RPA: Scalable Solutions for NYCHA
Between 2019-2020 PRO worked with The Regional Plan Association on a report of scalable solutions and design strategies to modernize NYCHA buildings and campuses and improve living conditions for residents as part RPA's The JM Kaplan Fund Chairs for Urban Design fellowship.
With over 600,000 people living in New York City public housing, NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) is both the largest public housing system and landlord in North America.
Owing to decades of neglect, the buildings, which were primarily built between the 1940’s and 1960s and had once been sought-after communities and national models for publicly managed middle income housing – have faced severe maintenance issues and significant disinvestment by the Federal and State governments over the past 25 years. It is a crisis that poses not only a quality of life problem for tenants, but also for the City of New York more broadly, as the largest employers of NYCHA residents are city agencies. If NYCHA housing were to become unlivable, its tenants, who work for the MTA, the Department of Sanitation, the police and fire departments, and many other key city agencies, would have nowhere to live in the very city they help make run.
Although it has been underfunded for decades, NYCHA does have tremendous assets that could be leveraged to help tackle the agency’s myriad issues: NYCHA owns some of the most valuable, yet underdeveloped parcels of land in the five boroughs, much of which is currently used for surface level parking.
With this in mind, in 2014, PRO embarked on a fellowship with the Institute of Public Architecture that led to the first study of how to best use these assets. While the concepts were highly lauded, years spent by NYCHA pursuing strategies for infill development to raise additional revenue on these parcels ultimately did nothing to improve the conditions of current residents, leaving them languishing and frustrated.
In 2019, after five years of ongoing research and dialogue with NYCHA, PRO embarked on a fellowship with the Regional Plan Association to explore a more integrated approach to development that would instead begin with the restoration and rehabilitation of existing buildings. To best understand the needs and challenges of the existing buildings, principals Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich began by establishing a participatory design process with residents, gaining their direct input and authorship into the renovations they so desperately needed.
PRO took as their starting point a basic, pressing issue echoed among residents across NYCHA’s 277 sites – constantly breaking down heating and aging infrastructure – and then looked at how many other issues they could solve through the design process, all while piggybacking onto NYCHA’s carbon neutral goals. Their solution came in the form of a balcony strategy which would provide each apartment with an outdoor structure to both house condensers for individual heat pump units and also provide much needed access to outdoor space in a post-covid world. The balconies in turn, became the foundation for a larger architectural strategy that would extend outwards, creating new units and space for amenities through a series of low-rise structures that meet the existing buildings at oblique angles, and upwards, creating a rooftop surface for a solar array. The new unit extensions reframe public space on campuses by creating new, brightly-lit lobbies closer to the street, enabling a safer public perimeter, while providing crucial 21st century amenity spaces to residents. Meanwhile, the balconies would transform the monolithic building facades into something more porous, more open, and more dynamic.
Since publishing their report in 2020, PRO has continued to work with NYCHA as design and community engagement consultants. They are currently working to build a system for realizing a participatory design process across 14 NYCHA developments and are shepherding design excellence for many of NYCHA’s current and future renovation projects, working directly with resident groups to create concept designs for campuses across all 5 boroughs.
Between 2019-2020 PRO worked with The Regional Plan Association on a report of scalable solutions and design strategies to modernize NYCHA buildings and campuses and improve living conditions for residents as part RPA's The JM Kaplan Fund Chairs for Urban Design fellowship.
Owing to decades of neglect, the buildings, which were primarily built between the 1940’s and 1960s and had once been sought-after communities and national models for publicly managed middle income housing – have faced severe maintenance issues and significant disinvestment by the Federal and State governments over the past 25 years. It is a crisis that poses not only a quality of life problem for tenants, but also for the City of New York more broadly, as the largest employers of NYCHA residents are city agencies. If NYCHA housing were to become unlivable, its tenants, who work for the MTA, the Department of Sanitation, the police and fire departments, and many other key city agencies, would have nowhere to live in the very city they help make run.
Although it has been underfunded for decades, NYCHA does have tremendous assets that could be leveraged to help tackle the agency’s myriad issues: NYCHA owns some of the most valuable, yet underdeveloped parcels of land in the five boroughs, much of which is currently used for surface level parking.
With this in mind, in 2014, PRO embarked on a fellowship with the Institute of Public Architecture that led to the first study of how to best use these assets. While the concepts were highly lauded, years spent by NYCHA pursuing strategies for infill development to raise additional revenue on these parcels ultimately did nothing to improve the conditions of current residents, leaving them languishing and frustrated.
In 2019, after five years of ongoing research and dialogue with NYCHA, PRO embarked on a fellowship with the Regional Plan Association to explore a more integrated approach to development that would instead begin with the restoration and rehabilitation of existing buildings. To best understand the needs and challenges of the existing buildings, principals Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich began by establishing a participatory design process with residents, gaining their direct input and authorship into the renovations they so desperately needed.
