24: Partnership, affordable housing and succession planning with Architect, Nancy Ludwig - President, ICON Architecture

Nancy Ludwig is an architect who has been working at ICON Architecture for 40 years, and has been president for the past 15. ICON is a woman-owned business located in downtown Boston, and they specialize in multi-family housing and municipal projects. Nancy was originally brought on to do architecture, and was involved in the New York Urban Cultural Parks Plan, as well as historic resource planning in Lowell. She was also part of a project in Portsmouth which involved building a hotel, condos, and retail spaces. Nancy has worked on a variety of projects over the years and has an extensive background in urban design and planning.

In this episode, Nancy joins Rens Hayes to discuss the important work of creating affordable housing in Boston. Nancy talks about the Hope Six program which enabled the rebuilding of the Orient Heights development in East Boston, creating thousands of housing units that provided people with a better place to live. She also explains how they are now involved in public-private partnerships to build even more affordable housing, driven by their mission to help those in need of housing.

Nancy and Rens also discuss strategies for creating more affordable housing, including a two-to-one ratio of market rate to affordable units and the use of modular construction to save time, money, and create better quality units. Nancy shares examples of how her team has utilized modular construction, including a 10-story building that utilized a steel modular system from the Netherlands and Fullstack Modular, a company that specializes in large-scale, high-rise modular construction. They agree that modular construction could be the key to solving the housing crisis and creating more affordable housing. Join Nancy and Rens as they delve into the fascinating world of architecture and urban planning, and discuss how design can be used to create a better future for all.

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