TOPIC

Public Housing

The Green Shift

An Electrician

There is no shortage of work for a member of IBEW Local 3: shoring up building systems to withstand flooding and preparing for an electrification boom.

East Harlem Gets Ready

For high school students in the Climate Resilience Leadership Lab, emergency preparedness means mobilizing the neighborhood.

Shelf Life

Do You Remember How It Was?

Residents recall a decade of upheaval in the East New York Oral History Project.

Our Fair City

50 years after the passage of a landmark law, how will New York City assess the fairness of its housing?

Circulation Desk

If These Walls Could Talk

Whither housing? Ask the houses. In four recent books, home is where the histories of housing policy and politics makes themselves known.

Beyond Resilience

Nearly six years after Sandy flooded basements and uprooted trees, Red Hook Houses is still in recovery. But designers from KPF and OLIN see a future brighter than survival, when infrastructure combines with art and the landscape rises above the waterline.

The Location of Justice: Streets

Do You Feel Secure?

For decades, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design has touted the efficacy of bollards, gates, and cameras in deterring violent acts — with scant evidence. At what cost do we build “defensible space”?

Housing Brass Tacks

NYCHA

In our seventh Brass Tacks discussion, Rasmia Kirmani-Frye, President of the Fund for Public Housing, leveled with us on public housing’s unique role in the city and the challenges NYCHA must face.

The Storm That Will Be: Protecting Public Housing in the New 100-Year Floodplain

Elizabeth Rush looks at the particular challenges facing public housing authorities in high-risk flood zones and follows a design competition for a stormwater management plan in Jersey City to consider how responsive, site-specific architectural innovation can inform broader strategies for strengthening vulnerable communities.

Profiles in Public Service

Hard Units: A Drive through Jersey City with Brian Loughlin

Brian Loughlin, the chief architect for the Jersey City Housing Authority, takes us on a tour of recent renovations and rehabilitations, demonstrating the architectural innovation and policy acumen required to navigate federal housing programs and create sound homes and neighborhoods.