Supportive Housing on the Harbor

Picture it – Staten Island, in the late 1980s – a speculative developer gets a site with awesome views of the harbor, and builds sixteen apartments. A few years later, our supportive housing client purchases the building, and their residents move in. Unfortunately, the exposure to the New York Harbor is not kind to the building – the salt spray is particularly harsh to the original brick, and now it needs to be replaced. Many of the current residents have been there for years, and it was time to replace worn finishes and adapt their homes for ageing in place. This was our project

As we re-clad the street façade, we wanted to re-calibrate the scale of the building to give it a more comfortable street presence. The walls are load-bearing, so we had to work with existing openings, but the introduction of two primary materials – shiny manganese thin brick and wood-laminate panels, with metal details between – let us bring a secondary and tertiary scale to the façade. The new composition emphasizes verticality and the main entry door. The building feels more complimentary to its smaller-scale neighbors, where it used to overwhelm them

The existing lobby is a tightly constrained space. While we didn’t move any walls, we were able to expand the visual presence of the building entry and make it feel special, by bringing porcelain tile from outside to inside, with curved corners and soft angles. Doors, mailboxes and other elements were also replaced for accessibility, and a new awning provides shelter and a pool of light at the sidewalk.

We refinished the apartments to be light and airy – the street facing apartments have harbor views, while apartments facing the back yard all have patios, so the apartment living areas now feel more closely connected to those outdoor spaces. Kitchens and baths were refinished with durable new finishes, lighting, and mobility features to help older folks live independently for years to come.