Gehry's Test: Affordable Housing

Can architect Frank Gehry deliver great architecture for an affordable housing development project with a limited budget?

1 minute read

September 24, 2001, 10:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"R1 building that can be constructed for $126 per square foot. That's 20 percent more than the average construction budget for other Housing Authority of Portland projects but a fraction of the estimated $700-plus-per-square-foot spent on such Gehry projects as the Experience Music Project... Many questions remain to be answered: Can the Childpeace school afford the building? Can the housing authority privately raise the extra 20 percent over what the basic housing project would normally cost? No doubt some will argue that's money better spent not on Frank Gehry's architecture but more housing."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism

Sunday, September 23, 2001 in The Oregonian

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