by: Stephanie Gregerman
Event: Design with a Conscience: Public Housing
Location: Parsons The New School for Design, 11.05.07
Speakers: Michael Maltzan, FAIA — Principal, Michael Maltzan Architecture; Andrew Bernheimer, AIA — Principal, Della Valle Bernheimer; Alex Schwartz, chair of policy programs, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy & author of Housing Policy in the United States: An Introduction
Moderator: Kent Kleinman — chair, Department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting, Parsons The New School for Design.
Organizer: Parsons The New School for Design
Glenmore Gardens in East New York, designed by Della Valle Bernheimer.
Della Valle Bernheimer, courtesy Parsons The New School for Design
Progressive public housing design is typically precluded by tight budgets. The public housing design process can be abstract, and include discussions on ethics, morality, public economic restrictions, and practical business decisions. Social responsibility is often given a bad name in the architecture profession, but some firms are embracing the challenge and working through the limitations to create unique, livable designs.
For Andrew Bernheimer, AIA, and his team at Della Valle Bernheimer, design with a conscience is simply part of the application. “Our work is not progressive. We are a conventional design firm,” he says. Glenmore Gardens in the East New York section of Brooklyn, however, is a new concept for public housing (and featured in the fall issue of OCULUS magazine. See “High Ideals, Low Budget,” by Bill Millard, p. 26). Della Valle Bernheimer acted as architect and master planner for five two-family homes as part of the New Foundations Program for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Collaborating with firms Architecture Research Office (ARO), Briggs Knowles Architecture + Design, and Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis, the five buildings contain residences with distinct yet related designs incorporating affordable and sustainable building materials.
Michael Maltzan, FAIA, preferring the moniker “socially motivated” to “social responsibility,” believes design can attack social issues, such as isolation, prevalent in a community. Michael Maltzan Architecture’s Skid Row Housing Trust Apartments in downtown Los Angeles, a six-story, 43,000-square-foot building, provides single-occupancy units to formerly homeless residents. The U-shaped building provides a private central courtyard that acts as a public gathering space for occupants. Public spaces are carved out or extruded from the building’s massing as well, and elements such as color are employed to create a welcoming presence.
“You can create community and a significant presence in a city. You try to be conscious — for the city,” claims Maltzan. Although affordable housing is bound by political and economic limitations, firms like Della Valle Bernheimer and Michael Maltzan Architecture embrace architecture’s social role.
Stephanie Gregerman is a Williamsburg-based communications consultant specializing in design and sustainable built environments.