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Baruch complex with entrances to each building

a sketch for scaling down the towers or “breaking” the initial volume into smaller spaces which could distribute among them.

diagram of possible paths that people follow. The flow of movement can lead to networks among the buildings which can provide opportunity for reutilized areas.

Sometimes walking through the projects might be confusing since some people want their community to be gated for security reasons, preventing the others to trespass. Since there is not a clear separation of the public and private area some people might feel uncomfortable having others to walk through their “territory”. If every housing complex was gated, then large areas would have worked as barriers to the others.

So, based at these flows, new forms could emerge.
 


looking at the topography in the past: where the shore line was and where were the streams.

Public Baths or public swimming pools used to be vital for the city in the past in terms of hygiene. At Baruch houses in specific there was one working until 1970.

So the location of the streams in relation to the idea of public pools can provide new utilities for recreation or a new environmental zone.

concerning the development rights: the height of the buildings could actually increase giving more surface to people.


structures based on (maybe) the old grid?  incorporating a smaller scale and locality?

 the facade which reveals the patterns of the whole project

Corridor and safety

issues in Baruch Houses

Community Centers are vital for this kind of housing since people have somehow to connect and organize themselves and claim their rights as well.

Growing vegetables was not widely spread but at least there were some areas where people were trying to “use” the land. Lenape, the indigenous people in Mannahatta had the “three sisters” garden, which means that they were growing corn, beans and squash.

Sometimes the separation between what is private or public seems to be confusing. Most of the buildings had a fence running around it without any practical reason but just indicating that this surface is owned. People who live there own it but not use it.

pictures from the past where Baruch Houses were developing

 

building upon erased grid

focusing on Baruch Houses in LES

Baruch Houses, 1959
2,391 apartments
Total Population 5411

the grid then… and now

from 1950 to 2010

It seems that these projects since their construction didn’t follow the rapid change that happened at the rest of the city. There are actually people saying that it never changed at all.

“not only did the buildings look like each other, they looked exactly the same over the course of decades... no sign of societal change. There was never a new construction or renovation.”

the “Wall” of Public Housing

Projects in LES stretch 2 miles along the East river.
They cover 120 acres and contain 11,300 apartments for 26,000 people.

A woman was saying this: “everywhere we go looks the same. Here is there. There is here. Where is there?”

MAPS

 

NYCHA projects at LES

The orange color represents the residential area. At the projects it is clear that there is not mixed land use.

Multi-family residential area

The black lined areas are the retail zones in the “yellow” residential area.

The front shore line, which is one of the few green areas in Lower East Side, is actually gated which works as a barrier for some projects there instead of connecting them with the sea.

62 HH/Acre or 16sqm per person

the area is characterized for the different ethnicities and the cultural diversity

Linguistics Isolation (2000)

Youth population

Brighter color represents families with income less than $25,000

 

streams and shore line as they were 400 years ago.