Article: Price Tower may offer HUD affordable housing

[DavidC]

Affordable housing by Frank Lloyd Wright? HUD may make it happen


David

[DRN]

How many duplexes are in use by the Inn at Price Tower?
Will this plan remove the possibility of a recreation of Bruce Goff’s home and studio from photos?

[Roderick Grant]

Considering HUD's track record, this scheme does not look promising.

[ZacharyMatthews]

How many duplexes are in use by the Inn at Price Tower?
Will this plan remove the possibility of a recreation of Bruce Goff’s home and studio from photos?

Floors 9-10 were used by Bruce Goff as his work/live space until 1964 when he moved to Kansas City MO. They are currently unused as Inn property (Previously it was the fitness center-a few stationary bikes and yoga mats)) I feel if this plan was to move ahead the Goff suite would be the easiest for them to rehab for HUD, which may include major ADA alterations. I'd hope to see BG's space recreated instead and have had numerous meetings with past directors about the restoration but the numbers were always too high @ over $100K (a very high overshoot in my eyes)

[Jeff Myers]

I’d prefer to not see HUD in the tower. The tower could suffer damage, needs a 24 hour staff and security, ADA alterations that could impede on the historic structure.

This is my opinion and I’ve almost lived in a 2 different HUD apartment complexes, but after what I saw I ran.
Drugs, not enough staff to maintain the property, which leads to deterioration. It is best if the tower sought out an architecture team to restore the building after finding a donor.
Developing and rehabbing an old structure is no small project.

[Roderick Grant]

Would those tiny elevators pass ADA standards? If not, that would put the kibosh on the entire plan, which would be a good thing.

[Jeff Myers]

Those tiny elevators, custom designed by Wright and built by Otis, may not pass. They would have to restore the apartment elevator to service.

They can grandfather in certain things though.
I remember on a visit some people were taking drapery up to the 17th floor. They used Harold Price’s elevator, in plans it is labeled that, in order to get to the floor but they could barely fit this drape and just one person into the car.
Makes you wonder how they took all the wood, beds, and numerous other stuff up, likely by the stairs.

[Roderick Grant]

"They would have to restore the apartment elevator to service."

What do you mean by that, Jeff? There are only 4 tiny elevators, none of which has room to be expanded to handle a wheelchair without causing havoc to the design of the entire building.

I once took a ride up with the late, claustrophobic John Payne (Richardson House owner). I believe Roland Reisley was along, as well as at least one other person. Poor John, he was ready to leap out of his skin. I didn't enjoy the lift, either.

During construction, as photos in Story show, there was a structure alongside the building that included a lift, so getting things up and down would not have been a problem. Once built, for tenants, commercial or residential, to haul up their stuff would have been a problem without taking big things apart. But you cannot take a king-size mattress apart, so you might have to bend it to fit. But then what would you do with the box spring?

[Jeff Myers]

The apartment elevator is out of service as it houses modern lines for internet. I do recall the exterior scaffolding, I forgot it served as a lift.

[DavidC]

Price Tower proposal stirs community concern


David

[SDR]

"'We would use two of our three hotel [rooms] ... and then we would utilize one on [floor] seven. ... We’ve looked at
reallocating that space into handicapped space because the grant requires that one space be handicapped accessible,' Loyd said."

Is any elevator in the building large enough to accept a wheelchair ? Could any bath be made wheelchair-accessible ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

No and no. There is no way to accommodate any sort of "update" that would not violate the floor plan.
But the real argument against the entire idea is getting into bed with HUD, or any other government entity.

[Jeff Myers]

They do have a handicap room.

With this being on the register, the elevators, stairs, and ceilings are not exactly code. This is a detriment to this building but I doubt it will go through considering the fact it’s three apartments, there’s a museum, it’s historic and nothing is to code I can’t see it being hud housing.
Get a better developer, accept that it’s not to modern codes, but make it livable should work. I’ve run into apartment complexes, dating prior to ADA codes, that have had to either forgo the codes or have to do a lot in modifications. The cost can pile up by bringing a building up to codes.

I would actually love to see Goff’s suite returned as a rentable historic apartment.

[DRN]

Comments from Price Tower Executive Director Rick Loyd:

There are three hotel suites at Price Tower that were formerly apartments when the building was originally built, Loyd explained. Another area could also be transformed into an apartment to comply with the Americans with
Disabilities Act � a necessary step to even be eligible for the HUD grant.
...If everything pointed to the grant being suitable for the Price Tower, three hotel suites would be converted to residential living space.

“We would use two of our three hotel [rooms] ... and then we would utilize one on [floor] seven. ... We’ve looked at reallocating that space into handicapped space because the grant requires that one space be handicapped accessible,� Loyd said.

Is the Inn at the Price Tower considering closing or removing two of its bi-level apartments from the offerings to overnight guests?

“My intent and our board’s intent is never to turn this property into low-income housing project,� Loyd said. “I think that term of ‘low-income residence’ has lot of negative connotations, and I get all that. When I view the discussions, initially, it was could our interns, could our Wright Chef, could that constitute somebody under that low income, and it could. So, that’s how I narrowly thought, or naively thought, of that. I don’t have hundreds of dealings with HUD. ... All those things being said, that’s how this came about.�

It is my understanding if government grant money or tax credits are accepted in exchange for providing low income housing, the building owner has no say in the choice of tenants. Eligible tenants from a wait list are assigned to a property based on their place on the list and the property's suitability to the tenant's needs. This is not to say this will yield bad tenants, but it is unlikely that the apartments could be used as on-site housing for current low income eligible staff of the Tower.

[Craig]

Seems like such an odd idea. Does this mean the hotel concept has failed? Is this the best that can be done with the building? Couldn't the units be rented simply as market rate apartments or does no one in the area care to live in the tower?

When I stayed there it was a cold, rainy weekend and it was not comfortable in our unit. The hotel provided portable space heaters in the attempt to warm up the room.

Those elevators are like vertical coffins. Just the thought of being stuck in one due to mechanical or power issues is enough to make one use the stairs. I can't imagine a typical HUD tenant dealing with them.