Two NJIT projects will have come to fruition when the Atlantic City Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) breaks ground, Monday, Oct.20, on 30 prototype homes to coincide with construction recently started on a $2.1 million Housing Demonstration Park, which will highlight innovative low-cost design, building, operations and maintenance techniques in an additional 10 prototype homes, both single-family and duplexes.
CRDA receives a percentage of the gambling proceeds to create a liveable and attractive city, not just for the tourists who flock to the casinos, but for the city's 38,000 residents as well.
Since development of the first casinos more than 20 years ago, Atlantic City has been going through a progressive metamorphosis. The casinos have created an extraordinary dichotomy: enormous wealth and opulence on the strip side-by-side with neglected and abandoned homes. With the initiation of these two ambitious NJIT-backed projects, CRDA may finally be ready to reap the fruits of its labor.
"We've had a massive redevelopment project to do," said James Kennedy, CRDA executive director. "We've literally cleared 30 to 40 acres of blighted area to begin grounds for construction. And that has taken years, given the laws and complexity of the project."
CRDA sought NJIT's assistance in creating the prototype homes from which potential homeowners could choose and a concomitant selection of sites. This mix-and-match approach allows CRDA to have some control over which prototypes are built next to existing housing. The homeowner also has a direct input into where they want to live and how.
CRDA introduced a competition to encourage development of the prototypes, prompting faculty in NJIT's School of Architecture to design more than 30 homes valued at $140,000 to $150,000.
Once ground is broken and the project completed, CRDA believes the NJIT prototypes will attract people from all income levels back to the city, creating the type of infrastructure and urban environment that promotes a better quality of life.
"The success of this project reflects the willingness of the state to work with NJIT in a constructive way to develop attractive, affordable housing for the people of Atlantic City," said Urs Gauchat, dean of the School of Architecture at NJIT. "Jim Kennedy has allowed us to put our expertise to work for a noble cause. This is the type of project that we would like to do with other communities throughout New Jersey to enhance the quality of life in urban environments."
In another effort with CRDA, the state Department of Community Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, researchers at NJIT's Center for Architecture and Building Science Research (CABSR) designed a Housing Demonstration Park to facilitate the development and introduction of new building technologies and methods aimed at reducing the cost of housing production. Construction began last week on the 10 demonstration homes to be built on five acres of land, valued at $560,000, in the city's blighted Northeast Inlet section.
"No one has ever tried to gather together the best housing technologies and demonstrate them all in one location to an audience that is going to be building affordable housing," said Peter Kastl, CABSR director of housing and building technology. "We won't be using materials that haven't been used before. The innovation will be in the economic application of these materials and technologies on these structures."
The 1,200 square-foot "starter type" homes will have two or three bedrooms with appliances and air conditioning. Some will be built using wood frames and others will be built using various new steel and concrete technologies.
Once constructed, the homes will be showcased to the building industry, government officials and the public for one year to demonstrate that affordable housing can be built in Atlantic City, as well as statewide.
"Atlantic City is an ideal place for the demonstration park because of the large volume of traffic that comes there for convention purposes," said Kastl. "But, this demonstration isn't just relevant to Atlantic City. There will be things applicable in the demonstration park that can be applied throughout the country."
At the conclusion of the demonstration period, the homes will be sold to qualified buyers at a low cost. Prices will start at $48,000 for a one-family unit in a two-family home. Single-family homes will start at $54,000.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in 72 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. U.S. News and World Report's 1998 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the top 175 national universities. Money Magazine's Best College Buys 1998 rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology colleges and universities.