CityHousing Hamilton

1620 Main Street East

Opportunity

The Rapid Housing Initiative funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation enabled CityHousing Hamilton to expand its mission of creating safe, cost-effective, and inclusive affordable housing. Located adjacent to the Queenston Traffic Circle, 1620 Main Street East represents the second phase of the Motor City Hotel site redevelopment, delivering much-needed affordable homes while integrating cutting-edge sustainability and energy efficiency strategies.

Response

Designed as a six-story mass timber building, 1620 Main St. E. demonstrates the potential of prefabricated construction for rapid, high-performance housing delivery. By leveraging Passive House principles, the design optimizes energy efficiency, airtightness, and occupant comfort while ensuring long-term affordability through reduced operational costs. This project redefines expectations for affordable housing, balancing speed of construction, quality of life, and environmental responsibility. Once built, this landmark project stands to be one of the first mass-timber passive house multi-residential buildings in North America.

Sustainability

1620 Main St. E. redefines sustainable affordable housing through mass timber construction, Passive House design, and high-efficiency systems. Its Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) structure reduces embodied carbon, while prefabrication minimizes waste and speeds up construction.

A high-performance envelope, featuring triple-pane Passive House-certified windows and airtight construction (0.40 ACH @50Pa), drastically lowers heating and cooling demand. Heat recovery ventilation (HRV) and air-source heat pumps optimize energy efficiency, while rooftop solar panels offset lighting energy use.

Water conservation is prioritized with low-flow fixtures and drought-tolerant native landscaping.