Oculus - Fall 2015 - (Page 15)
first words
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
©Elaine Gallagher Adams, AIA, LEED AP
No Cabins in the Sky
T
Editor settling into her
favorite parking space-sized
SCADpad on the top floor of
the Savannah College of Art
and Design's Atlanta campus
parking garage.
Winter 2014
© Wade Zimmerman
A Publication of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Volume 76, Issue 4 | $10
Changing Skyline/
Evolving Streets
Hello, We're at a Place Called Vertigo
Tower at the Crossroads
The Mid-block Move
In Step with the Neighborhood
LULU Hits the Streets
Just Another Messy Urban Neighborhood
New Practices New York 2014
Winter 2014 Cover.
he cover photo for the Winter 2014 issue of
Oculus ("Changing Skyline/Evolving Streets")
by Wade Zimmerman is exquisite and, forgive
the overused word, iconic. It portrays the skyline
of a city with soaring aspirations of historic
proportions. But the content of the issue focused
on the human-scale aspirations, expectations, and
realities at street level.
The subject of the issue you hold in your hands
also takes on a concern of historic proportions:
housing that supports a population needed for the
city to grow economically, culturally, sustainably
- and equitably.
New York City's affordable housing conundrum
is nothing new. It has put decades - if not centuries
- of mayoral administrations between many a rock
and a hard place: between affordable housing nonprofits and implacable demand, between housing
advocates and NIMBYs, and between or amongst
borough politicians, the Real Estate Board of New
York, building trade unions, and the mayor's office
and city agencies.
In "Everything Housing," the Winter 2003 issue
of Oculus, I crunched the numbers in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's
(HPD) 2003 New York City Housing and Vacancy
Survey. In this issue, Bill Millard's lead feature
crunches the numbers in the HPD's 2014 report.
What I find most striking is how little has changed,
such as the high percentage of people paying more
than 50% of their income for rent. There is some
good news coming out of Mayor Bill de Blasio's
10-year "Housing New York" plan announced in
July, such as boosting HPD's capital budget to $6.8
billion (a 165% hike, as reported by Crain's New
York), streamlining some of HPD's Inclusionary
Housing programs, and financing "the creation
and preservation of 20,325 affordable apartments
and homes during fiscal year 2015, enough housing
for more than 50,000 New Yorkers." Unfortunately,
when political and financial realities set in, promises sometimes become casualties. As reported in
Crain's in early August, the de Blasio Administration "will let some residential developers double or
even triple-dip into subsidy pools by using the same
group of affordable apartments to qualify for a
variety of programs - a practice it initially pledged
to eliminate." This doesn't bode well in light of an
Independent Budget Office analysis and a DNAinfo
investigation that found that three Billionaires' Row
towers were granted thousands of extra square feet
for a nominal amount of money, or a huge 421-a
tax break to help subsidize the building of only 89
affordable units in Chelsea and the Bronx. (Taxpayers will foot the rest of the bill.) Of course, much
may have changed by press time - politics and
housing policies can move rather quickly.
Some aspects of housing are looking up, however, as highlighted in this issue. A towering project
in Downtown Brooklyn combines market-rate and
affordable housing with an abundance of retail that
will add vibrancy to its once-gritty, now booming
neighborhood. Once considered too stringent and
expensive for multifamily housing, Passive House
standards are going mainstream with multi-unit
condos, affordable- and senior-housing projects,
and the world's first high-rise Passive House residential tower. In Newark, Teachers Village is reinventing the city's beleaguered downtown. A prefab
modular supportive housing project brightens a
South Bronx neighborhood. A 1903 former elementary school in Harlem, once thought doomed,
is reborn as affordable housing and a community
center. And architects are finding the rewards far
outweigh the risks of developing their own projects
on a number of scales.
In our regular departments, "One Block Over"
takes a look at the business and building boom
in Downtown Brooklyn, while "118-Year Watch"
revisits a palatial and affordable alternative to a late
19th-century SRO that's still standing on Bleecker
Street. And "In Print" suggests intriguing titles to
add to your fall must-read list.
In the foreseeable future, housing affordability
is going to remain a sticky wicket for every major
urban center. But with every passing year, government agencies, planners, architects, and advocates
are making inroads in finding solutions to unstick
those wickets. Let's hope the momentum keeps
building, figuratively and literally.
Kristen Richards, Hon. AIA, Hon. ASLA
kristen@ArchNewsNow.com
Home Game: Winning with Housing
Fall 2015 Oculus
15
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oculus - Fall 2015
First Words Letter From the President
Letter From the Editor
Center for Architecture
One Block Over
Opener: Affordability: Many Paths to a Solution
Housing for the 99%
Tower Power
An Active Market for Passive
Ahead of the Class
It Takes a Village
Support System, Modular Style
From Learning to Living
The DIY Approach to Housing
In Print
118-Year Watch
Last Words
Index to Advertisers
Oculus - Fall 2015
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