Archinect - News

Ida deaths highlight persistent flooding and housing issues in New York City’s low-lying immigrant neighborhoods

2021-09-03T14:50:00-04:00

As the fallout of Hurricane Ida comes into focus in both the Gulf Coast region and the Atlantic Northeast, one area of chronic concern has become ground zero for planning gaps that are increasingly deadly indicators of race and class in cities that number among the most expensive in the world.

The Hollis section of Queens in New York City, where 13 people were tragically killed in the flooding that gripped the city over the night on Wednesday as the unexpectedly intense storm bore down on the region, was particularly hard-hit relative to other neighborhoods in the borough of nearly 2.5 million.

Two people died in the basement of their 183rd Street apartment as storm waters collapsed walls and deluged buildings around Hollis. The neighborhood is prone to flooding and has been the subject of a multibillion-dollar sewage system upgrade that began in 2019 and is still undergoing construction, according to Mayor de Blasio.

Photos:183 Street was devastated by flooding last night. A mothe...

The windowless basement apartments of Queens

2019-10-24T19:32:00-04:00

In New York, hope sometimes comes at the price of the sun. The city welcomes poor immigrants, but its housing does not. Most rents are far beyond the means of people like Amado, who arrive looking for a better life or to make money to send back home. So they turn to the basements of Queens.

The New York Times has produced an interactive photo essay profiling New York City residents in the borough of Queens who live in some of the city's windowless basement apartments. The arrangement, derived out of economic necessity and rooted in a desire to stay out of sight, provides newly arrived immigrants with a much-needed (and extremely dangerous) place to get settled in America.

According to the article, there is no accurate count available detailing how many of these units exist, but estimates run into the tens of thousands.

New York City initiates basement apartment conversion pilot program

2019-08-20T08:00:00-04:00

The Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program provides eligible low- to middle-income homeowners living in East New York and Cypress Hills, Brooklyn with low or no-interest, or possible forgivable, loans to convert their basement or cellar into a safe, legal, and rentable apartment, based on altered building code legislation passed in February 2019.

They're promising us jetpacks again (and deeper basements)

2015-05-26T17:02:00-04:00

Floating cities and high rise farms are also predicted to shape Britain’s landscape for future generations, according to some of the country’s leading experts. In new research they outline the future form of the places where people will live and work. Spaceports for travel to the Moon and Mars are also expected to become a reality within the next 100 years, they say.

Storage Space in New York Now Costs More Than a Typical American Home

2013-08-27T15:03:00-04:00

It’s a cellar’s market. New Yorkers are spending more than the price of the average American home — on storage units. Tribeca’s 56 Leonard just sold a 200-square-foot unit for $300,000. That’s $1,500 a square foot for a metal cage in the basement of the future luxury skyscraper.

Over at The Atlantic Cities, editor Emily Badger tried to put things in perspective and created this helpful little chart of median home prices in a few U.S. metropolitan areas (find a screenshot of the interactive chart below).

More on 56 Leonard Street in the Archinect News: