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David Salmela, an award-winning Duluth architect, has a list of people waiting to move into Salmela-designed homes, which can sometimes fetch more than seven-figure prices. So does Seanne Thomas, a Twin Cities real estate broker who caters to entry-level buyers.
While many of Salmela's clients can afford the best design that money can buy, one of his latest is a St. Paul nonprofit that has hired him to design more than a dozen modular, solar-powered houses that are being craned into place on a redevelopment site in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.
With a star architect and high-end materials and construction techniques, the project shatters many of the stereotypes about the quality and character of affordable housing.