Trip to the Museum of City of New York was interesting. Allowing me to learn the history of affordable housings and to look at examples of affordable housings existing currently, I examined each model figures of such housings. My favorite project was the Nehemiah Spring Creek Homes. Many of the other projects were already as I expected – red brick homes, anywhere from six to twenty stories high and a garden in the center of complexes or somewhere in its vicinity. Other housings were very tall and appeared similar to many skyscrapers in Manhattan. Affordable housings in Nehemiah Spring Creek Homes in Easy New York, however, took my interest because it was something different. These housings are prefabricated in single, double or three bedroom units at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Once each unit arrives at the sites they are stacked up on top of one another. The modular concept of the homes was the reason why this project was my favorite from the exhibition. The look of the neighbor was also very modern and seemed safe. One intriguing fact is that, unlike other homes, these houses have rear-parking alleys, creating a more pedestrian-oriented streetscape. New-owners can purchase these homes through a lottery sponsored by Housing Preservation and Development, HPD.
Jonathan, you picked a very interesting model! Nehemiah Houses in fact was initiated by East Brooklyn Congregations, a group of churches, in the 1980s. The design of the houses and the fabrication method were decided by a private developer who wanted to help build low-income housing and was absolutely committed to this goal with Nehemiah. He persuaded the city government to “invest” in the project by subsidizing the costs of buying land and building infrastructure like sewers. AND…people do not rent these houses, they buy them. As you may imagine, the Nehemiah model has been very much in demand. From the city government’s point of view, however, they can’t house enough people for all the demand. But is it true that more low-rise (short) houses could not be built? Why is everyone building tall towers?
Professor Zukin