Jazzie Collins Apartments is a permanently supportive housing development that provides 96 new homes for formerly homeless individuals. A joint venture between Community Housing Partnership and Strada Investment Group, Jazzie Collins Apartments is one of six new buildings that are part of the larger Brady Block development. The building's entrance and dynamic facade front on a new public park, Joseph P. Mazzola Gardens, which is also part of the Brady Block development.

Due to the site's proximity to the BART tunnel, which runs under the northwest corner of the property, an excavated basement was required in order to offset weight being placed on the tunnel. With a very limited 8,000 sf site and height limitations, we determined to place the communal areas in the basement and preserve at-grade space above grade for supportive services, offices, and residences.

Light is brought to these below-grade community spaces via a south-facing courtyard, which became the central organizing element for the project. On an axis with the residential entry, this courtyard serves as the end point of a dramatic three-story view corridor.

The design includes an onsite resident supportive services suite, which all residents can access free of charge. Other amenities including a community room, community kitchen, laundry room, and the outdoor courtyard. Topping these lower level active uses, the 96 apartments are carefully designed micro-units averaging just under 300 sf each.

Jazzie Collins Apartments also features a number of innovative sustainability measures such as a solar PV array on the rooftop. The building is entirely electric, with no gas service, as a means of reducing carbon footprint.

Brad Leibin led Jazzie Collins Apartments during his tenure with David Baker Architects. All images credited to David Baker Architects.