Game Arts Center at Pratt Institute

Think! has created a new Game Arts Center at Pratt Institute from former administrative space at Myrtle Hall.

Learn more …

New affordable housing for Associated Catholic Charities

We recently completed a pair of affordable housing buildings adjacent to St Philip Neri Church on Villa Avenue in the Bronx, accommodating 186 units. Learn more …

Affordable Housing Design

Insight into how Think! has established a track record and reputation for affordable housing.

Read on

Betances VI opens in the Bronx

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

A new theater for East Rockaway

The Strongbox Theater is a renovation of an the former East Rockaway National Bank and Trust Company bank and two adjacent buildings. Read …

Starting and Finishing

• NYSERDA Building of Excellence winning Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Plaza which was recently featured in Passive House Accelerator has kicked off xx design stage.

• The ribbon cutting ceremony at The Bridge Rockaway, 230 Newport Street, an affordable housing and light industrial mixed-use development in Brownsville, Brooklyn took place in September. More details and photos of this remarkable project, which has already won a NYSAFAH award, in our next newsletter.

• Glenmore Manor, also in Brownsville, is under construction. The building will be fully topped out in December.

• The construction of a new facility for St John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway is nearing completion.

Think! created Pratt’s new Game Arts Center at Pratt Institute from former administrative space at Pratt’s Myrtle Hall. In recent years Pratt’s leadership has recognized the imperative to respond directly through the curriculum to incoming students, and has reflected the profound impact digital technology has on the creative arts today. Think! has been at the leading edge of this change, first with the Pratt Department of Digital Arts (at Myrtle Hall), then with the Department of Film and Video, and now the Game Arts Studio. Game Arts was conceived as a free-form deep space environment that is meant to highlight the kinetic video displays and on-screen work of our future video artists.

Back

Betances Family Apartments in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood has opened, offering 101 deeply affordable homes.  Designed for Lemle & Wolff Development Company, Alembic Community Development and The Bridge, the 15 story, 109,000 sq ft development on NYCHA’s Betances site 6 includes 70 units for low to moderate-income families and 30 for previously homeless individuals, including veterans.

In addition to the apartments which range from studios to three bedrooms, the building features amenities such as a children’s playroom, bike storage, 24/7 building security and a generous second floor community room that opens out onto a landscaped rooftop terrace. Additionally, The Bridge will provide 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, creating opportunities for local businesses.

The exterior design is based on a simple light colored grid, infilled with windows and panels of muted colors. To break the repetition of this gridded pattern, and to mitigate the significant scale of a 15-story tower in a predominantly 5 or 6 story neighborhood, Think! devised a darker recessed band that spirals around the tower’s mid-section in order to break down the building mass and better relate to the adjacent NYCHA housing.

It has taken eight years to realize, but this project is a testament to the determination of the ownership and design team and the power of public and private partnerships in addressing the city's affordable housing shortage.

Back

Think! designed a pair of 100% affordable residential buildings on Villa Avenue in the Jerome Park neighborhood of the Northern Bronx for the Association of New York Catholic Homes, in association with Catholic Charities. The two buildings accommodate 186 residential units in total. 3054 Villa is 96,000 sq ft and 14 stories with 101 residential units and 3069 Villa is 77,000 sq ft and 12 stories with 85 residential units.

The design considers them as a family of buildings with a strong connection to one another. The sites being across from one another inspired consideration of the project as an ensemble or family of buildings that can be both similar and different; to have a strong connection to one another and to integrate effectively into the urban fabric.

We are often commissioned to design tall buildings in older, low-rise neighborhoods, and such was the case on Villa Avenue. We devised a scheme of breaking the scale down with two basic massings; a lower folded wall up to 9 stories, clad in a light brick, before the setback up to the full 14 and 12 stories, clad in a darker brick, this height being necessary to achieve the full allowed zoning bulk and residential unit count. The lower zone is slightly angled on both buildings, as a gesture to connect the two buildings visually. This creates a sort of "embrace", and an unexpected spatial streetscape one normally doesn't experience on a small New York side street.

In addition to the gesture of embrace, the design connected 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 structures. The tones and textures are borrowed from the beautiful late 19th century St. Philip Neri church adjacent to 3054 Villa, and the massing strategy honors this local landmark. By stepping down the building massing towards the church, it is given room while pedestrian views to the stone steeple are preserved.

In recent years the Association of New York Catholic Homes has been exploring ways to bring greater productivity to their many under-performing properties in NYC while serving a mission-aligned need in the larger community for high quality housing for low-income families and formerly homeless individuals. St Philip Neri Residences is one significant step along this path.

Back

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 especially hard to make sure we find the unique solutions that make each project special and just right with regards 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).

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 using that experience, as well as the Passive House expertise within our vastly 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 the past 10 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 see these buildings to fruition. We are able to offer our clients 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 varied, driven 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.

Back