Elegant Affordable Housing at St Philip Neri

St Philip Neri Apartments is a pair of affordable and supportive housing buildings located across from each other in the Bronx. Read more

Bridge Rockaway receives multiple awards

The first of its kind development is receiving recognition for what it is achieving in Brownsville.

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Betances Family Apartments are open

Betances Family Apartments in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood has opened, offering 101 deeply affordable homes. Read more …

St Felix Street Townhouse: Modular and Passive House

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St Philip Neri Apartments consists of a pair of 100% affordable housing buildings located at 3054 and 3069 Villa Avenue in the Bronx. The buildings, designed for the Association of Catholic Charities, are situated diagonally across from one another on land adjacent to the St Philip Neri Church. 3054 Villa is 75,000 sq ft with 101 residential units over 14 stories and 3069 is 59,400 sq ft with 85 residential units over 12 stories, a total of 186 units. 93 of the units are for supportive housing tenants served by the Catholic Charities Community Services Beacon of Hope Program.

Located on a former parking lot of the neighboring St Philip Neri church, the design considers the two buildings as a family with a strong connection to one another pragmatically, socially and architecturally. The scheme breaks down the scale with two basic massings; a lower folded wall up to 9 stories, clad in a light brick. Set back behind these folds is a recessed plan, clad in a darker brick. This height is necessary to achieve the full allowed zoning bulk and residential unit count. The lower zone slightly inflects at both buildings, and together creates an “embrace” that connects them visually. Think!’s design for the buildings was recently recognized at the SARA Awards.

In addition to the gesture of embrace, the design connects the buildings to each other and to the community in several ways. The wood-clad entry pavilions of each building are diagonally arranged across the street, inviting people into the residences through these transparent and welcoming elements. The wood cladding continues into the main lobby and up to the second floor amenities. The exterior tones and textures are borrowed from the 19th century St. Philip Neri church. By stepping down the building massing, it pays deference to the church and maintains the existing street view of the historic steeple.  Both buildings are set back from their property lines, allowing for generous landscaped planters along the entire street frontage.

At 3054 Villa Avenue the building was elevated and a two-tiered rear garden created that is accessed from either the lobby or the second floor amenities area. This multilevel approach creates an incentive for people to travel an appealing loop through the building’s connected indoor and outdoor spaces. This loop is devised to foster interaction and engagement among the residents, while creating a sense of community.

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Following on from NYSAFAH’s recognition of Bridge Rockaway as Downstate Project of the Year at the end of 2024, the project is gaining attention in both the affordable housing and architectural spheres for its first-of-its-kind composition of uses and its impact on the local community.

In April the project and the team behind it were honored at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council annual lunch receiving the Impact for Community Investment Award.

In May the American Institute of Architects recognized the project in its Excelsior Awards, which highlights the best in publicly funded buildings, outdoor areas, and public art across New York State, and the architects and design professionals who support and advocate for them.

Bridge Rockaway, is an innovative development, which uniquely co-locates 174 affordable and supportive housing units with 39,000 sq ft of light manufacturing workshops, creating a new model for urban mixed-use projects.

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Betances Family Apartments is a 15 story, 98,000 square foot building with 101 deeply affordable residential units for low income families, with 30 set aside for formerly homeless individuals, developed by Alembic Community Development, Lemle & Wolff and The Bridge.

The clients’ mission was to maximize unit count within the allowable zoning bulk, with a high quality envelope that would add to the neighborhood without overwhelming its low-rise urban scale. Encouraging the diverse mix of residents to interact, the client also wanted to provide appealing indoor and outdoor amenity spaces. The aim was to provide low-income families, seniors and formerly homeless individuals with a warm and welcoming environment that communicates compassion and support, while creating a building that will be perceived as a positive addition to this under-served Bronx community.

In addition to the apartments, which range from studios to three bedrooms, the building features amenities including a children’s playroom, bike storage, 24/7 building security and a second floor community room that opens onto a landscaped rooftop terrace. The Bridge provides on-site supportive services, including case management, benefits counseling, and links to community mental health, dental, and substance use services. On the ground floor, 10,000 square feet is set aside for commercial use to enhance Willis Avenue, a busy commercial corridor.

