The Family Housing design explores several methods to mitigate the noise and visual impacts from the adjacent four-lane thoroughfare and the commuter railroad tracks across the street. The concept is to cover a shingle-clad building with a stucco “shawl” that protects the private garden and light courts between the stacked two- and three-bedroom affordable units. Like fingers extending from the corridors, these garden courts filled with bamboo create visual privacy between units and provide natural day-lighting to the double-loaded corridors.