THIS IS AFFORDABLE HOUSING?
Thoughtful developers and architects build quality perks into residential developments for New Yorkers in need
ROBERT A.M. Stern’s namesake architecture firm has designed some of the city’s most celebrated addresses: 15 Central Park West and 30 Park Place among them, which feature limestone exteriors and multimillion-dollar units.
It’s no surprise that one of the firm’s latest proposals, in Brooklyn, is pretty nice, too. The beige-brick building features a roof with pergolas, a gym and homes ranging from 300-square-foot studios to 1,100-square-foot three-bedrooms. But it has one major difference: the price tag. Dubbed Edwin’s Place and located at 3 Livonia Ave. in Brownsville, it’s a 126-unit development — where rents start at $462 monthly for a studio — for low-income and homeless tenants. The project is undergoing City Council review and faces its final vote this week.
“It’s vital that residents know we’re interested in building and investing in the community,” says Brenda Rosen, the president and CEO of Breaking Ground, a nonprofit developer working on Edwin’s Place with another nonprofit, the African American Planning Commission. “Our goal is for someone to walk down a block and not know which buildings are affordable and which are market-rate. Great design should be for everyone.” Low-income housing can be synonymous with shoddy structures, as can supportive housing, which provides on-site services for the disabled and formerly homeless. These days, the status quo is quite the opposite: A number of developments that have recently debuted or are in the pipeline — like the snazzy 38 Sixth Ave. in Brooklyn, as well as Edwin’s Place — boast designs and
amenities akin to their full-price counterparts.
Sources largely attribute this movement to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York agenda, which aims to create or preserve 300,000 affordable units by 2026. Outside City Hall, as prices have climbed, demand for affordable homes has likewise increased — bringing with it a new consciousness among architects and developers who have dabbled in this end of the market to bolster it with better design for greater appeal to tenants. (Of course, becoming a resident of one of these properties is far from easy. For instance, the David Adjayedesigned Sugar Hill Project in Hamilton Heights, which opened in 2014, attracted 48,000 applications for 124 units.) As a result of this movement, affordable buildings can stand out amid the competition — and tenants who live in them can take more pride in their homes.
The trend’s origins can be traced to the 2012-completed Via Verde, a South Bronx development that has 151 rentals for low-income tenants and 71 co-ops for middle-income owners. Features include mechanisms to harvest rainwater for residents to grow fruits and vegetables, solar panels and good natural light exposure through big windows that cuts down on electricity use. Its environmental focus and technical savvy proved that creativity could find an outlet in affordable housing. At the time of the building’s opening, rents ranged from $800 to $1,200.
“Via Verde was a mile-marker in the development community because it pushed the edges of sustainable design,” says John Woelfling, principal at Dattner Architects, one of the firms behind its creation. The firm has taken the baton and run with it: Dattner is working on the 241-unit 425 Grand Concourse, also in the Bronx, which will house low- and moderateincome families in a building constructed according to “passive house” standards for energy conservation. (Per reports, apartments will rent to tenants whose annual salaries begin at $25,770 and head to $85,900.)
The develop- ers and architects involved in these projects share a goal of making poor New Yorkers feel less marginalized.
“You can’t underestimate the impact of the environment on someone’s emotional and social well-being,” says Susi Yu, executive vice president of development at Forest City New York. Greenland Forest City Partners — a joint venture with Greenland USA — is developing Brooklyn’s Pacific Park, which includes two new affordable addresses. “Whether it’s market-rate, mixed or affordable, we want to create a sense of community . . . and then everyone becomes invested in the home.”
One of the Pacific Park buildings, the SHoP Architects-designed 38 Sixth Ave., opened in August. All of its 303 units are priced below market-rate for individuals making between $20,126 and $173,415. (A studio is as low as $532, and a threebedroom as high as $3,695, for those who met the income requirements and won the lottery.) Apartments have French oak floors and Whirlpool appliances. 38 Sixth is not far from the June-unveiled, 298-unit 535 Carlton, another fully affordable rental at Pacific Park that serves tenants who qualified by earning between $20,100 (for an individual) and $149,000 (for a family of three). Designed by CookFox, 535 Carlton has a planted green roof, a gym, a yoga studio and a game room — as well as units with oak floors, custom kitchen cabinets and Moen fixtures in the bathrooms. Rents begin at $548 for a studio and top out at $3,716 for a three-bedroom.
“If our goal is to create the most number [of units] and the cheapest, we end up with quantity and no quality,” says CookFox founding partner Rick Cook. “We’re now seeing a new wave where quantity and quality need to go together.”
One resident, though, disagrees that design laden with credentials automatically translates into a better life. A three-year tenant of Adjaye’s Sugar Hill Project — who would only speak anonymously to a reporter posted outside her building — complains of structural issues. Though she enjoys the building’s edgy look, as well as its “breathtaking” rooftop, ground-floor landscaping and her skyline view, she says her home, which rests on top of a cantilever, has a slanted floor. She cites paperthin walls and building leaks as additional problems.
“This [building is meant] to be different, to be proud of where you are,” she says. By contrast, nearby public-housing developments, like the Audubon Apartments just one block east, aren’t so lucky. A September Pix11 report revealed a massive lobby leak, with mold stains stretching down from the ceiling.
(Sugar Hill Project’s developer did not respond to a message seeking comment.)
Potential flaws — which could afflict any NYC apartment, no matter its price — aside, developers and architects point to the wider benefits of more careful, upscale affordable-housing construction.
In the mid-20th century, design for this tier of New Yorkers mimicked a style called “towers in the park,” invented by Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Typified by tall crossshaped buildings in the middle of landscaped green space — think Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village along the East River — this design philosophy faced criticism for its isolation, as well as the vandalism and crime it seemed to attract at the time. That resulted in a generally bad reputation. But gradually, in the years since, designers of affordable buildings have an effort to integrate them more seamlessly into the urban fabric. Implementing more thoughtful design can help overcome outside resistance to lower-income projects.
“It really leads to neighborhood acceptance,” says Martin Dunn, president of Dunn Development Corp. One of Dunn’s recent accomplishments is the 2016-opened, 80-unit Bergen Saratoga Apartments in Brownsville, which houses formerly homeless and low-income families making 50 and 60 percent of the area’s median income. It has rents from $689 per month. Designed by SLCE, the building also boasts an attended lobby, a rear garden and units with energy-efficient appliances. Adds Dunn, “We want people to feel valued.”