The exterior design is based on a simple light colored grid, infilled with windows and panels of muted colors. To mitigate the significant scale of a 15-story tower, a darker recessed band spirals around the tower’s mid-section to break down the building mass and to directly relate to the neighboring 5 and 6 story tenements. We biased the building massing as far away from the adjacent NYCHA housing as much as possible to maintain maximum light and view for its residents.

As tall as this building is, it is immediately apparent that it does not overwhelm the community and fits well into its scale, and will increasingly do so as New York continues to densify vertically. The building also positively impacts this neighborhood, which is not known for a high degree of quality affordable housing and architectural design.

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Affordable Housing Design

Our residential projects run the gamut from high-end condominiums, to market rate rentals, to affordable and supportive development. For each of these projects, we bring the same set of values: a commitment to design excellence, a respect for residents who will be living in the buildings that we design and a dedication to the improvement of the neighborhoods where these buildings will stand for generations. We strongly believe everyone, regardless of circumstances, is entitled to quality housing that is attractive, improves the quality of their lives and contributes to their well-being, so we work diligently to make sure we find the unique solutions that make each project special and just right with regards to its vision, location, market and budget.

Affordable and supportive housing has become an area of significant expertise at Think! Over the last several years we have been responsible for well over 1.5 million square feet of this type of housing, either fully completed, under construction or currently in design. This includes five different buildings in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn alone. These projects have been designed for a wide range of not-for-profit organizations working in the fulfillment of their missions, as well as for commercial developers also working in this field.

In our experience, developing large scale affordable housing in an urban environment is incredibly involved; drawing on multiple funding sources for a single project; encompassing the engagement of, and being sensitive to the needs of diverse communities; incorporating a mix of uses that reflect the stipulations of the funding authorities as well as local demand; and complex urban sites and the existing conditions and neighborhood context that accompany them.

But the possibilities for real impact are many: the possibility of mixes of uses that drive employment as well as working to fill the affordable housing shortage, as at The Bridge Rockaway, where housing is sited with light manufacturing – unseen before in NYC; the opportunities to create supportive environments where services are available within the building to assist the most vulnerable in getting on their feet in their new homes; the chance to maintain a much loved urban garden while also providing homes for the elderly that allow them to stay in their community, such as our RFP design for the Mott / Elizabeth Street senior housing (on this occasion we didn’t win) and our recently completed senior residence in Bed-Stuy.

There are also opportunities such as NYSERDA’s Building of Excellence Awards Program which incentivizes sustainable design and rewards, with significant funding, the design, construction, and operation of clean, resilient, and carbon neutral-ready multifamily buildings. Passive House design for multi-family buildings is something Think! is committed to and promotes, wherever there is the possibility. In 2018 we completed one of the first Passive House certified affordable housing developments in the country at HANAC Senior Residences in Corona, Queens. We are currently using that experience, as well as the Passive House expertise within our experienced team, to inform the design for Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Plaza which was recently awarded in the Buildings of Excellence program.

The knowledge the Think! team has developed over our years of designing and delivering affordable and supportive housing is deep, varied and representative of the many challenges and lengthy processes it can involve to bring these buildings to fruition. We are able to offer our clients a real understanding of the path ahead of them and combine that with design capabilities that meet budgets but include architectural features, light and spaces not normally seen in affordable housing.

We enjoy the challenge, enjoy the design process and the committed clients we work with, and take pride in seeing the buildings come to life as people’s homes.

The Strongbox Theater is a renovation of an existing bank and two adjacent buildings for a new use as a performing arts and event space, totaling 5,306 sq ft. A new addition (816 sq ft) will be provided in the rear of the main building to support the new use while a vestibule is introduced to engage with the commercial street and connect the three existing structures. 

The volume of the existing historic bank building turned out to be of the perfect proportions for a performance space which will be augmented by a new theatrical lighting grid, acoustic treatments and other theatrical infrastructure components.  A new entrance will be provided with illuminated signage and backlit video displays.  The project will also contain a full service bar and catering kitchen.

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