Dixwell Lot Reimagined

Yanbo Li and Juan Pablo Ponce de Leon looked at a large empty lot at a four-way intersection at the northern edge of the Dixwell neighborhood and saw a four-story affordable housing development with multiple entryways, green terraces, and shared balconies.

So the two Yale architecture students built that vision — in miniature.

After taking on an internship with Beulah Land Development Corporation last summer, Li decided to try his hands at building a model of one of the church-affiliated not-for-profit builder’s projects-in-progress: affordable housing planned at the empty lots at 340 Dixwell Ave and 7 Shelton Ave.

Li and classmate Ponce de Leon presented an exhibit with a history of Dixwell’s development and a small wooden model of the intersection and its periphery in their residential college, Morse, which sits just steps from the downtown end of the avenue.

A not-for-profit organization of the Beulah Heights Pentecostal Church on Orchard and Munson Streets, Beulah has developed elderly housing on Orchard Street and elsewhere around the church. It formed in response to the murder of a 7‑month-old baby in a tenement next to the church, which was also surrounded by crack houses on the other side. That was two decades ago; Beulah Land has since remade its block as a safe, attractive place to live.

Now it has broadened its sights across the street. It bought 7 Shelton Ave. from the local housing authority in 2011. The buildings at Dixwell and Shelton will have a combined 45 units of housing, mixed with commercial and health service uses.

A gas station once occupied what’s now the vacant lot at the intersection. For years Joe Grate also set up his popular barbecue stand there.

Yale seniors Li and Ponce de Leon worked on the exhibit as a personal, independent project, outside of their standard architecture classwork. Ponce de Leon said it was refreshing not to have the time constraints of the typical architecture class project.

Li worked with Beulah through a Yale Public Service Fellowship. He said he was intrigued getting to see the process of finding financing and potential commercial tenants for the space, as well as coordinating environmental clean-up efforts. Dixwell, Shelton, Orchard and Munson meet at the intersection, which made it an interesting ​“architectural puzzle” to work on, he said.

Darrell Brooks, project director at Beulah, said the corporation plans to develop 340 Dixwell Ave. into a mixed-use, mixed-income building with affordable rental units on the second floor, likely going up to the fourth. The first floor will be commercial or office space.

The MOMS Partnership has expressed interest in renting out part of the first floor as their anchor space in the community, he said.

Li and Ponce de Leon’s model of 340 Dixwell Ave. features a 30-unit, four-story building, with three apartments on each floor organized around a central stair and elevator. Every three apartments share a balcony, creating small pockets of communal space within the larger space. All units have views facing the streets. The Shelton building model has three stories and 15 units.

Though Beulah plans to build a separate development at each lot, Li and Ponce de Leon proposed the buildings be designed as a whole, to give the intersection a more cohesive look.

The exhibit also incorporates photos of existing important structures and explains their purpose within the Dixwell neighborhood. Narrow lines of red tape leads from each of the photos to the part of the model representing the landmark — which they intended to lightly touch on the concept of ​“redlining,” where racial prejudice in housing policy confined blacks and Latinos to certain parts of the city.

Brooks said he and Beulah board members visited the students’ exhibit last week and were impressed at its design. ​“The design was unique,” he said, specifically referring to the ​“idea of incorporating a terrace with green space” as ​“innovative.”

He said Beulah leaders are in the early stages of development and plan to go to the local zoning board in the next two to three months. Before that, they may go to students at Yale’s School of Architecture ​“to see how to engage them” in the design process.

Li said one of the points of the project is to expose more Yale students to ​“what’s going on so close to campus,” especially as Yale continues to build adjacent to the neighborhood. The new residential colleges going up on Prospect Street are just a mile from 340 Dixwell Ave.

Yale’s continued development in the area ​“hinges on the stability of Dixwell,” Li said.

Ponce de Leon had been researching the histories of other affordable housing projects in New Haven and Baltimore for class. He became interested in Dixwell when exploring the city and its ​“urban landscapes” by foot last summer.

Both are graduating in May and neither have much time to continue working on the project. But they said they would have liked to engage members of the larger community, to receive feedback on the project and move forward incorporating those comments. Li will continue working on the exhibit through the rest of the year.

Brooks said the project shows the importance of ​“community renewal and investment in Dixwell.” As developers build in and around the neighborhood, it is important to integrate the housing going up and create opportunities for ​“neighborhood reinvestment and revitalization to take root,” he said.

To see the exhibit this spring, e‑mail Li and Ponce de Leon at [email protected] and [email protected].