Expanding Successful Affordable Housing in the City of Cambridge
The Walden Square Phase II project will construct 95 units of new family affordable housing on the property of Walden Square Apartments, located midway between Porter Square and Fresh Pond.
Acquired by Boston-based WinnCompanies in 2001, the community of Walden Square has provided 240 units of quality affordable housing for residents of the City of Cambridge for a quarter of a century.
WinnDevelopment will oversee the construction of two new apartment buildings on the property -- one seven-story
building (Building A) offering 60 new apartments homes and one six-story building (Building B) offering 35 apartment homes.
All of the new units will be leased to
households earning up to 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). The proposed development places a priority on large family-sized apartments. Thirty (30) percent will be three-or four-bedroom units.
Both buildings will feature ground floor garages with apartments located on upper stories. The development plan also significantly enhances the green, open space available for the Walden Square community; improves traffic, pedestrian and bicycle circulation inside the property; adds sustainable solar power to both proposed buildings; and, creates a new playground and improved amenities to benefit all residents.
With Walden Square Apartments facing a waitlist of more than 1,100 households, the development will focus on the meeting the community’s most urgent need, specifically new 100% affordable housing for working families in larger apartments, along with new apartment homes for individuals with sensory and mobility impairments.
The project was approved under the city’s Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) ordinance, which is designed to deliver badly needed affordable housing as quickly and as cost efficiently as possible given the current market’s astronomical construction costs.
Feedback from the current residents of Walden Square and Cambridge city planners and city officials, as well as neighbors, all played a critical role in re-imagining the revised Walden Square II development proposal.