Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the completion of the first phase of a five-acre redevelopment project called The Peninsula. The project will bring hundreds of affordable homes and community amenities to the former site of the Spofford Juvenile Detention... View full entry
This site, where an old building is being transformed into a charter school, has just distinguished itself from the 40,000 other major construction projects in New York City by having its third worker fatality in less than three years.
No other construction site in New York City has had this many separate fatal incidents since at least 2003, when the Department of Buildings began keeping electronic records. But despite the pattern of deaths, the consequences have been negligible.
— The New York Times
In full view of the Major Deegan Expressway, 20 Bruckner Boulevard, known throughout the New York area as the site of the iconic former History Channel (and later iHeartRadio) billboard, was once the ice storehouse of a former Yankees owner and is now being transformed into a charter school by... View full entry
Mayor Eric Adams said the city will crack down on buildings with a high number of fire safety violations, two months after a blaze killed 17 tenants of a Bronx high-rise with a history of complaints. As part of a new executive order signed on Sunday, the city will increase information sharing between the FDNY and the city’s housing inspectors “to identify safety violations earlier and increase fire safety compliance.” — Gothamist
As part of what’s called Executive Order 12, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will launch a broad campaign to educate New Yorlers on fire safety. The order will also require the FDNY to conduct more frequent inspections of... View full entry
When it opened in 2008, the loftily named Bronx Hall of Justice was billed as the crown jewel of New York’s court system — the biggest courthouse in the state, sheathed in glass and housing enough courtrooms to handle dozens of criminal and civil cases each day.
All these years later, the verdict is that it’s more like a broken-down jalopy.
— The City
Numerous problems including flooding, failed fire alarms, shattered glass windows that appear out of nowhere, and floor collapses stemming from a built-over underground stream have befallen the Rafael Viñoly-designed Bronx Hall of Justice for more than a decade. The courthouse building has... View full entry
It has been a month since the deadly space heater-induced apartment fire at the Twins Parks housing complex claimed the lives of 17 people and displaced more than 200 families from a largely Gambian immigrant community in the South Bronx. The incident has turned into a bellwether for the state of... View full entry
Writing about Twin Parks in 1973, The Times’s former architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, speculated that the project might “turn out to be important in the history of housing design.” [...] design, however compassionate, can mean only so much against the obstacles that make up the housing problem today.”
The calculus is the same half a century later. But the South Bronx isn’t. Gradually, it has been remade. Progress isn’t impossible, it’s a process.
— The New York Times
Both observed South Bronx developments, 1490 Southern Boulevard and a transformation of the Lambert Houses, are seen as examples of high-quality and effective public housing that offers residents more than just desultory amenities. The Times critic broke down the new-ish developments by... View full entry
On the heels of [the] horrific Bronx fire that killed 17 people, including eight children, Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Ritchie Torres on Tuesday unveiled a "4-point federal fire safety package" that includes addressing sprinklers, self-closing doors, heaters and federal investigation powers. — ABC 7
The pair of lawmakers had recently joined together to push the federal government to include the Cross Bronx Expressway into the infrastructure bill. Their new fire safety plan includes a mandate on automatic space heater shutoff features. The early-January fire that killed 17 at the Twin Parks... View full entry
The fire was started by a malfunctioning space heater in the bedroom of a third-floor apartment on Sunday. Fire officials say the door of the apartment did not close as residents fled and that allowed smoke to spread throughout the building. — The New York Times
The deaths and injuries in Sunday’s tragically avoidable accident were exclusively the product of smoke inhalation as the fire itself was contained to the apartment and outside hallway. The blaze came just days after another horrible incident in Philadelphia that claimed the lives of... View full entry
Archtober, New York City's month-long festival of architecture and design, has officially returned with a packed calendar of hybrid virtual and in-person events from October 1st through 31st. Organized by the Center for Architecture in collaboration with numerous partners across the city... View full entry
The Bronx Museum of Arts in New York City is seeking an architect for a planned expansion of its collection. The Bronx Times is reporting that the institution released a request for proposals this week that will add a new South Wing atrium to the museum located in the Bronx’s Grand Concourse... View full entry
As September is wrapping up, we look forward to Archtober 2020 kicking off tomorrow. Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the month-long celebration of architecture and design is presented as a hybrid virtual and in-person festival this year — allowing visitors to join events and activities... View full entry
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) and Douglaston Development have announced a plan to build a two-towered, 450-unit affordable housing complex on garden-owned site located one block away from its 250-acre facilities in The Bronx. Real Estate Weekly explains that the project comes as a... View full entry
New York City F.C.’s circuitous search for a permanent home [...] has come full circle.
The team’s owners, in conjunction with a group of local developers, are nearing an agreement with New York City that would allow the team to construct a privately financed, 25,000-seat stadium in the South Bronx as part of a development project costing more than $1 billion.
— The New York Times
According to the NYT, the New York City Football Club may be close to sealing a deal with a group of developers to build a 25,000-seat soccer stadium complex in the South Bronx near Yankee Stadium. The project, which would also include retail, a hotel, a school, and much-needed affordable housing... View full entry
WXY architecture + urban design, Body Lawson Associates, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) have broken ground on a $300 million redevelopment plan that will replace the defunct Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in The Bronx with up to 740 units of affordable housing... View full entry
It's been 95 years since passenger trains rumbled down the tracks of the Bay Ridge Branch.
The MTA has decided to study whether it makes sense to restore passenger service to the line, which is owned by the Long Island Rail Road, runs from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to Ridgewood, Queens, and is only used by freight trains now.
"We first proposed this in the '90s," says Kate Slevin, of the Regional Plan Association.
— Spectrum News NYC
If built, the proposed Triboro Line could eventually run for 24 miles and connect the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx. Describing the plan, Kate Slevin of the Regional Plan Association tells Spectrum News, "We don't have unlimited resources here in New York City, as we know, so... View full entry
