{"id":30,"date":"2025-10-21T13:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/?p=30"},"modified":"2025-11-13T23:49:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T23:49:27","slug":"architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding affordable housing in state\u2019s largest city"},"content":{"rendered":"
Research Impact<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

The College of Architecture and Partners for Livable Omaha are collaborating on an innovative housing initiative to develop small, sustainable homes tailored to both older adults and first-time homebuyers, meeting a growing need in Omaha, Nebraska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The OurStory project enables Husker students from the college\u2019s Fabrication and Construction Team design-build studio to develop homes that fill affordability and accessibility gaps in the housing market, which hit low-income, workforce-income and senior residents especially hard. The team aims to develop scalable solutions that help Omaha and other Nebraska communities facing similar challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur students are creating homes that address real urban challenges \u2014 aging in place, affordability and sustainability \u2014 through thoughtful architectural design,\u201d said Jeffrey L. Day, professor of architecture and FACT studio director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holy Name Housing Corp. will construct the initiative\u2019s first two homes in Omaha\u2019s historic Benson neighborhood. The houses will sit on a divided corner lot, creating two smaller lots each with their own street frontage, access and address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FACT students are involved at every stage, from research and community engagement to design, prototyping and pre-fabrication of select building components. The project highlights the College of Architecture\u2019s commitment to experiential learning and meaningful community partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur students are learning how to work collaboratively with public, private and nonprofit partners, manage real-world constraints and view housing as a form of social infrastructure,\u201d Day said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our students are creating homes that address real urban challenges \u2014 aging in place, affordability and sustainability \u2014 through thoughtful architectural design.<\/p>\nJeffrey L. Day<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Nico Forte, a master\u2019s student, said he\u2019s learned about blending affordability with smart urban design. The team is using easy-to-assemble structural insulated panels for the homes\u2019 framework, which reduces costs, accelerates construction and offers long-term energy savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese homes are realistic and revolutionary at the same time,\u201d Forte said. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting people where they are \u2013 whether that\u2019s a senior looking to downsize or a young person buying their first home \u2013 all while introducing gentle density into existing neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first OurStory build is supported by a construction loan from Spark Capital\u2019s Middle-Income Workforce Housing Fund to offset the cost of buying housing in disinvested neighborhoods via loan forgiveness options. The construction project has additional support from the Lozier Foundation, Pella Windows and Doors of Omaha and Lincoln, Sherwin Williams and Buildertrend. An architectural internship, made possible by support from AARP and American Institute of Architects, supports graduate students working on the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additional Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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News release<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska Examiner<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nebraska Public Media<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Affordability<\/a>, <\/span>Architecture<\/a>, <\/span>Education<\/a>, <\/span>Housing<\/a>, <\/span>Jeffrey Day<\/a>, <\/span>Nebraska Impact<\/a>, <\/span>Partnerships<\/a>, <\/span>Sustainability<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraska students from the College of Architecture are collaborating on an innovative housing initiative aimed at mitigating affordability and accessibility gaps in the housing market. They are designing small, sustainable homes tailored to both older adults and first-time homebuyers in Omaha, Nebraska. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[144,17,51,46,183,177,53,133],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-impact","tag-affordability","tag-architecture","tag-education","tag-housing","tag-jeffrey-day","tag-nebraska-impact","tag-partnerships","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}