Pok Oi Residences

The Pok Oi Residences bring 85 affordable homes to Boston’s Chinatown, transforming an underused parking lot into a Passive House-certified building that honors the neighborhood’s cultural identity and provides a welcoming new gateway rooted in care, resilience, and community pride.

Boston, Massachusetts 87,000 sf PHIUS+ CORE Pre-Certified

Photography by (c) Benjamin Cheung

We collaborated with Harrison Affordable, LLC, a joint venture of Beacon Communities LLC and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England, to develop a six-story multifamily residential building to expand on the existing Tai Tung Village development. The site is consistent with smart-growth and transit-oriented development principles, ideally situated near MBTA subway and bus services, multiple Blue Bikes stations, and various amenities.

The Pok Oi Residences at 288 Harrison Avenue feature 85 residential units, with ground floor non-residential space for retail, community, and cultural uses. All units will be income-restricted to households that earn no more than seventy percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), as established by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The building contains a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.

The project is designed to LEED Gold certification requirements and is PHIUS+ CORE Pre-Certified by Passive House Institute US (PHIUS). Sustainable design strategies reduce the impact of energy consumption and high-temperature events, and include a high performance building envelope and windows, energy recovery, a light roof with high solar reflectance, high-efficiency HVAC equipment, and careful attention to mitigate against air pollution.