Creating Affordable Places
Dunbar Tower is a six-story affordable housing development in Ann Arbor’s downtown “Kerrytown”
neighborhood, co-developed by the Ann Arbor Housing Commission and Avalon Housing. Shaped by an extensive
community engagement process, the project responds to the neighborhood’s legacy as a historically Black
community and the impacts of ongoing gentrification. The building brings together permanent supportive
housing for residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness alongside affordable housing for artists, using a
trauma-informed design approach. This presentation will explore how the project balances the values of social
equity and sustainable, high-performance design, with a focus on the project’s all-electric systems, on-site
renewables, and the challenges of implementing a geothermal system on a constrained urban site.
Speakers:
Jennifer Hall – Ann Arbor Housing Commission, Executive Director
Wendy Carty-Saxon – Avalon Housing, Director of Real Estate Development
Ashley Wendela, AIA, LEEP AP – LBBA, Principal
Steve DiBerardine, PE, CGD, LEED AP – Strategic Energy Solutions, Inc., President and Founder
