COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 11 Alley houses in Bethlehem, PA. dwellings requires a change in city zoning, and the plan calls for piloting a zoning update that would allow prototypes to be built. Sara Satullo, deputy director of community development for the city of Bethlehem, says, “The alley house partnership looks to usher in a revival of a historical housing type in our city via an innovative collaboration that can ensure the alley houses remain affordable. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for city staff to collaborate with Lehigh University faculty and Community Action Lehigh Valley staff in new ways as we seek out grant funding, problem solve and work to build out the program.” The Alley House program has garnered significant community interest, advocacy, and support from various sources, including federal, state, and local agencies and congregational leaders. A recently awarded grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will allow Lehigh University faculty experts to spearhead a place-based participatory research study on ADU development and policy reform, oversee the design of each Alley House, advise on zoning ordinance revisions, and coordinate a robust community engagement strategy with CALV. The construction of each Alley House will be managed by CALV, with Lehigh students and construction workforce trainees from Catalyst4 contributing to program elements, prefabrication, and work on-site. CALV and New Bethany will ensure Alley Houses developed through this program will benefit low-to-mid-income residents and In a city where there is little available land for building, the concept uses existing parcels. There is a precedent in Bethlehem for this type of structure, which today would be called an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. Historically, the city had alley houses, carriage houses and other structures that today would be considered ADUs. From the 1920s to the 1950s, zoning reform outlawed building such dwellings in many American cities. Today, Bethlehem’s zoning laws prohibit them. Hiatt’s yearlong research into the issue culminated in Southside Survey: Housing Futures for South Bethlehem, a pop-up design and research exhibition held in May 2022 at the Brinker Lofts. The exhibit featured prototype models of alley houses in several sizes. Hiatt’s concepts included small units accommodating a single person and others large enough for a family. The ideas presented were enthusiastically received by community members in attendance. The project was recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Eastern Pennsylvania with a 2022 Award of Excellence for sustainable design. The AIA jurors praised Hiatt’s work, saying “this project serves as a powerful response to one of our built environment’s most important sustainability issues—that of increasing urban density in the interest of economizing on land, infrastructure and, most importantly, the carbon impact of automobile-based urban sprawl.” Now Hiatt’s proposal is moving from concept to reality under a unique partnership between Lehigh, the city of Bethlehem and Community Action Lehigh Valley (CALV), an anti-poverty organization that works to improve affordable housing and increase economic opportunity in the Lehigh Valley. A pilot program to build an affordable alley house in West Bethlehem is planned to start in 2024. Hiatt says this work would not be possible without strong, collaborative community partnerships. “In talking about managing change as an architect, my goal is to visualize what responsible urban change can look like and then coordinate all the parties involved in making that change a reality,” he states. “That’s the goal here: to be a convener and to generate ideas rather than impose change in a top-down way.” Anna Smith, director of Community Action Development Bethlehem, notes, “It’s a pretty unique kind of partnership here with an antipoverty organization and a university and a city.” The idea is supported by the city’s affordable housing study, Opening Doors: Strategies To Build Housing Stability in Bethlehem, which was unveiled in fall 2023. Building such CHRISTINE KRESCHOLLEK
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