Chelsea is one of the densest cities in Massachusetts, 68% impervious, surface temperatures exceeding 120°F. A 3.5% vacancy rate traps 57% of renters in cost burden. The housing stock builds two- and three-bedrooms for nuclear families and serves neither the young couples who compose over half the city’s households nor the migrant workers sharing apartments never designed for their number. A conventional project covers this lot with more of the same and produces neither the park the city needs nor the capital the housing requires. Shelf Life concentrates 46 units into a thin mass-timber bar on 24% of the site and opens 74% as public park.