Prism Gold Award 2011 - Best Affordable Community

Located in Nantucket on a rural, mid-island site, Beach Plum Village has been designed as a rural village, using classic Nantucket cottage shapes and forms to create a sense of informality and neighborhood. This forty-unit Chapter 40-B residential development uses architectural features such as dormers, wood shingled roofs, large porches, traditional trim details, picket fences and subtle trim to give it a friendly, neighborhood feel. Though not at all apparent, all of the cottages are of modular construction, built off-island and assembled on site. The ten acre site was patterned with angled streets and seashell drives, lending the sense that the village evolved over time.

With the project located within the island-wide Historic District, each cottage was enthusiastically approved by the Historic District Commission. Each cottage has open-plan Kitchen, Dining and Living areas with the latest appliance conveniences, and most have First Floor master suites. Beach Plum boasts first-rate, small-scale community amenities including a swimming pool, a small clubhouse that looks like another cottage and a Har-Tru tennis court, making the new residential community a gem and highly popular place to live for all income groupings on Nantucket.

The permitting of the project allowed for the override of local zoning codes and was, almost by definition, controversial. Yet the end result has won over even the most ardent opponents. “This place is beautiful. I want to live here. It isn’t anything like what I was thinking when you said ‘affordable housing.’”