Yale School of Architecture 2007 Building Project Is Dedicated Today

New Haven, Conn. — A new home in New Haven for a disabled war veteran and her family, designed and built by first year students of the Yale School of Architecture, will be dedicated at 33 Kossuth Street today at 5:30 p.m.

Now celebrating its 40th year, the renowned Yale School of Architecture First Year Building Project (FYBP) was the first design-build program in the U.S. offered as part of the curriculum to students of architecture. In the first two years of the program, Yale students built community structures in New Zion, Kentucky. Closer to home, the architects-in-training took on such projects as the restoration of the Wallingford train station, a camp pavilion for city children in Farnam and a transportable stage—still in use after 24 years—for the New Haven Green.

In 1989, students at the School of Architecture teamed with Habitat for Humanity for their first residential project in New Haven: a two-family house on Hallock Street. Having joined with other non-profit affordable housing agencies over the years, the FYBP today takes credit for 18 houses— sold at below-market value to first-time home-owners—in diverse neighborhoods of New Haven.

This year, students were charged to come up with a plan for a single-level home conforming to ADA standards, with an attached rental unit.

Having partnered with the Neighborhood Housing Authority for many years to make the new house available at cost to a family that could not otherwise afford it, the students are now working with the non-profit agency Common Ground Community, a not-for-profit developer of supportive housing.

Working with the Veterans Affairs Office, Common Ground has expressly targeted female veterans for the type of two-family, owner-renter residence the Yale students have designed.

Ground was broken for the 2007 project in May, with all the first year students helping in the construction. At the dedication today, the keys to the new house will be symbolically transferred to the new owners.

Members of the press and news media are cordially invited to attend this historic event and reception.