Hardie^® siding elevates affordable housing with bold, innovative design

Blue Oak Landing, an affordable multi-family housing project in Vallejo, California, stands out from the smaller, two-story, single-family homes that surround it— and that’s on purpose.

Featured on “America ByDesign | Architecture,” an editorial television program focused on celebrating American architectural projects from AIA members, Blue Oak Landing is a seventy-five-unit affordable housing project that provides high-quality housing to lower-income households who earn only twenty to forty percent of the area’s average income.

“When we started the project, we knew it was going to be a lot of new things for the neighborhood,” Daniel Simons, Principal of David Baker Architects says. “We knew, with a four-story apartment building, it was going to stand out.” Instead of trying to limit the scope of the housing, and thus the number of people and families they could help, Simons says they leaned into a bold concept. “We wanted the building to be a positive to the neighborhood, so there wasn’t any stigma associated with it.”

Vallejo, CA is located in the North, close to the Bay Area and is home to five of the ten most expensive counties in the United States. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker in the Bay Area would have to work more than three full-time jobs in order to afford a standard two-bedroom apartment.

Blue Oak Landing serves individuals, couples, and families currently experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness, providing on-site services and case management to help tenants with key life skills. At a time when building affordable, single-family housing is not financially attractive, multi-family housing fills in the gaps. When multi-family housing is too expensive, as it is for 35,000 homeless Bay Area individuals, projects like Blue Oak Landing can help alleviate and even reverse homelessness.

The cost-effective choice remains reliable and long-lasting

Working in affordable housing means working with restricted budgets, so when choosing a material, durability is at the forefront, but so are the material costs. “We chose to go with Hardie® siding because it’s fire-resistant, it’s a sustainable material, it’s very durable and it’s very cost effective,” Simons explains.

He adds, “[Hardie® products] are Engineered for Climate®, so they’re very appropriate for our climate here in Northern California.” The area experiences brutal heat and severe wildfires each year, along with intense flooding worsening with sea level rise. Hardie® products are designed to withstand worse-case weather, resisting water and humidity and won’t burn when exposed to fire.

Durability was definitely a draw for the team when choosing a cladding material. But it wasn’t the only one. “The reason we used it here, actually, was to come up with a way of using the material that’s a little bit unconventional,” Simons says. “We call it ‘random batten’ siding, where we use different widths and spacing of the materials that’ll allow us to have the buildings all vary a little bit, even though it’s the same material everywhere.

Using Hardie® Panel and Hardie® Trim Battens, David Baker Architects were able to create a unique structure that does not stigmatize their tenants. The multi-family structure would have drawn attention due to its sheer size — it houses 75 units — but this way, the bold and innovative design makes it a structure for the community to admire, as well as welcoming to the tenants.

The polished, high-end look of Hardie® products already ensured the building would have excellent curb appeal. Combining it with the ‘random battens’ mapping, bold angled bays, and thoughtful design layout meant the building stood out, in a good way.

“It’s really easy for [affordable housing structures] to turn out institutional looking,” Simons explains. “Wherever we can, we find opportunities to add a little detail or some design.”

A safe place to land

Not only is Blue Oak Landing an attractive and inviting building complex to call home, but it also leans into resilient and sustainable design, with rooftop solar panels catching that long-lasting California sunshine and all electrical design throughout. The building is ADA accessible, including wheelchair access throughout and handicap-adaptable units, and it features a community center and garden where residents can work, study, and play.

Blue Oak Landing has won eight building and architectural awards, including AIA California’s 2024 Design Honor Award, AIA San Franscico Design Award’s 2025 Honor Award, and Multi-Housing News 2024 Excellence Awards for Best Development and Design: Affordable.

“[James] Hardie has been a great partner with us, allowing us to kind of play with their materials, do things a little differently,” Simons says. “The result is something that comes across as unique and doesn’t just look like the most cost-efficient solution and really helps us elevate the design of these affordable housing projects.”

For builders and contractors interested in partnering with James Hardie, reach out to your Multi-Family representative or download this resource to find the representative for your region.