Project Profile: Mixed Income Senior Apartments

As part of the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA) Building Excellence Awards, one of Community Development Programs Center of Nevada’s mixed income senior apartments received recognition for the projects’ innovation and environmental sustainability. The annual competition selects the top SIPs projects in eight categories. 

PROJECT PROFILE:   Mixed Income Senior Apartments  |  Las Vegas, NV  |  View Project Profile (pdf)

2014 SIPA Building Excellence Award Recipient for Best Multi-Family Project.

“We have used SIPs on our last 9 projects and will never go back to conventional framing. There are never problems with the walls not being straight, like we faced in stick frame construction. We also pay all of the utilities on all our SIP projects and we have found great cost savings of power, especially in the summer months of Las Vegas.”  -Sandra Bullock, CDPCN

Developer Frank Hawkins of Community Development Programs Center of Nevada (CDPCN) is a nonprofit corporation that seeks to promote community and economic development and affordable housing in the state of Nevada.  CDPCN has been working to revitalize parts of Las Vegas for years.  As the builder, developer, and owner of their projects, they needed to use materials and methods that would reduce their building and operating costs in order to keep the units affordable.  Critical to this goal is keeping energy costs low in the occupied units since CDPCN itself pays all utility bills.

SIPs are strong. You can’t damage them as easily as conventional framing.” – Sandra Bullock, CDPCN

This is CDPCN’s 9th affordable housing project that Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) have been utilized, a 3-story apartment building housing 81 one and two-bedroom units.  Premier SIPs offer regular savings of time, labor and construction waste.  The building owners pay all building utilities and found the savings of energy costs were significant over other types of frame structures, especially in the hot summer months.  SIPs also stand up well to the bumps and damage that can occur when families with small children regularly come and go in multifamily housing.

Structural engineering was extensively completed for this multi-story project with the help of Premier SIPs consultants and Structural Engineers that are extremely experienced with SIPs design and construction.

Other energy efficient materials used on this project include:  solar panels, low E windows, tankless hot water heaters, low VOC paint and ceramic tile throughout.

All multi-family complexes Frank Hawkins owns that have utilized SIPs exceed ENERGY STAR requirements.

PROJECT DETAILS:

• Architect:  Winston Henderson Architects
• Builder/Developer:  CDPCN
• Project Size:  41,150 sq. ft., 3-story building

Read past articles written on CDPCN’s Las Vegas Mixed Income projects built with SIPs:

• Innovative Multi-Family Housing Driving Revitalization Effort in Las Vegas, 2012
• Bringing Multi-Family Housing Quality and Affordability…yet Energy Efficiency, 2011
• Win Win Solutions, article featured in Environmental Design + Construction Magazine, 2010