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Project Summary: Mer Rouge
OWNER/DEVELOPER
Marshall Planning and Development (MPD)
ARCHITECT
Wenzel & Associates
CONTRACTOR
Champion Builders, Inc.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Tri-state Management Corp.
| FUNDERS: | TYPE: |
| Farmers Home Administration | 95% loan |
| MPD | 5% equity |
| U.S. Dept. of Agriculture | |
DEVELOPMENT TYPE:
New construction rental townhouses.
RESIDENT PROFILE:
Low- to moderate-income families
DENSITY: 8 units per acre
DEVELOPMENT PROFILE
| Type | #/Units | Size (sf) | Rents |
| 1 BR | 16 | 552 | $0-295 |
| 2 BR | 15 | 768 | $0-330 |
| 2 BR TH | 5 | 864 | $0-340 |
| Total | 33 | | |
Laundry/maintenance: 644 (includes office)
Courtyard/play: Tot-lot
Parking: 42, surface
Total site area: 4 acres
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CONSTRUCTION TYPE
One-, two- and three-story woodframe, vinyl siding & brick veneer, comp. shingle roofs.
DEVELOPMENT COSTS:
Land cost: $40,000; Constr. costs: $900,000; Other costs: $83,083;
Total development costs: $983,083 ($28,372 /unit or $32.85/sf); Completed Nov. 1987.
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MER ROUGE VILLAS, Mer Rouge, Louisiana
 The building forms in Mer Rouge Villas appear to have grown together in
a natural way. By using ready made, standardized
components supplemented with designed details, the architect achieved
economy of design. Since winning his first Farmers
Home Administration design competition in 1986, architect Henry Wenzel
has gone on to design affordable housing in several
southern states. He declares, “My whole value system changed, and I
have gravitated toward the people who have been
ignored since FDR and the New Deal.” His efforts have not gone
unnoticed – in 1992 Mer Rouge Villas received a
Presidential Design Award. Developer Thomas B. Marshall commented that
since the completion of the Villas, affordable
housing developments are accepted more readily by communities. “We have
very little political opposition,” he said, “since we
started building the better designed housing.”
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