Dorchester Design Collaborative and Bensonwood partner on affordable housing development
Dorchester, MA Dorchester Design Collaborative, a partnership between Jennifer Ha of Hue Architecture and Milo Stella of Star Contracting Co., alongside Bensonwood, an offsite construction and panelization company, are developing 12 affordable housing units at 104-108 Norwell St. The project is bringing three four-unit Passive House-designed buildings – the first of their kind in the neighborhood.
The project is being developed on previously vacant city-owned lots, using a housing delivery model that enables faster construction, greater cost efficiency, and significantly improved energy performance. The result is a pathway to achieving housing and climate goals simultaneously providing affordable homeownership opportunities while delivering healthier, high-performance buildings.
As a design-build development group, Dorchester Design Collaborative is a values-driven venture, ensuring the project reflects and uplifts the neighborhood while also exemplifying thoughtful, sustainable design. By leveraging Bensonwood’s innovative off-site, panelized construction process, the project team can maintain strict control over budget, quality, and schedule - while creating a scalable model that can accelerate multi-unit projects to address the housing crisis across the Northeast and beyond. Bensonwood’s high performance approach starts in the design phase and is coordinated all the way through site raising.
The project was financed through a $3.2 million construction loan from the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC), as well as through grants from the city of Boston and Mass Housing’s Commonwealth Builder program. The project is part of the first phase of the city of Boston’s Welcome Home Boston RFP program, advancing affordable homeownership development and supporting emerging development teams in the City.
“104–108 Norwell St. shows what is possible when we combine innovative construction methods with a commitment to creating homes that Boston families can afford,” said chief of housing Sheila Dillon. “By transforming long-vacant city-owned land into high-quality, energy-efficient homes, this project delivers on our goals for both housing and climate readiness. We are grateful to Dorchester Design Collaborative and Bensonwood for helping us expand affordable homeownership in a way that reflects and strengthens the Dorchester community. This is exactly the type of forward-thinking development that the Welcome Home, Boston program was designed to support.”
Project Highlights include:
• Three Passive House – design-certified buildings for exceptional performance;
• Rooftop solar panels to offset utility bills (projected to reach Net-Zero Energy);
• Affordability: 50% of units available to buyers earning 80% AMI, 50% at 100% AMI; and
• Community amenities: EV chargers and bike parking.
“We believe affordable housing should never compromise on quality,” said Jennifer Ha, co-founder of Dorchester Design Collaborative. “We hope 104-108 Norwell St. serves as a benchmark for Boston. This project is the perfect example of why we do this work – a vision realized only by bringing together an exceptional, owner-integrated design-build-prefab team.”
“We are proud to be delivering a project that raises the standard for infill multifamily housing in the City of Boston,” said Milo Stella, general manager at Star Contracting Company. “These homes create affordable ownership opportunities that help working families and individuals remain in the city, while also providing a level of comfort, health, and energy efficiency that exceeds comparable developments. By partnering with Bensonwood to panelize the buildings, we advanced a more efficient and scalable project delivery model with the potential to benefit the broader housing market.”
“This project embodies our firm’s core values – strengthening communities through beautiful, sustainable design,” said Matthew Mueller, co-founder of Hue Architecture. “We’re proud to collaborate with partners who share our vision and helped bring this project to life.
“This project demonstrates the power of combining community-driven design with advanced off-site construction,” said Seth Clarke, director of business development at Bensonwood. “By replicating this process, we can help move multiunit affordable housing projects forward faster, supporting both climate goals and the urgent need for housing across the region.”