Date of Construction: 1957

Architect: Hyman Isaac Feldman

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1953, the New York City Housing Authority filed plans with the Department of Housing and Buildings for a $16,750,000 project to be erected on the Lower East Side.  The project would later become the La Guardia Houses, named after Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945, and one of the driving forces behind the development of NYCHA.  According to a New York Times article published on March 27, 1953, the development replaced 10.7 acres of slums and would later occupy a six-block area bounded by Madison, Cherry, Montgomery, and Rutgers Streets.  In place of the 127 condemned structures, nine sixteen-story buildings occupying only 13.6% of the site would be constructed.  The remainder of the site would consist of landscaped recreation and play areas, as well as off-street parking lots.  In total, 2,562 residents would occupy 1,094 apartments.  At the time of its construction, a bath house located near the largest play area contained a swimming pool and gymnasium, available to residents of the entire neighborhood.  The bath house was in occupancy until the early 1970s; today the bath house is in disrepair and no longer in use.  

 

On January 19, 1954, a ceremony took place to mark the beginning of construction for the La Guardia Houses.  Mrs. La Guardia, widow of Mayor La Guardia, was in attendance, as noted by a New York Times article published on January 20 of that same year.  Finally on August 8, 1957, the La Guardia Houses were completed, marking them the 75th permanent undertaking of the New York City Housing Authority.  

 

Completed in 1957, the LaGuardia houses complex consists of ten residential buildings, with one specifically designated for senior citizens. The buildings are divided into two super blocks, surrounded by Madison Street to the north, Cherry Street to the south, Montgomery Street to the east, and Rutgers Street to the west.  Additionally, Clinton Street divides the two blocks on a north-south axis. The buildings are divided over these two blocks, with four buildings on the eastern block, and five buildings along with the senior building on the western block. In the eastern block, the four buildings are arranged with one on each corner of the block. In the western block, four buildings are laid on each corner of the block, with an additional building as well as the senior building facing Cherry Street.

 

The houses are built with a “Tower-in-the-Park” design, a design in which high-rise residential buildings are sited on a large plot of land.  Made popular in postwar American urban design, this design is associated with public housing as well as with limited equity cooperative housing societies. The towers are clad in brick, arranged in an American Bond style.  The residential towers are constructed in an x-shape, with their four wings spanning out in north-western, north-eastern, south-western, and south-eastern directions. Because the buildings are x-shaped, there is no primary façade to each building, nor is there a primary façade to the site. On the eastern block, the five buildings are 20-stories tall. On the western block, the four buildings are 16-stories tall. The site includes one abandoned bath house, located on Madison Street, in the western block. This building, once known as the Whitehouse, was built in the 1920s and has been closed off since the 1970s.

 

The landscape surrounding the site is expansive. It is for this reason that this type of site is given its name, “Tower-in-the-Park.”  Each building is surrounded by green grassy areas, and the site also includes multiple play areas housed between the buildings.  The largest of these play areas, The Little Flower Playground, is located on the western block and takes up about one quarter of the western site's land area.   The park’s facilities includes swing sets, climbing structures, picnic areas, basketball and handball courts, spray showers, drinking fountains, and a large flower mosaic. The streets are lined with trees, making this another design detail in the “Tower-in-the-Park” plan.