Honored with the AIA Housing Leadership Award, architecture firm boasts six new commissions reflecting track record of success in housing solutions across a full continuum of demand

NEW YORK CITY — With a new award from the American Institute of Architects for housing leadership, the East Coast firm RKTB Architects is spreading a national message of rising to meet the current U.S. need for 6 million units of housing, the projected shortfall now causing record homelessness and barriers to affordability and homeownership. Known for their work across the full continuum of housing solutions — from shelters and navigation centers for the unhoused, to deeply affordable and low-cost permanent housing, to mixed-income and market-rate developments created for seniors, veterans and entire communities — RKTB has completed hundreds of projects over 60 years for thousands of diverse people of varied backgrounds, budgets and aspirations.

Reflecting their success, RKTB has announced a number of new commissions reflecting this track record of success across the full continuum of housing types. (See project details below.) They include: a 1,600-unit renovation campaign for New York’s housing authority; new infill and small-lot projects on 18 sites throughout several neighborhoods for nonprofit developer MHANY; a 130-bed men’s shelter created to blend in with its Riverdale, N.Y. context; rehabilitation of a three-building cluster in Upper Manhattan; and a new mixed-use housing and cultural complex in Astoria, Queens. Recently completed works include the 52-unit, cantilevered One Sullivan Place in Brooklyn for seniors and mixed-income tenants, as well as Phoenix Estates II in the Bronx for both families and senior citizens.

“We believe housing is a critical tool for improving our neighborhoods and cities,” says Peter Bafitis. “At RKTB, our design teams develop new architectural solutions with the spirit of the Ephebic oath from ancient Athens, striving for the ideals of our city and our sense of public duty, promising to bring to the neighborhoods where we work greater, better and more beautiful places than those we have found there.”

Adds Alex Brito, AIA, a partner with RKTB, “Our commitment to place, combined with our use of architecture as an instrument of human rights, contribute to the results that support the dignity of all citizens and their rights to live in a well-designed, inspiring place.”

Housing Leadership Honors 

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York Chapter has validated and elevated RKTB Architects’ success in housing with a recent honor, the Leadership in Housing Award for 2024. “For over 60 years, RKTB has been a rare and indispensable resource to addressing New York’s affordable housing crisis,” according to AIA New York Chapter’s leaders, President Gregory Switzer and Executive Director Jesse Lazar. “RKTB is one of few architecture firms which centers its practice around providing housing to everyday New Yorkers — an example of what a mission-driven architecture firm can be and how to meaningfully help influence change.”

In addition, earlier this year the firm’s managing principal, Peter Bafitis, AIA, earned a distinction from the AIA New York Chapter for his and RKTB’s design leadership. The Citation of Design Excellence, given in 2023, recognizes nine consecutive years of Bafitis’s work heading the influential AIA chapter’s housing committee and for his commitment to “over a decade of activism on housing advocacy efforts” in the region through that work and his firm’s dedication. (Peter Bafitis AIA, in photo at far left, along with his colleagues Carmi Bee, FAIA, and Alex Brito, AIA; the award was conferred by Victor Body-Lawson, FAIA, at right.)

In addition, the firm’s widely hailed Affordable Infill Housing Prototype was featured in a prestigious mayoral report, Designing New York: Quality Affordable Housing, published earlier this year. A collaboration of the New York City Public Design Commission, the Fine Arts Federation of New York, and the local chapter of the AIA. Since the concept was introduced, it has been applied in such New York City neighborhoods as Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Crown Heights and East New York.

“Through decades of private and public initiatives and projects, RKTB has amassed a vast portfolio of housing work that provides dignity and respite for thousands of New Yorkers,” the AIA announced. “As a leader in the affordable housing conversation, RKTB shares its insights and knowledge openly … through policy discussions with housing advocates and elected officials in City Hall and Albany,” the state’s capital. Since the 1970s, RKTB Architects has been synonymous with innovation in multifamily design and development in the New York Metro region and beyond. Other recent works include the Pope Francis

“Our firm has been doing this a long time,” says Bafitis, “so we bring depth of knowledge to the table, especially with respect to navigating complex, labyrinthine zoning and building codes. We’re honored and excited to have been a part of making One Sullivan Place such a successful development.”  ###                           

For images and interviews, contact C.C. Sullivan at 646.838.1033, [email protected]. High-resolution images available for download at https://we.tl/t-oYpcWzaoC7.

About RKTB RKTB Architects, P.C. is an award-winning planning, architecture and design firm with studios producing a diverse portfolio of solutions for housing, educational, cultural, civic and healthcare clients. RKTB’s services range from strategy and planning to new construction and renovations and adaptive reuse, contributing to award-winning multifamily housing and K-12 school designs. With over 55 years of experience shaping the fabric of communities for both public and private clients, RKTB Architects is powerfully committed to the twin goals of design excellence and social equity. For more information, please visit www.rktb.com.

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Project Details and Imagery: RKTB New Projects Across Continuum of Housing

Hellenic Mixed-Use Cultural & Residential Complex, 14-unit Apartment Building and Cultural Center, Astoria, Queens

In the heart of Astoria and owned and operated by the Greek Orthodox Church, this architectural work expands an existing two-story building into a 10,000 square feet of cultural center and 14 apartments above. It will host a wide array of Greek-themed live events including in its modern, 180-seat theater, multipurpose event space with kitchen, conference rooms, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, recreation room, and a small library. The chapel of St. Cosmas, with special stained glass windows, anchors the northwest corner the ground floor. Above is a rooftop terrace.

Apartment Building Renovation Campaign, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), 1,668-unit Renovation, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Comprehensive renovations are being made to over 1,600 apartments and outdoor spaces to improve the quality of life for more than 2,500 residents for the New York City Housing Authority, the largest public housing entity in North America. The upgrades at Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens, requiring high levels of resident engagement, bring new kitchens and bathrooms, as well as updated heating, electrical, and elevator systems.

One Sullivan Place, Developer: 1 Sullivan Residences LLC, 52-unit Affordable Apartment Building,  Brooklyn, N.Y.

An innovative new multifamily residence in Brooklyn featuring dramatically cantilevered upper stories extending beyond the narrow site and over rooftops of neighboring buildings, capturing breathtaking views of the nearby Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Manhattan skyline. Uniquely, the building serves seniors and mixed-income tenants together. 

Infill Developments, MHANY (Mutual Housing Association of New York) and Cypress Hill Local Development Corp., 18 Sites of Infill and Small Lot Development,  East New York, N.Y.

New infill and small-lot projects on 18 buildings totaling 120 units  for nonprofit developers in New York City will create new housing for hundreds of individuals and families. The scope include 61 homeownership apartments of one to four bedrooms under the Open Door New Infill Home Ownership Program, known as NIHOP. 

Men’s Shelter, Department of Homeless Services, 130-bed men’s shelter, Riverdale, N.Y.

A new facility for unhoused individuals has been created to blend in with its context in Riverdale, delivering much-needed temporary housing and services in a dignified setting.

Phoenix Estates II, MHANY and Nos Quedamos, New 108-unit affordable rental housing for seniors and families, The Bronx, N.Y.

Bringing much-needed affordable rental options to its neighborhood, the 102,000-square-foot residence offers studio and one, two and three-bedrooms affordable units, with 48 set aside for seniors. Including senior living units allowed MHANY and Nos Quedamos to employ the Affordable Independent Residences for Seniors program, allowing increased density. 

ANCP 134th Street, ELH Management, Modernization of a three-building cluster, Upper Manhattan

A cluster of three five-story residential walkups with a total of 69 dwelling units, which are all being completely rebuilt under HPD's ANCP (Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program). Sustainability features include a cool white roof, replacing all windows with energy efficient windows, energy star appliances are specified and high efficiency incremental gas fired boiler will be used.

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