David Adjaye’s new affordable housing building for Sugar Hill, Harlem is expected to strengthen the community with its mixed program on the base level and impvero the poverty-stricken neighborhood by providing quality housing for 124 families. In addition to apartments that will house some of the city’s poorest residents, a new educational, cultural and arts space will also be incorporated into the scheme. Resting at the bottom of Adjaye’s stacked and shifted volumes, the 18,000 sqf Faith Ringgold Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling will hold a permanent exhibition of Ringgold’s quilt art in addition to temporary exhibitions. As bdonline.uk reported, “Ringgold, who grew up in the area, has developed the museum in order to provide local children with early education through art. The museum will, in particular, attempt to foster pride in Harlem’s own artistic legacy.” The building’s construction is projected for later this year. We’re hoping this building has the potential to uplift a burdened community; what do you think?
Bit difficult to say all that much based on just a single image.. Massing looks chunky.
one of a million….
I agree with Richie. Seems very large.
Adjaye is all about creating place but I have to question the arrangement of the apartment units. While there is a rooftop garden (looks that way on the image), it would have been great for each unit to have it’s own outdoor space. I would think with his “stacking volume” scheme, this would be able to be accomplished and perhaps break up the chunky feel.
^ i’d imagine it’s a shared communal garden, rather than individual plots of land stuck onto each apartment. Meeting your neighbours in a garden in the sky would be great fun.
But it’s so hard to talk about a project based on one image.
http://www.broadwayhousing.org/housing/sugarhill/?i=5
Link to the project rationale by Broadway Housing Communities….
this building has no sympathy for the human scale