In the 1970s, a state agency tapped some of the best young architects in the country for an ambitious affordable housing effort that—despite its flaws—could not be matched today.

Twin Parks, an affordable housing project in the Bronx, does not comport with expectations. [...]

Overall, it provides palpably better affordable housing than what’s typically offered in the U.S., and maintains an engaged community. — CityLab

What seemed inevitable for quite some time now, has finally come to pass; Uber has overtaken yellow cabs in average daily ridership figures, the New York Times reports. This past July, Uber witnessed an average of 289,000 rides per day, whereas yellow cabs only managed 277,000. — Curbed New York

A 240-by-240-by-240-foot concrete fortress, as tall as a 24-story apartment building and all but windowless, rising north of Mercy College and the Hutchinson Metro Center complex...In recent years, motorists saw the structure clad with silver- and charcoal-colored aluminum panels. These were set in a saw-tooth pattern that makes the enormous cube blend gauzily with the sky or stand out like an impenetrably dark mesa — NYT

In addition to housing for low- and moderate-income households, the mixed-use and mixed-income development will include a supermarket with healthy food options, a charter school, a medical facility, cultural and community spaces, a social services facility, and a rehabilitated playground that is currently closed. [...]

The 24-story building is expected to be the largest residential Passive House built in New York City and use 70% less energy than conventional buildings. — housingfinance.com

Walking in New York can at times feel a little too smooth: the rationality of the grid and subtle grade changes conspire to hide the natural terrain beneath all that asphalt and concrete. That’s not the case in the Bronx, the city’s mainland toehold, where topography is at play like nowhere else in this archipelago metropolis. [...]

It was with this conspicuous role of the Bronx’s topography in mind that we approached Kris Graves, a New York-based photographer [...]. — urbanomnibus.net

When the Lambert Houses were completed in 1973 as part of the Bronx Park South Urban Renewal Area, the complex was quickly recognized as a significant architectural and social contribution. [...]

So when UO columnist Susanne Schindler learned that Phipps is planning to demolish and redevelop the Houses, citing structural issues and significant security concerns, she wanted to understand what went wrong at this much-lauded site. — urbanomnibus.net

With a nod to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing plans, New York City’s Department of City Planning is inventing a “new neighborhood” to take what it thinks is a promising section of the Bronx from parking lots to high-rises. While the city has promised to make community outreach a cornerstone of its plans, the idea of a “new neighborhood” has left many who live there seeing Brooklyn-infused foreshadowing. — nextcity.org

Between 2008 and 2013, I photographed the branch libraries of New York City’s three public library systems: 212 branches in all[1], spread across the five boroughs. Through arrangements with each of the library systems, I worked mornings before the branches opened to the public. I traveled by subway and bus and made six to twelve pictures of each branch, interiors and exteriors, using a 4×5 inch view camera. My archive, to date, holds over 2,000 negatives. — urbanomnibus.net

The Spofford Juvenile Center was a particularly painful landmark in the Hunts Point community in the Bronx when it was built in 1957... [Majora Carter] envisions the Spofford site combining mixed-income housing, open space and economic development that would appeal to the neighborhood’s existing demographics. Carter is a supporter of affordable housing, but thinks that if it’s built in isolation, you still haven’t solved the problems of employment and a lack of amenities. — nextcity.org

In collaboration with fifteen poets and community activists from StartUp Box South Bronx, I recently created Memories of the Future, a location-based cinema project viewed on mobile phones. The group experimented with spoken word poetry, site specific performance, and on-site spectatorship to reframe the predominant view of Hunts Point and speak about possibilities for its future from a position of power. — urbanomnibus.net

Various recent innovations in secondary education in New York have used the city itself as an organizing theme for curricular experimentation. Urban Assembly schools like the School of Design and Construction or the New York Harbor School focus students’ attention on the built and natural environment around them. [...] John Surico takes a closer look at CTE programs in New York City. — urbanomnibus.net

Art Critique Of Gramsci Monument: A Work in Public Space by Thomas Hirschhorn at Forest Houses, the Bronx, New York. — newcriterion.com

Households have evolved. But New York’s housing stock hasn’t. In essence, New Yorkers have increasingly had to adapt to the housing we’ve got, instead of designing and building the housing that suits who we have become. — New York Times