Two Social Housing projects in New York
Roosevelt Island’s Westview and Eastwood Housing designed in 1976 by Josep Louis Sert for New York’s Urban Development Corporation (UDC) have similarities to Via Verde in the Bronx designed in 2011 by Grimshaw + Dattner architects. Both projects contain social housing and are similar in built form with a combination of high-rise, stepped down to low-rise. The Roosevelt Island projects were part of the Philip Johnson led master plan for the island, transforming Welfare Island into a model neighborhood that was car free. Sert’s buildings featured stacked two-story units accessed from skip-stop access decks. The Via Verde project featured a similar condition with cleverly designed interlocking skip-stop units. Via Verde also featured sustainable elements including racks of solar panels, roof-top gardens and elaborate sun shading screens. The project was built by the Jonathan Rose Company as a case study in sustainable urbanism.
Eastwood facing towards Queens across the East River, showing the stepped section.
Westview facing towards Manhattan.
Eastwood from the East River.
Via Verde showing the stepped massing and sun shading elements on the south facade.
Typical floor plan showing the two elevator cores serving the high-rise and mid-rise portions of the building, and the walk-up low-rise units to the right.
Skip-stop floors showing the interlocking two-story units that integrate wide and narrow frontage, unlike Le Corbusier's Marseilles Unite d'habitation plans.
Walk-up stacked townhouses and flats. Two-story maximum walk-up.
Stacked flats for the high-rise portion of the building.