While Helpern Architects renovated Hope Senior Housing for Connecticut-based developer First Hartford, our long-standing client asked us to conceive a 1,100-unit affordable housing complex for seniors and disabled veterans on an adjacent sizeable, unbuilt, city-owned site that was available.
The site zoning was large enough for a 30-story building for housing seniors, a 15-story building for the veterans, and parking. The location was next to a regional shopping center and transportation. Even better, the property had enough space for a much-needed community center, with a focus on “healthy aging.” There were cost-effective solutions to the floodplain location.
This happy combination, however, came to a disappointing end. Bartow Avenue Housing absorbed a year of design and public review. But then, despite totally private financing; despite broad support for the project pro forma and the Helpern design from the community, borough, City Council, and New York State; and despite the mayor’s claim to champion solutions to the housing crisis [the mayor’s representative sat in on many meetings] … the day before the project was to go before the City Council for an automatic approval, the mayor withdrew the application from the agenda without explanation. He gave it to an animal shelter instead.
Renderings of Bartow Avenue Housing by OMI. The low-rise building on the right is Hope Senior Housing.
