares a final, critical point - that all families have the right to a truly affordable, sustainable and safe home:
“Every affordable housing project, by law, needs to stay affordable for 55 years,” Song says. “The materials need to be long lasting, but they also need to create a home-like experience, so that people really believe that this is their home.”
The Modernism Week Online Experience has been extended to March 15, 2021.
WATCH: Maria Song discuss CHOC’s Monarch Apartment Homes in "Fast Forward 2.” Purchase by March 15th to stream through March 31, 2021.
Jennifer Pellerito writes editorially as a contributor to Locale Magazine, Palm Springs Life, and The Argonaut. jenniferpellerito.com
Founded in 1984, Community Housing Opportunities Corporation (CHOC), a non-profit, affordable housing developer based in Fairfield, California, with offices in Palm Springs; we create and manage equitable communities for individuals, families, seniors, and those with special needs. CHOC believes that affordable housing is key to self-sufficiency and is achievable with enriching, supportive programs that give pride to residents, stabilize families and improve local economies.