St Philip Neri Apartments

In recent years the Association of New York Catholic Homes, in association with Catholic Charities, 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. Think! was fortunate to be commissioned to design a pair of 100% affordable residential buildings on Villa Avenue in the Jerome Park neighborhood of the Northern Bronx. 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.

Think! is often commissioned to design tall buildings in older, low-rise neighborhoods, and such is the case on Villa Avenue. This responsibility is taken seriously, and 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 also creates a sort of "embrace", and an unexpected spatial streetscape one normally doesn't experience on a small New York side street. Internally a primary goal was to allow generous natural light wherever one may be; in corridors, lobbies, amenity spaces and the actual living units.

3054 Villa is 75,000 sq ft and 14 stories with 101 residential units.

3069 Villa is 59,400 sq ft and 12 stories with 85 residential units.

In addition to the gesture of embrace, Think!’s 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 and welcoming 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 iconic stone steeple are preserved. To further the appeal to the neighborhood both buildings are set back from their property lines, allowing for generous landscaped planters along the entire street frontage.

At 3054 Villa, due to significant underground bedrock, which is extremely expensive to excavate, the building was elevated and created a two-tiered rear garden. One approaches the building, passing through the entry pavilion, with its wood lined walls continuing into the lobby, leading either out to the ground level rear garden or up an open stair to the second floor resident amenities. These amenities then open out into the upper garden level. This multilevel approach creates an incentive for people to walk up and down the lobby stairs and to the garden, so residents experience a variety of distinctive and connected indoor/outdoor spaces designed for adults and children. This circulation "loop" is meant to foster interaction among the residents, to create a sense of community within the building and to encourage physical activity and, hopefully, improved health outcomes.