The non-profit organization Allen Neighborhood Center has long served the Eastside neighborhood of Lansing, Michigan in a cluster of buildings on East Kalamazoo Street. As part of a broader vision for the community, they purchased the property to maintain their headquarters and to expand their role to include affordable housing and additional retail space (to offer businesses complementing their food-based mission).

 

The two story complex was expanded along East Kalamazoo, with new ground floor retail and residential space up above and renovations to the existing buildings to accommodate an expanded accelerator kitchen and services for the community.

 

In keeping with ANC's ethos, the building was designed to meet the Passive House standard, and to maintain it's identity in the neighborhood by reusing as much of the existing structure as possible. While budget cuts pushed the project back to a standard code-built building, we were able to maintain the heat pump system for the apartment conditioning, eliminating gas service from the units. (photographs by Jennifer McKinstry)