PRO took as their starting point a basic, pressing issue echoed among residents across NYCHA’s 277 sites – constantly breaking down heating and aging infrastructure – and then looked at how many other issues they could solve through the design process, all while piggybacking onto NYCHA’s carbon neutral goals. Their solution came in the form of a balcony strategy which would provide each apartment with an outdoor structure to both house condensers for individual heat pump units and also provide much needed access to outdoor space in a post-covid world. The balconies in turn, became the foundation for a larger architectural strategy that would extend outwards, creating new units and space for amenities through a series of low-rise structures that meet the existing buildings at oblique angles, and upwards, creating a rooftop surface for a solar array. The new unit extensions reframe public space on campuses by creating new, brightly-lit lobbies closer to the street, enabling a safer public perimeter, while providing crucial 21st century amenity spaces to residents. Meanwhile, the balconies would transform the monolithic building facades into something more porous, more open, and more dynamic.
Since publishing their report in 2020, PRO has continued to work with NYCHA as design and community engagement consultants. They are currently working to build a system for realizing a participatory design process across 14 NYCHA developments and are shepherding design excellence for many of NYCHA’s current and future renovation projects, working directly with resident groups to create concept designs for campuses across all 5 boroughs.
NYCHA is sitting on one of the largest reserves of underutilized development rights in the history of New York City, with more than 20 million square feet of surface level parking lot and 80 million square feet of unrealized as-of-right developable floor area. The average building lot coverage across NYCHA’s portfolio is 27.6% with the majority of developments covering only 20% or less of their site area, significantly less than the 60%-70% lot coverage allowed in medium and high-density R- zoning districts. By thinking at the scale of the neighborhood and subsequently the entire city, these resources could be leveraged to repair existing buildings, ensure NYCHA’s present and future financial health, and better integrate NYCHA into its surrounding communities
NYCHA is sitting on one of the largest reserves of underutilized development rights in the history of New York City, with more than 20 million square feet of surface level parking lot and 80 million square feet of unrealized as-of-right developable floor area. The average building lot coverage across NYCHA’s portfolio is 27.6% with the majority of developments covering only 20% or less of their site area, significantly less than the 60%-70% lot coverage allowed in medium and high-density R- zoning districts. By thinking at the scale of the neighborhood and subsequently the entire city, these resources could be leveraged to repair existing buildings, ensure NYCHA’s present and future financial health, and better integrate NYCHA into its surrounding communities
For the purposes of illustrating the potential for comprehensive campus planning, renovation, and development, we have looked more closely at the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn as a typological example. Like many NYCHA campuses, this site has several repeated building forms set back from the street edge, low lot coverage, and is sited on a super block. Of the estimated $120 million dollar capital needs for this campus, 94% is concentrated on building systems, building interiors, and exterior upgrades. Additionally, Cooper Park only utilizes 54% of its as-of-right zoning floor area, leaving 550,000 square feet of area available to develop or sell.
For the purposes of illustrating the potential for comprehensive campus planning, renovation, and development, we have looked more closely at the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn as a typological example. Like many NYCHA campuses, this site has several repeated building forms set back from the street edge, low lot coverage, and is sited on a super block. Of the estimated $120 million dollar capital needs for this campus, 94% is concentrated on building systems, building interiors, and exterior upgrades. Additionally, Cooper Park only utilizes 54% of its as-of-right zoning floor area, leaving 550,000 square feet of area available to develop or sell.
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The intervention addresses several objectives at once. By densifying the street frontage, it revitalizes the super block model, fostering a renewed connection between the campus and the surrounding community. This design strategy ensures that natural light still permeates the residents’ living spaces, maintaining a bright and airy atmosphere. Additionally, by infilling the indentations along the building’s length, residents benefit from added private outdoor areas. This also strategically accommodates the installation of essential new mechanical systems, seamlessly integrating into the new infrastructure
The intervention addresses several objectives at once. By densifying the street frontage, it revitalizes the super block model, fostering a renewed connection between the campus and the surrounding community. This design strategy ensures that natural light still permeates the residents’ living spaces, maintaining a bright and airy atmosphere. Additionally, by infilling the indentations along the building’s length, residents benefit from added private outdoor areas. This also strategically accommodates the installation of essential new mechanical systems, seamlessly integrating into the new infrastructure
Miriam Peterson
Nathan Rich
Alex Bodkin
Ben Hochberg
Varoon Kelekar
Levi Shaw-Faber
Over the past year PRO worked with The Regional Plan Association on a report of scalable solutions and design strategies to modernize NYCHA buildings and campuses and improve living conditions for residents as part RPA's The JM Kaplan Fund Chairs for Urban Design fellowship.
Curbed interviews PRO founders Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich about the firm’s concept for a scalable design solution that calls for adaptive reuse and infill on NYCHA campuses.
