Date of Construction: 1949

Architect: Frederick Ackerman and Lafayette A. Goldstone Architects

Neighborhood: Lower East Side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1949 during the mayorship of Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Lillian Wald Houses were erected. Sponsored by the New York City Housing Authority and designed by Frederick Ackerman and Lafayette A. Goldstone Architects, the development was conceived as a low-rent multiple dwelling project. Following the principle of the “towers in the park”, the centerpiece of this plan was the group of sixteen cruciform skyscrapers made of reinforced concrete. These skyscrapers were set within large, rectangular, park-like green spaces.

 

The project involved some alterations in the street grid. Four streets were eliminated: Lewis Street, from East Houston Street to East 6^th Street, and East 3^rd St, East 4^th and East 5^th, all of them from Avenue D to the East Drive River (Current FDR Drive). In addition, one-half of an acre belonging to Public School 188 was added to the project to be utilized as a playground.

 

The complex is bounded by East 6^th Street to the North, Houston Street and Lillian Wald Drive to the South, Franklin D. Roosevelt East Drive to the East, and Avenue D to the West.  The multi-family towers are 10, 11, 13 and 14 stories tall, and set in a park-like setting. The density of the towers generates equilibrium between open spaces and building mass, and maintains a sufficient level of closeness to create a neighborhood environment.

 

The style of the towers follows the principles of the International Style, and the complex configuration is representative of “tower in the park”-style urban design, from the early twentieth-century. The sixteen buildings follow the same prototype: two lateral L-Shapes joined to a rectangle protruding from the middle, enclosing facades that generate at least one interior court per building. Fourteen buildings are positioned along the perimeter of the block and two buildings are situated in the center of the complex defining the interior spaces. This creates a composition of solid and empty spaces.  The scale of the massive volumes and repetitive pattern generates the visual relevance.

 

The functionalism of the planning is revealed in the appearance of the buildings. Each building has two primary facades: the North and South, and the East and West façade.  The buildings are clad in common American bond brickwork, showing evidence of brick replacement. The roofs are made of flat concrete slabs and the structures stand on concrete foundations.   All the main entrances consist of a one-story roofed vestibule protruding from the main façade, which includes one standard hollowed metallic door and one fixed window. The facades do not have any other decoration than three brick belt-courses.

 

The site also includes two facilities buildings, six playgrounds, two basketball courts, four parking lots, one Citi Bike station, one picnic area, one community garden, one horticulture garden, walkways and several green areas. The urban furniture incorporates steel park benches, waste containers, bus shelters, lampposts, and fixed concrete tables and benches. Continuous steel bar fencing encloses the green areas around each building.

 

The landscape of the complex reflects the population diversity as it includes three murals depicting the residents’ ethnic variety. Numerous trees predominate the natural scene and the community garden includes plants and flowers. Buildings, playgrounds and green areas are connected with walkways, which are covered with plain concrete slabs. The accesses to the buildings are delimited with concrete block pavement.  Two of the facility’s outbuildings are also part of the landscape. The first one houses a boiler room, a one-story brick-clad building with a concrete roof and one chimney located nearby the North facade. The second facility houses the Boys Brotherhood Republic building, a concrete structure with a façade clad in granite. The latter building was not part of the original plan.

 

Minor changes which have been made to the site overtime have responded to specific needs of the community. Many others express the necessity of preserving the identity and roots of the residents. The Tenants Garden tells the importance of creating places for the memory, no matter how long the people inhabit a place.

 

Wald Houses complex has developed a strong character as a result of the continuous cultural amalgamation as well as the social condition that the residents are part of. Although almost all the multi-dwelling neighborhoods in the city look similar, Wald Houses has shaped its own personality because of its history. The memories of the Wald Houses’ residents create an atmosphere of a collective effort to make this site not only their house, but also their home.