Date of Construction: 1949

Architect: Walker and Gillette (James C. Mckenzie)

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction of the Jacob Riis Houses began in 1947 and was completed in 1949 following the construction of The First Houses and Vladek Houses, NYCHA’s first two housing projects. Designed by architect James C. Mckenzie, Sydney Strauss, and the firm of Walker and Gillette, the brick clad buildings ranged from seven stories to fourteen. Initially the plan for the Jacob Riis Houses consisted of 13 buildings starting at 14^th Street and extending down to 8^th Street using federal funds. The city then decided to fund an additional six buildings that extended the boundaries of the complex to 6^th Street. However, the project met some conflict in 1946 when the federal government decided to no longer fund the project. After some negotiations, the state agreed to use funding intended for six other housing projects to complete the Riis Houses, citing that construction of the Riis Houses was already underway while none of the other projects had even broken ground. When it was finally completed the Jacob Riis Houses and Jacob Riis II provided 1,190 homes for people.

 

The site and landscape design of the Jacob Riis Houses not only follows the ideas of Le Corbusier’s “Towers in the Park,” but also seems to draw inspiration from back when the land was open grassland. Unlike the design of the Lillian Wald houses, located just south of 6^th Street, the central park space was clearly defined and the emphasis of the entire complex, making the atmosphere of the Jacob Riis Houses unique.

 

The individual buildings are designed with the elements of the International Style and exhibit geometric shapes, clean lines, and windows set in a grid pattern. Seven of the buildings have an H-shaped footprint and are seven stories tall. The other 12 buildings have a modified X-shaped footprint and are 14 stories tall. All of the buildings sit on concrete foundations, and the primary entrances, except for four of the seven-story buildings, are located on the North or South facades. The primary entrances on the differing four are found on the East or West facades.

 

The buildings form two U-shaped layouts with a large, open corridor space in the center of each. The seven story buildings are located at the North East and North West corner of 6^th Street and each of the corners of 10^th Street, with the fourteen story buildings running parallel to Avenue D and FDR Drive. This creates very peaceful center corridor spaces that are home to the small community garden, three playgrounds, a basketball court, a small amphitheater space, fenced off lawns, and a number of benches where residents can sit and enjoy the outdoors. The main walkways run north to south and are flanked on each side with large, mature trees. Smaller walkways run east to west and provide access to Avenue D or FDR Drive. The complex’s only parking lot is located along Avenue D, south of 10^th Street. 

Although many saw the Jacob Riis Houses as a blessed change from the condition of the neighborhood beforehand, others, like the notable critic Lewis Mumford, saw the complex as a perpetuation of the issues that had faced low-income housing throughout the centuries. They were seen more as isolated communities that marginalized the poor instead of idealistic views of the self-sustaining “city within a city.”

 

Before 1965, the park space that extended between the buildings in a central “mall” was underutilized. The grass portions were fenced off and were unable to be used. However, in 1965, the Jacob Riis Houses became the major topic of discussion amongst professional planners, designers, politicians, and the general public because of plans to redesign the open park space.  Aided by a $900,000 grant from the Vincent Astor foundation, the landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg and the architectural firm Pomerance and Breines created a new design that made the park space accessible to everyone. Hailed as “bringing a little bit of country to the city” by Ada Louise Huxtable in a 1965 article in the New York Times, the new design was an experiment in converting “dead space” to usable space inside of public housing complexes.

 

In the decades leading up to the present day, the residents of the Jacob Riis Houses are really what have shaped the development and made it unique. They took ownership of their homes and neighborhoods despite all the odds against them, thankful for what they had but always looking towards the future.  In the past ten years the Jacob Riis Houses and its residents have weathered the storms of September 11, a recession, and Super-storm Sandy. Today, public housing is on the brink of more change that may once again alter the course of how the city of New York addresses affordable housing as the New York Housing Authority is looking to redevelop the open park space with high-rise, luxury towers in eight of the complexes, and though the Jacob Riis Houses are not one of the complexes being considered, the results will greatly affect the life of the people who live in the developement. According to NYCHA's estimates, there are 2,739 people who reside in the Jacob Riis Houses.