REBUILD DULUTH

SMALL HOUSE + ADU: ATTAINABLE HOUSING IN THE CITY

This house and ADU (accessory dwelling unit) were designed and submitted as part of the first round of the Rebuild Duluth Affordable Housing competition in collaboration with Lucille LLC and Chester Creek Construction. And we won.

The competition was sponsored by the City of Duluth and the Duluth Economic Development Authority in 2019 to promote innovative solutions that foster the creation of attainable, affordable housing on smaller lots in established neighborhoods, and to create urban housing density within the city as part of the Duluth 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Thirteen sites were to be given away for free to the teams with submissions that proposed comprehensive solutions to the issues of energy efficiency, smaller footprints and narrow homes to accommodate the lot widths, constructability and financial feasibility.

As part of our winning submission, we selected Site #3 located up the hill from Lake Superior at the end of N 42nd Ave W in the Spirit Valley neighborhood, and directly adjacent to the Superior Hiking Trail. The neighborhood is comprised of modest single family homes on long narrow lots. The entire site is comprised of four lots, however we elected to site the house and accessory dwelling unit on the 25 foot wide lot closest to the road to limit the complexity and cost of the required utility and road infrastructure upgrades. We also wanted to honor the spirit of the competition by designing and placing the house on the narrow lot so as to illustrate a creative solution within the existing constraints and competition guidelines.

The final design includes a small, long house at the front of the site with a small ADU to the rear with access from the alley way. Both dwellings have separate site areas which can act as a driveway or a patio, extending the living spaces and gardens. The site plan also includes storm water reuse and retention in the form of a small rain garden and one above grade cistern on the ADU which collects rainwater for use in the gardens.

The house and the ADU are modest in size with large windows for passive heating, concrete slab on grades with radiant floor heating and partial high ceilings in the main rooms which helps enlarge the sense of space and light. Both houses have built-in storage and movable walls which affords flexibility of use and ample storage. The materials are intended to be low maintenance: vertical cedar siding, metal roofs, concrete floors, wood cabinets and simple tile in the bathrooms. Mini-split systems with a heat/ air exchangers were included to provide back-up heating, cooling and humidity control. The walls are 2 x 8 construction and intended to have an R-21 or better. The roof framing is comprised of truss systems with scissor trusses in the main areas and batt and blown-in insulation providing an R-value of R-51. The concrete slab on grade and foundations are super insulated as well for additional passive efficiency.

Total improvement cost: $256K (not including extension of the roadway and sidewalks.)

Note: Our team elected not to proceed with this project at the time of submission selection in the spring of 2020 due to the onset of the global pandemic and the accompanying uncertainty of the market and outcome.

Project Team:

Julee K. Taylor Architecture
Lucille LLC
Chester Creek Construction

Total Area: Main House 850 SF / ADU 490 SF