Sugar Hill

While in New York I visited two relatively new affordable housing development: Sugar Hill in Harlem, North Manhattan and Via Verde in the Bronx. Both have used international architects to lead the concept design and have been largely celebrated for their high quality architecture. I will post images of the Via Verde project in a later post.

Sugar Hill is designed by Adjaye Associates and developed by Broadway Housing Communities (BHC), a non-profit organisation providing supportive housing. The development provides 124 new rental homes, all below market value. This includes 25 homes for homeless families and the remaining units split between 30, 50, 60 and 80 percent of area median income. Prospective tenants had to apply to the building via the lottery system which is administered by the City of New York. The development also includes the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling and a preschool.

The project is funded by a variety of public agencies, grants and philanthropic funding. The public funding includes Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and the New Markets Tax Credit. There was $14.5 million of philanthropic support and other grants that supported the project. The inclusion of the community facilities within the same building was critical to leveraging additional funding that supported the site assembly and construction.

The design is not to everyone’s taste, with some architectural critics likening it to a fortress. Adjaye response is widely quotes as ‘why is this cool for rich people and tough for poor people?’. The design is informed by the history of the area, references include the saw tooth edges, the rose pattern on the concrete and the rhythm of the building. The setback at half way is a response to zoning regulation, but is affective in creating a communal space.

BHC set out to create a project that is ‘a replicable model of innovation in affordable housing and community development’. A key lesson from the project is the inclusion of several important community uses within the same building to leverage additional funds to support the development of such a high quality building.