Michael Viveiros, AIA

When and how did you become interested in the affordable housing crisis?

My involvement with SWAP was many years ago and before the most recent housing crisis, but having said this, affordable housing and improving neighborhoods in Providence and other challenging places has been an interest of mine for many years. I continue to work on the question of how we can improve our cities as well as our small towns.

What motivated you early on to get involved - and what did you do?

As a young architect at the time, two college friends and I joined forces to design and build four townhouses in the Armory District, one block east of the Parade Grounds. At the time, the area was quite derelict, however, the Armory Revival Group had begun work in the area. My partners and I purchased a vacant lot from Armory, built the project and then the RI Banking Crises hit. I lived in one of the townhouses for many years and learned first-hand the advantages and disadvantages of living in a sometimes-challenging area.

In the late 1980’s, a previous work colleague had purchased one of the first houses from SWAP (in the 1970’s). Carla reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be on the SWAP Board and I said yes, based on my interest in building a better Providence. SWAP was leader then, and remains a leader today, in building affordable housing and building stronger neighborhoods.

What was the most rewarding aspect and what has been the most difficult?

As it relates to SWAP and South Providence, particularly lower South Providence (Pine and Friendship Street area and just beyond), SWAP’s positive impact can clearly be seen. The lower South Providence area as well as other areas of South Providence in general have greatly improved, but the challenges of poverty remain. Fentanyl has not helped, and our recent politics and RI State government budget issues will not be helping. The more difficult part is how long it takes.

What is your perception on modern day housing and the efforts of SWAP and others to address today's problems?

We have a major affordability problem and recent building, electrical, and energy code requirements are making things even more unaffordable. SWAP and Carla are doing what they can - and doing it very well. However, limited funds and expensive land and construction costs are major obstacles to affordability at the pace we need. As someone who believes that climate change is real  - we must do much more. I’m more and more convinced that our recent and present path are making the problem worse. I believe that we need to build and build more to rapidly increase our housing supply to replace so much of our housing that’s 100 years old. Look across our aging small and large cities (Fall River, New Bedford, New London, Norwich, Pittsfield, etc.). They all need help.

What does the next 50 years look like?

Predictions are difficult so I’m not sure about 50 years, but in the coming decade or so, cities will struggle, and our culture will not be kind to poor and working-class people unless we have a reset - which is possible. There are too many people losing compassion for the other and it’s a global problem as well. I’m concerned about the impacts of social media, and artificial intelligence, as well as massively large corporations focused only on shareholder value and without connections to a place.

Also, it can’t all be done by non-profits. We need a marketplace that provides housing at an affordable rent or sale price. Culturally, the US will never be Vienna, Austria or a similar place that builds public infrastructure and super interesting public housing- but we can try to emulate some of the broader concepts.

What are you doing now?

I am a senior principal at DBVW Architects- one of the largest architecture firms in RI. I’ll often ask someone we’re interviewing what they like most about architecture, and they’ll turn the question around to me and ask what I like most about what we do. My response has been that as a firm of ±35 people, with the work we do, we get a very good overview of the challenges and opportunities of the world.  We work across RI, MA and eastern CT for a wide variety of client types in some of the poorest areas in NE (Holyoke, Lawrence, Hartford, Woonsocket). We also work for wealthy institutions such as Yale and the NY Yacht Club. Our experience includes a variety of project types including town halls, senior centers, healthcare, higher education, theatres, landmark preservation, large-scale housing projects and other non-profit groups.