Project profile: Gish Family Apartments

Gish Apartments in downtown San Jose is a 35-unit transit-oriented family apartment complex that provides quality affordable housing for households earning 35%–50% of the area median income. The complex includes efficiency, two-bedroom, three-bedroom apartments. Over a third of the apartments (13 of them) are set aside for residents with developmental disabilities. The complex is a model for the State of California's Multifamily Housing Program for mainstreaming special needs populations.

The mixed-use plan includes a convenience store and a beauty salon on the ground floor. Residents have access to a computer center and are provided with services tailored to support low-income families, such as financial literacy training, computer training, and after-school programs. Housing Choices Coalition provides coordination of services for residents who have developmental disabilities, and facilitates communication among these residents, their case managers, and the property management team.

Gish Apartments is a groundbreaking development both for its architectural design and in its use of renewable energy technologies and other green building features.
(2009 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects recipient)