Architectural solutions that change the human landscape

Architecture
Anne Torney '83
Principal and Director of Housing,
WRT/Solomon E.T.C.

Anne Torney ’83, principal and director of housing at WRT/Solomon E.T.C., met the company’s founder, Daniel Solomon, when she enrolled in his urban design class at the University of California, Berkeley. Having earned her undergraduate degree in architecture at Princeton, Anne was interested in the way that design “combined theory with drawing and had the potential for a real humanistic scope.” Beyond architecture, she was compelled by the idea that design involved so much more than form and aesthetics—that it could be a tool for economic and social change, for individuals and for entire neighborhoods.

Daniel Solomon is a founder of ‘new urbanism,’ an architectural and design movement that promotes walkable, transit-oriented, mixed-income and mixed-use communities as an alternative to sprawl. Motivated and inspired by Solomon’s work, Anne joined his firm which, in 2002, merged with Wallace Roberts and Todd, a Philadelphia-based, multi-disciplinary firm that shares Solomon E.T.C.’s strong urbanistic and environmental focus. The firm approaches design as a continuum, embracing the full scale, from buildings to neighborhoods. Many of their clients are non-profit developers, providing much-needed housing for low-income families, for the working poor, and for San Francisco’s homeless. “We use design as a tool for social equity,” Anne says, “creating homes and neighborhoods that are economically and environmentally healthy. There is nothing like the sense of pride and respect people get from living in a well-designed, well cared for home.”

Anne’s projects span the West Coast, from Seattle to South Central Los Angeles, and include high-end and mixed-use projects. However, affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area is the heart of her work. One of Anne’s current projects is a supportive housing development for formerly homeless senior citizens. She explains that the supportive housing model is based on “the realization that it’s more humane and more economically sensible to provide permanent housing with on-site social services, which allows the residents to stabilize their lives and stay housed, rather than to provide temporary housing that the homeless cycle through continuously.” The buildings are designed to blend with the area they’re built for—in this case a traditional, Victorian San Francisco neighborhood.

Anne’s team starts every affordable housing project with thoughtful and focused community outreach, giving local residents confidence in the project and alleviating apprehensions about their new neighbors. “Community resistance to affordable housing is always a challenge,” she explains. “Project opponents that we call NIMBYs (not in my back yard) typically express their fear of lower-income neighbors as objections to density or insufficient parking, so as to not sound politically incorrect. To address this fear head-on, we take the neighbors on a tour of San Francisco’s affordable housing, which is often better designed and better maintained than many market-rate buildings. They see that these buildings are contextual, beautiful, something that they would be proud to have in their neighborhood. Good design is an incredibly powerful tool for social and economic integration. When you walk by on the street, you shouldn’t be able to tell what’s affordable housing and what isn’t.

“We recently took a van full of project opponents from San Francisco’s North Beach, which is an affluent area, to an affordable housing project in the Tenderloin, a very rough neighborhood. When they got out of the van, they literally had to step over a man passed out on the sidewalk. But when they looked through the lobby of the new housing, they saw two young girls skipping rope in a sunny courtyard. They finally ‘got it,’ that these children need a stable, safe and dignified place to grow up. That completely changed their tune. They started asking questions like, ‘Will the kids have a safe route to walk from the bus stop?’ They went from opponents of having affordable housing in their neighborhood to concerned supporters.”

Part of Anne’s work is creating new buildings; another equally important part is repairing existing neighborhoods with the same objectives in mind. One such project is Hunter’s View, redevelopment of 22 acres of public housing near the city’s Candlestick Park. The perfunctory concrete apartment buildings, constructed in the 1940s for war workers, resemble army barracks and are completely isolated from the network of streets, public stairs and Victorians of the surrounding San Francisco urban fabric. “[Hunters View] has a high crime rate and it’s a nightmare to raise children there. We’re reconfiguring the neighborhood to be connected, walkable and safe and increasing the density to create a mix of public housing and ownership housing.” The designers believe that the economic and physical integration of the community are key to its revitalization.

“People think of design as aesthetics, but it’s much more than that,” Anne explains. “It’s solving problems. We figure out how to break isolation and design public spaces of the buildings and neighborhoods to actively support community. For instance, would a formerly homeless resident feel comfortable leaving his or her room to sit in the garden with other residents? From the laundry room, can they casually check out what activities are going on in the community room and not feel self-conscious about joining in? How can we locate and design a new park at Hunters View so that it will be inviting to everyone in San Francisco, regardless of income or background?” Anne’s work combines these objectives with attention to sustainability, energy efficiency and environmentally safe materials, creating a healthy area for all residents.

An unexpected requirement of Anne’s otherwise design-driven work, she says, is reading people, learning what they are about and what they need. She credits her father and former Milton faculty member, Johnston Torney ’37, with instilling in her a sense of social justice: “My dad reached out to everyone. He was as warm and kind to the janitors as he was to the headmaster. I grew up privileged, but I didn’t realize it until I left Milton. He helped me to know that everyone deserves fair treatment and an equal shot. Most cities are composed of a mix of people and economic situations. We have to learn to be humble, to not presume anything. In urban areas the range of issues is so vast, and the problems are so complex, that you really have to listen.” Anne listens and her work clearly responds, creating safe communities and beautiful homes for over 2,500 West Coast families in the last 20 years. 

EEH

 

Back to Magazine