Located in the fastest growing section of Brooklyn in which over half the population lives below the poverty line, Van Sinderen Plaza transforms long-vacant derelict land into much-needed affordable housing. Nine separate lots were consolidated through a public private partnership to develop two “sister” seven-story buildings totaling 193,665 SF alongside an elevated train line and at the border between East New York and Brownsville. Developed under New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Extremely Low and Low Income Affordability Program, the 100 percent affordable development provides 130 apartments including 1-bedroom, 2- bedroom and 3-bedroom units (with 2- and 3-bedroom units making up more than half the mix) above commercial retail and a community daycare at street level. In fact, during the city planning approvals process, the site was upzoned to increase the number of affordable units to help ensure low income families would be able to stay in the area as it changes.
Van Sinderen Plaza runs alongside the elevated tracks of the L train from Manhattan. The design uses a gradation of bold colors down the full length of the façade to amplify the linear movement of the trains coming and going. Both ends start with dark burgundy to harken the residential brick townhomes in the neighborhood, and gradually transition from dark to light, red to yellow where New Lots Avenue crosses Van Sinderen Ave, interrupting the linear experience. At this intersection, the buildings set back from the street, creating a new gateway plaza to the neighborhood and public outdoor space for the community, resulting in a pedestrian-friendly scale sympathetic with surrounding low-lying neighboring homes.
The long linear site, fronting the elevated train tracks on a 26-foot narrow street, had a very narrow 5-foot sidewalk. The design sets back the ground floor building massing to provide a generous 15-foot-wide sidewalk for a better and safer pedestrian experience and a stronger presence for retail. Above the ground floor, the building massing cantilevers back toward the property line to gain back a larger building footprint for apartment levels. Architecturally, this sculptural move provided the added benefit of breaking down the scale of the building and along with staggering the vertical placement of the windows, provides visual interest to the repetitive nature of the housing program. As one moves down the street, vertical fins at the windows punctuate its length, modulating the outside and inside and registering the rhythm of the colors changing.
The LEED certified development also received Enterprise Green Communities certification, by the only US national green building program created with and for the affordable housing sector. Amenities in each building include an indoor resident recreation room with adjacent on-site shared laundry room, outdoor resident recreation terrace, and bicycle storage.
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