Re-rethink Affordable Housing

Thoughtful Urban Renewal

The 5th Street Park Coalition invites you to rethink affordable housing as a design challenge worthy of rigor, nuance, and civic ambition. We seek proposals that elevate urban renewal through beauty, sustainability, and respect for community context.

Jane Jacobs, in 1969: an ordinary mom who set out to protect the neighborhood. Detail of a photograph by Elliott Erwitt / Magnum and John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Housing Architecture

Keeping the Character,
Adding the Care.

New development in this part of the East Village benefits from aligning with the established rhythm to suggest a series of 18- to 20-foot-wide Victorian-style buildings dating to the late 19th century. The restored 9th Precinct station house on East 5th Street, built in 1912 and carefully rehabilitated in the early 2000s, offers a nearby precedent in scale and materiality. (F)

Designing with setbacks, greenspace, permeable boundaries, and access to daylight ensures the street thrives as a vibrant, welcoming public realm.

Housing Graphic

Green Space

Integrating greenspace enhances the lives of housing residents, the neighborhood, and the city through carbon absorption, cleaner air, and sustainable water management. (F)

10

Even 10 mature trees can contribute meaningfully to shade and biodiversity

12 lbs

Approximate annual CO2 absorption from a modest number of trees

4 aqi

Estimated air quality improvement possible with limited greenspace

3ºF

Potential temperature reduction through relief from urban heat

15 in

Rainwater absorption capacity from permeable ground and planting

130 lbs

Annual oxygen output from a small group of healthy trees

Proposals should reflect a collective effort to thoughtfully incorporate community participation, neighborhood integration, and targeted greenspace—advancing a flexible, context-aware vision for East 5th Street that responds to real neighborhood needs and encourages meaningful long-term performance for future residents.

Open-grid permeable systems
Minimize solar heat gain
Canopy trees
Open-grid permeable systems
Minimize solar heat gain
Canopy trees
Open-grid permeable systems
Minimize solar heat gain
Canopy trees
Open-grid permeable systems
Minimize solar heat gain
Canopy trees

Request RFP
  1. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, 1961, Chapter 2: "The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety", p. 35.
  2. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, 1961, Chapter 10: "The Need for Aged Buildings", p. 232.
  3. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, 1961, Chapter 22: "The Kind of Problem a City Is", p. 238.
  4. While subject to inaccuracies and errors, this information has been prepared to the best of our ability, utilizing over a decade of experience, and based on interviews with architects and designers.
  5. These statements are based on interviews with landscape architects, all statements require further research to confirm.