Neighborhood Design Center, Inc.

Habitat for Humanity of Dane County worked with the Neighborhood Design Center to use the ModelBlock neighborhood design tool to try out different site designs for two affordable housing developments in Madison.

The Northport Commons site on Madison’s north side includes 6 parcels totaling about 5 acres. Blocks were places on an areal photograph to represent existing structures. NDC and Habitat staff tested a

variety of infill development scenarios represented by different block arrangements. The photo above shows the infillsites along Northport Drive, and the infill sites facing the park and immediately to the

east (left) of the park. The buildings are residential. A slide presentation demonstrates the process.

The Marquette-Hawk site is a redevelopment project along Starkweather Creek, close to East Washington Avenue located in a low-income area that includes a Salvation Army community center and highway oriented commercial facing E. Washington Ave. The challenge was to place 8 units and required parking without degrading the street, the creek, or the view from E. Washington. The area is shown below. A slide presentation of the modelblock exercise is available here (6 MB).