The proposed MPCA mixed-use residential and educational building in Harlem combines the project’s design, development, and construction into a singular, unified design solution that empowers a local non-profit organization to perpetually serve their community by expanding their school and creating affordable housing while achieving financial independence. 

Serving Harlem’s community for over 39 years, the non-profit MPCA school teaches at-risk children from disadvantaged families needing specialized attention not possible in typical schools. When non-profit community organizations like MPCA expand, they are often taken advantage of by real estate developers. Our project breaks this pattern by designing the building and a financial strategy that allows MPCA to leverage their own resources and self-develop the project-- eliminating outside investors/partners while achieving long-term financial independence.

By addressing the financial, spatial, programmatic and construction challenges as an integrated design problem, our team worked from the inside-out simultaneously tackling key issues through an iterative process, finding solutions optimized for high-quality design and long-term financial independence – not short-term profitability.

The proposed building maximizes limited floor-area through exhaustive space planning, making smaller apartments feel larger, while reducing time and cost through modular construction. Additional revenue is generated by adding a coffee-shop and renting the auditorium to community groups.  Combining these factors with a long-term “hold” strategy makes the project viable for MPCA to develop the project itself, while creating future financial stability:  after 3 years, the building will begin generating $150k per year that will provide full scholarships to all students. Revenue will continue to grow by $30k each year, allowing MPCA to become financially stable and independent.

Next steps include an AI powered sustainability analysis to optimize building design for glare and energy usage, further refining the design and financial model by reducing operating costs through sustainability and moving it closer to carbon neutrality.

Currently in pre-development, our progressive, architecture-first approach employs design-thinking to solve MPCA’s challenging needs by overcoming traditional development barriers. Our self-development approach addresses broader social and urban challenges of education, insufficient affordable-housing and under-utilized small urban infill lots to make these difficult sites viable while increasing opportunities for under-served communities to help themselves.