Jacob's Place is a sixty-three unit, eight-story rental building in the Fordham section of the Bronx that was dedicated earlier this month. Developed by Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, a Bronx-based affordable housing developer, the project broke ground in August of 2005 and is named for Astin Jacobo, a resident of the Crotona neighborhood of the Bronx who was a long-standing advocate of affordable housing, recreational facilities, and community preservation. Jacob’s Place is completely set aside for residents who make no more than sixty percent of the local median income, and occupancy will be determined by a lottery system.
The project was constructed according to the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria and features a combination green/solar roof. The $90,000 roof installation was funded in cooperation by NYSERDA and BP's Solar Neighbors Program, whereby BP donates a solar system to a low-income/affordable housing project every time a celebrity purchases a similar system. The sixty-four panel, 11 kW system at Jacob’s Place came from Owen Wilson, and will power elevators, ventilation, and common areas; it’s Solar Neighbors’ first such installation outside of California (where the program is based) and its first in a multi-unit residential building. Other green features at Jacob's Place include bamboo apartment flooring, low-VOC paints and materials, energy-efficient elevators, and a graywater system.
The project cost $14.5 million, $5.6 million of which came from the federal low-income housing tax credit program. These credits were syndicated by Enterprise, which in turn obtained funding from various financial institutions. $4.2 million came from the city's Housing Development Corporation, $2.7 million from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and $1 million from the Borough of the Bronx. The city donated the land and Fordham Bedford put up $330,000. The project team included Oaklander, Coogan and Vitto Architects and Bronx-based Galaxy Construction.
- Affordable and Green Building Honors Activist (Norwood News)
- Easier on the Wallet and the Environment (City Limits)
- Enterprise Green Communities
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This building was designed by
This building was designed by Jack Coogan at OCV Architects. They've been making a better NY ofr over 30 years!
I'm encouraged to see these
I'm encouraged to see these steps being taken. I'm a little tired of the backslapping that so frequently makes up the bulk of these pages. What I would really like to see is a follow up on this and similar " reinventions of social housing in america " to determine just how well these "new" ideas are tranlating into providing homes for the occupants. What worked? What ended up being so much architectural spin . What are the occupants saying...ALL the occupants not just the council members.
Is there a site for this type of discussion?
Not sure there's a specific
Not sure there's a specific site, but if you look in the comments for a few projects that we've presented here at gbNYC, some residents/potential tenants have given their on-the-ground perspective and it's not all warm and fuzzy. I can tell you that much of the work we're doing is trying to track how green buildings perform with an eye towards how that might impact liability for design professionals and other green project participants. Check out our green building liability archive through the tags in the far right sidebar.
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