NYCHA Infill - Citywide

[TheInterloafer]

Let's use this thread to focus on any and all efforts to build on vacant property within the superblocks controlled by the New York City Housing Authority. NYCHA, HPD and HDC have been moving in this direction in an effort to provide additional affordable housing. As a happy byproduct, the effort can help weave these superblocks back into the surrounding urban fabric.

To get things started, here are three photos of construction progress at Forest House at 1071 Tinton Avenue in the South Bronx, at the southwest corner of E. 166th Street and Tinton Avenue (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=166th+St.+%26+Tinton+Ave,+Bronx,+NY&hl=en&ll=40.825899,-73.90165&spn=0.00274,0.005681&sll=40.82477,-73.915393&sspn=0.01096,0.022724&vpsrc=6&hnear=Tinton+Ave+%26+E+166th+St,+Bronx,+New+York+1 0456&t=h&z=18). It occupies the northeast corner of NYCHA's Forest Houses. These photos show the status of construction progress as of yesterday, Nov. 20, 2011.

This first shot shows an overview of the building, which will have 123 apartments reserved for low-income households, according to NYC HDC.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6049/6379789079_49750f1508_b.jpg

Here is a shot from the southeast, showing the building within the context of the NYCHA's nearby 1950s-era towers-in-the-park:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6099/6379789213_7637569cf9_b.jpg

And here is the view from the northwest, again giving context to the nearby towers-in-the-park:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6041/6379789141_2b61d733c5_b.jpg

Before this building was under construction, according to aerial photos on the NYC City Map (http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/) from 1996 through 2008, the site held some grass on either side of a diagonal walkway.

So does anyone know of any other efforts get more use out of NYCHA's land? I heard a Chelsea parking lot on a NYCHA site was slated for development. And I know there was a earlier, more modest effort at E. 156th St. & Morris Avenue, in the Melrose Houses in the South Bronx. I'll try to get some photos of that one.

Also, does anyone know the developer or the architect of 1071 Tinton? The only info I've been able to find is a brief mention on the NYC HDC's "Future Developments (http://www.nychdc.com/ApartmentSeekers/Future_developments.html)" page.

[stache]

They're putting up a midrise on a former housing project resident parking lot on 9th. Ave & 25th. st. Is that the one you're talking about?

[TheInterloafer]

I think so. Got any more details about it?

[stache]

I think it's 80% market rate/20% affordable. Somewhere there's a thread about it here.

[ASchwarz]

I've seen internal powerpoint documents, and there are plans for infill housing on practically every parking lot in the NYCHA system.

It's wonderful, frankly, because it helps NYCHA with its revenue problems, reintroduces the urban grid, diversifies the economic base, and increases the housing supply.

[Gulcrapek]

Permit says Danois Architects and the listed owner is NYCHA, though I'm sure they're not developing it on their own (if at all).

[TheInterloafer]

I've seen internal powerpoint documents, and there are plans for infill housing on practically every parking lot in the NYCHA system.

Good. I hope they can make the most of it. In this case they could have gotten more housing, or kept more green space, by narrowing the incredibly wide street back to its original, already ample width. I'd rather see parking built in garages under these buildings than have less-safe and frankly unsightly on-street perpendicular parking.

[TheInterloafer]

Permit says Danois Architects and the listed owner is NYCHA, though I'm sure they're not developing it on their own (if at all).

Thanks for the info. Oddly enough they don't have it on their website.

[lofter1]

How Public Housing Transformed New York City 1935-67 ... part one

VID at VIMEO (http://vimeo.com/43489666)
by La Guardia and Wagner Archives (http://vimeo.com/user12019482)

Historian Joel Schwartz takes us on a guided tour of New York City before the NYC Housing Authority razed large swaths of run-down neighborhoods to build public housing projects. These arresting photographs of a long-vanished New York City owe their astonishing detail to the 4x5 inch negatives captured by the NYCHA photographers. Photos are from the NYC Housing Authority collection housed at the La Guardia and Wagner Archives.

***

Stuck In The Projects (http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/09/stuck-in-the-projects.html)

THE DISH
September 22, 2012

Mark Jacobson tours (http://nymag.com/news/features/housing-projects-2012-9/) public housing in New York:

Of all the housing experts I spoke to, Howard Husock, vice-president of policy research at the rightist Manhattan Institute, was the only one to offer a comprehensive plan about what to do about the projects. "Public housing might have seemed like a good idea in the thirties, but it wasn’t then "and it certainly isn’t now," Husock said when I visited his office on Vanderbilt Avenue, next door to the Yale Club. [New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) head] John Rhea was doing his best, but he’d been dealt an "impossible hand," Husock said. As long as NYCHA depended on federal funds, it was doomed to failure.




Continued subsidies compounded the faulty logic built into the system by the 1969 passage of the Brooke Amendment, which fixed public-housing residents’ rent at 25 percent (now 30 percent) of their income, thereby assuring that the projects would never pay for themselves. Since then, Husock said, the projects had created a huge "frozen zone" that impeded the "normal turnover of properties," choking off the construction of other housing, both market rate and affordable.

"People weren’t supposed to live in public housing for 40 years. Where did La Guardia say that? Public housing was supposed to give you a leg up, a way to move on. Not stay forever," Husock maintained.



The above video is shoddily narrated but contains some really interesting views ...

[stache]

I tried twice to download this and it got kind of frozen early into the video.

[Merry]

Mmmm, yes, that narration was bad and the music choices somewhat bizarre, but the photo collection is amazing.

[TheInterloafer]

The Daily News finally got around to reporting what ASchwartz mentioned above, 18 months ago: that there are plans for a lot more of this in the works. The News naturally tries to gin up controversy, taking the angle that this is class warfare / gentrification, and focusing on NIMBYism from NYCHA residents who will be the beneficiaries of development revenue.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/short-article-1.1256450?pgno=1

Some development specifics.

- Internal documents obtained by the Daily News show the planned 4,330 apartments in eight developments.
- At the Al Smith Houses near City Hall, NYCHA plans to put up more than 1 million square feet on parking lots and a baseball diamond. The agency will locate the luxury apartments so they face away from the projects, with the upscale neighbors given their own entrance on South St.
- NYCHA seeks 175,000 square feet of new housing at the Baruch Houses on the lower East Side.
- At the Douglass Houses on Columbus Ave., NYCHA plans a large building on a parking lot.
- At the Campos Plaza Houses in the East Village, NYCHA plans to lease out a parking lot on E. 12th St.

[RoldanTTLB]

Yes, as well as all of it being built on playgrounds (instead of parking lots, which it mostly is). Also ignoring the massive swaths of fenced off grass at every one of these developments that could easily accomodate playground equipment but is less than ideal for siting new buildings.

[Derek2k3]

I hope our recent advances in modularly constructed highrises leads to an increase in size and quality of affordable housing projects. I'm assuming it's currently not cost-efficient for the city to build 30-40 story towers of low to middle income housing. Yes, I know about Hunter's Point South but I ber the project is very heavily subsidized.


Another recently announced development on NYCHA land that includes a school and affordable housing.

East Harlem Center for Living and Learning

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CN/20130207/REAL_ESTATE/130209944/AR/0/East-Harlem-Center-for-Living-and-Learning-rendering.jpg?q=100

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130207/REAL_ESTATE/130209944