Mount Angeles View - Phase 1
Affordable homes nestled at the base of the Olympic National Park

In 2013, Schemata Workshop was selected by the Peninsula Housing Authority to design Phase 1 of a 232 home master plan that would redevelop an aging affordable housing community called Mount Angeles View, located in Port Angeles at the northern edge of the Olympic National Park. Due to decades of responsible stewardship, the housing stock was generally in good working condition. However, the utility infrastructure was in danger of imminent and catastrophic failure. Furthermore, the siting of the homes resulted in acres of lawn that required an inordinate amount of maintenance for the very little recreational or aesthetic value it provided to the residents or neighborhood at large. While there were houses, there were no visible signs of “home.”

After years of actively pursuing funding on the part of the Peninsula Housing Authority, Phase 1 (or MAV1 as we have dubbed it) was successful in garnering funding from both the Washington State Housing Trust Fund as well as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Schemata Workshop worked on an extremely fast 4-month schedule to design and provide building permit documents for seven buildings, all while staying below a tight budget. Strong emphasis was placed on standardizing units and details to facilitate construction that could be built and maintained by businesses local to Port Angeles. Urban design solutions, including common parks, entry patios and special attention to human scale design, provide a sense of place for the low and moderate income families who call Mount Angeles View home.