Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Photographs by David Schalliol 15 1 Below-market Subsidized Housing Begins 35 Tenements, Andrew S. Dolkart 45 City and Suburban Homes Company, Andrew S. Dolkart 48 Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments, Matthew Gordon Lasner 52 Sunnyside Gardens, Nader Vossoughian and Matthew Gordon Lasner 58 Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments, Richard Greenwald 63 Boulevard Gardens, Jeffrey A. Kroessler 67 Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Nicholas Dagen Bloom 70 2 Public Neighborhoods 75 Fiorello LaGuardia, Stephen Petrus 88 Charles Abrams, Nancy H. Kwak 89 Harlem River Houses, Nicholas Dagen Bloom 91 Williamsburg Houses, Samuel Zipp and Nicholas Dagen Bloom 94 Queensbridge Houses and East River Houses, Hilary Ballon 99 Amsterdam Houses, Fritz Umbach 104 Model Gallery I: Pre-World War II 107 3 Public Housing Towers 113 Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Steven Levine 126 Jacob Riis Houses, Nicholas Dagen Bloom 128 Johnson Houses, Nicholas Dagen Bloom 131 Ravenswood Houses, Nicholas Dagen Bloom 134 4 Stabilizing the Middle 139 Stuyvesant Town, Samuel Zipp and Nicholas Dagen Bloom 151 Bell Park Gardens, Matthew Gordon Lasner 155 Queensview, Matthew Gordon Lasner 161 Abraham Kazan, Peter Eisenstadt 167 Penn Station South, Matthew Gordon Lasner 170 Rochdale Village, Peter Eisenstadt 176 Co-op City, Annemarie Sammartino 179 Starrett City, Karina Milchman 185 Model Gallery II: Post-World War II 189 5 Housing Reimagined 193 West Side Urban Renewal Area, Jennifer Hock 202 Jane Jacobs, Jennifer Hock 207 West Village Houses, Christopher Klemek 210 John Lindsay, Mariana Mogilevich 213 Riverbend Houses, David Smiley 215 Schomburg Plaza, Hilary Ballon 219 Edward J. Logue, Lizabeth Cohen 224 Twin Parks, Yonah Freemark and Susanne Schindler 226 Marcus Garvey Village, Karen Kubey 231 Eastwood, Matthias Altwicker 234 Hip Hop and Subsidized Housing, Lilian Knorr 239 6 The Decentralized Network 245 Urban Homesteading, Benjamin Holtzman 258 Roger Starr, Brian Goldstein 261 Nehemiah Houses, Nadia A. Mian 264 Abyssinian Development Corporation, Brian Goldstein 269 The Koch Housing Plan, Jonathan Soffer 273 Asian Americans for Equality, Jennifer Hock 276 Hughes House, Susanne Schindler 280 Melrose Commons and Via Verde, Susanne Schindler 283 Conclusion: Challenges and Opportunities 291 Model Gallery III: Contemporary 301 Notes 307 List of Contributors 331 Index 337 Illustration Credits 351

About the Author

Nicholas Dagen Bloom is associate professor of social science and director of the Urban Administration program at New York Institute of Technology. His books include Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century. Matthew Gordon Lasner is associate professor of urban studies and planning at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is the author of High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century.

Reviews

"Book Title of the Year," as selected for Curbed.com's Architecture in 2015: A Year in Review "From a housing act in 1926 to the sustainable design of Via Verde in 2012, this history painstakingly lays out the mixed success of the city's efforts to provide for its less privileged."--Avinash Rajagopal, Metropolis "[Affordable Housing in New York] chronicles each below-market subsidized housing project ever built in the city--an overview of the push and pull between politics and market forces... The research of multiple scholars is tidily collected."--Cassie Owens, NextCity "This is no dull study of methodologies for assorted programs. The book brings idealistic characters to life--from Fiorella LaGuardia to Alfred Smith, Clarence Stein, Robert Moses, Ed Logue, and Jane Jacobs--as well as lesser known, often female, pioneering housing advocates... [E]ssential."--Jayne Merkel, Architectural Record "The historically minded book celebrates New York City's best efforts at providing low-income families a high-quality place to live... Adding extra visual depth is a standout section of images by photographer and sociology professor David Schalliol at developments like Co-op City in the Bronx."--Surface "A gorgeous tome of essays."--Kai Wright, There Goes the Neighborhood podcast "A book worth reading even for those with only a marginal interest in housing policies, because it paints a comprehensive picture of the people, places, and policies that have truly transformed a city."--Raluca Moldovan, ABC Journal "An excellent primer on the many efforts that have been made toward tackling affordability, with lessons both cautionary and encouraging... The volume isn't merely a compendious and fascinating history but also an argument, locating inspiration in the past for the urgent task of housing the ever-larger number of New Yorkers hard-pressed to live in the city. It is in such history that this book provides massive encouragement--anyone who thinks that large-scale affordable construction is impossible in New York needn't turn to fantasies, they need merely look out their window."--Anthony Paletta, Metropolis "A wonderful new book... Bloom and Lasner, and the exquisite group of contributors they assembled for this volume, look into the first hundred years of projects, programs, policies, communities, and individuals that brought to life this one-of-a-kind housing stock... By analyzing about three dozen housing projects of different eras in their social and historical context, the book sheds new light on this multifaceted history without falling into the trap of becoming an obscure laundry list of housing policies."--Olympia Kazi, Architect's Newspaper