Old Town's New Housing Community

Arbolera De Vida will provide long-term affordable housing for low-income and moderate-income families.

The site of an old sawmill is now home to Arbolera De Vida (Orchard of Life), a new housing community in the Old Town district of Albuquerque. The Sawmill Community Land Trust, a local nonprofit, collaborated with the city of Albuquerque to develop the project.

Arbolera De Vida will provide long-term affordable housing and economic opportunity for low-income and moderate-income families. It includes single-family homes; townhomes; apartments; live/work units; and commercial, light industrial, and retail space, including an incubator.

The neighborhood follows the New Urbanism style of development, incorporating design features such as pedestrian walkways, porches, rear garages, neighborhood businesses, and open green space.

The homes include energy-saving features such as passive solar orientation and double-glazed windows. The 27-acre site and its buildings are designed to tie into existing adjacent neighborhoods and maximize the conservation of energy and water resources through careful citing and by minimizing run-off.

The focal points of the community are a public plaza, community center, and park. The plaza provides performance space underneath an arbor and also serves as a storm run-off detention basin. Surface run-off was a primary technical concern to project architects since underground storm sewers in the area were already at capacity. The Sawmill Community Land