535 East 12th Street, a new residential building in the East Village, has been completed, bringing eleven income-restricted units to the neighborhood. This building is one half of a larger project designed to expand affordable home ownership. Two condemned structures that had been City-owned since the 1970s – one at this site and another around the corner on Avenue A – were demolished, making way for two new buildings that meet current as-of-right zoning and introduce a total of 21 units between the two sites, ten of which will be owned by the tenants of the original buildings. SGS played a key role in working with the residents to create apartments that will meet their needs for years to come. These mid-block structures were designed using contemporary expressions of the neighborhood’s historic architectural vernacular. The six-story, eleven-unit East 12th Street building features a mixture of corbeling and brick bond patterns on its terracotta-colored facade, referencing traditional masonry patterns and details. It also honors the neighborhood’s tradition of community gardens, with large windows opening to green spaces next to and across the street from the building. Both buildings will be completed and occupied in 2024.

East Village

Located on a dramatically-sloped site in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, the Fischer Senior Apartments proposes 105 new units of affordable housing for seniors and a health clinic to a difficult to develop city-owned site that was once envisioned to be a park, but which was left unused for many decades. The building’s unique form is a reaction to both a large rock-outcropping on the site, as well as a means for increasing the unit count and natural light throughout. Sixteen studios located at the top two floors are designed with communal living space and supportive staff to create a new “enhanced care” model for aging in place. The building’s vibrant colors, connection to the outdoors, generous common spaces, and strong sustainability design create a welcoming environment for both tenants and the surrounding community.

Fischer Senior Apartments

In 2016 SGS began design on a new mixed-income multi-family building on Fulton Street, an eclectic and busy street in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Garnet Building, a new as-of-right structure, opened in March of 2021 with 103 units of much-needed affordable/middle income housing. The Garnet sits on a 15,000 sf site combined from several HPD and privately owned lots, one block from both the subway and Fulton Park, and offers a fitness center, a children’s playroom and a roof terrace available for all tenants.

Garnet Building

SGS renovated two buildings for West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) that were in extreme disrepair, complementing the buildings’ historic features with modern elements. The renovation included updating all mechanical systems and spaces to ADA and life-safety standards and the creation of an extensive-type green roof.

Brownsville Affordable Housing Proposal

This site combines three small zoning lots resulting in a modest 16,500 sf to support 200 affordable units. Set in an under-utilized parking lot, this new building serves to reinvigorate the original campus and provide much-needed amenities including a commercial tenant and services provided by community facility partners.

West Bronx Housing and Community Facility

SGS has worked on proposals for Mayor DeBlasio’s 

Housing New York: A Five-Borough, Ten-Year Plan

 to create new affordable housing throughout the city. These proposed developments in Crotona Park and West Harlem would provide a combined 93 new apartment units of varying size as well as community centers and protected community gardens. They feature design elements that respond to the neighboring brick buildings and subway line.

Housing Preservation & Development Sites

SGS worked with a Brooklyn-based developer to design a new 12-story, mixed-use development in Queens on the campus of a prominent neighborhood church and community center. The proposed 150,000 sf project offers 125 affordable and market-rate units, generous space for community use, ground floor retail, parking, and a landscaped courtyard open to the street.

Mixed-Use Development in Queens

SGS was invited by a developer to design a new affordable housing building located over a ground-level public library branch in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. This 50-unit building will provide much–needed housing and updates to an important neighborhood institution, bringing the existing library into the 21st century with the latest technology and spaces for the community to gather.

Affordable Housing in Sunset Park

SGS partnered with SMJ Development, an MBE developer, in a joint venture for a new building on an underutilized 13,000 sf site in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn in response to an RFP for a client with a strong health and wellness mission. The resulting design introduces 64 new affordable housing units for seniors, a 10,000 sf aquatic center, and community facility spaces for OBHS, a health care center, and Exalt Youth, a non-profit working on education and juvenile justice. The building’s design expresses its modular construction and celebrates the building’s various programs using bold colors to create a clearly defined wayfinding to the various program elements throughout.

Brooklyn Housing and Aquatics Center

SGS was invited to propose an affordable senior housing development located on the existing campus in the Bronx. Our proposed 160,000 sf building offers 194 units of new independent senior housing, a health center, pharmacy, meeting spaces for residents and community members and office space for a neighborhood nonprofit. A landscaped plaza and gardens provide connections between buildings and the neighborhood, and sustainability features encourage water and consumer waste recycling throughout the building. The development works with the site’s existing conditions to create a building that is both functional and cost-effective, while creating an uplifting and welcoming presence for its residents and neighbors.

Bronx Affordable Housing Project

The renovation includes the 145-unit Borinquen Court affordable and senior housing center in the Bronx. In addition to the upgrade and repair of major building systems apartment interiors, SGS redesigned all common spaces in order to create inviting areas for the building’s residential community to gather as well as a triangular, steel canopy for an animated entryway.

Borinquen Court Renovation

Supportive Housing for WSFSSH

Tres Puentes is an affordable senior housing development consisting of two new buildings built to complement and add over 170 new units to the existing 

 building. The three buildings are physically connected and form a unified campus run by a non-profit housing organization. The project consists of two new buildings: the West Building is 11-stories tall and the East Building is eight stories. All apartments are either one-bedrooms or studios, and house low income seniors. In addition to the apartments, the new buildings include a senior center, health clinic, local pharmacy, and new social services offices.

SARA National Design Merit Award Winner, 2022

Tres Puentes

In the News

Tres Puentes, prototype for the new Housing+ Initiative →

Tres Puentes wins SARA Award →

Tres Puentes on World Architects →

Tres Puentes Senior Apartments opens its doors in Mott Haven →

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