JeffReuben
Pre-war and Post-War on Popham Avenue
This view shows two prototypical New York City residential building types. At left a pre-war apartment house building and at the right a post-war Modernist style apartment building.
These buildings are located on opposite sides of the intersection of West 174th Street and Popham Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.
The one at the left is 1480 Popham Avenue, built about 1931 in the Art Deco style, which was very popular at that time. Its beige brick facade uses brick projections and recesses to express vertical and horizontal forms, typical of the Art Deco streamline look that provided some architectural detail but in a minimalist manner. It covers most of its building lot, providing a streetwall along most of the site's street frontage.
The one at the right is part of the Sedgwick Houses, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing development built about 1951 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings and Merrill. It is a Modernist, tower-in-a-park development consisting of 7 buildings. These red brick buildings are simple rectangular shapes with no ornamentation. Post-war public housing typically is not highly regarded for its architecture and site planning, which is often seen as adding to the negative stigma associated with public housing and its residents. But the Sedgwick Houses development, at least from the exterior, is well maintained and has attractive landscaping. The site has a slight hill, including rock outcropings (not visible in this photo); the decision to retain these features rather than level the site's grade seems to enhance its visual character. The architect, Bunshaft, designed a number of notable buildings including the Lever House office building in Midtown Manhattan that was built and designed about the same time as the Sedgwick Houses.
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For more information on the Sedgwick Houses, please see my article on Untapped Cities:
untappedcities.com/2015/08/24/daily-what-the-architect-of...
Pre-war and Post-War on Popham Avenue
This view shows two prototypical New York City residential building types. At left a pre-war apartment house building and at the right a post-war Modernist style apartment building.
These buildings are located on opposite sides of the intersection of West 174th Street and Popham Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.
The one at the left is 1480 Popham Avenue, built about 1931 in the Art Deco style, which was very popular at that time. Its beige brick facade uses brick projections and recesses to express vertical and horizontal forms, typical of the Art Deco streamline look that provided some architectural detail but in a minimalist manner. It covers most of its building lot, providing a streetwall along most of the site's street frontage.
The one at the right is part of the Sedgwick Houses, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing development built about 1951 and designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings and Merrill. It is a Modernist, tower-in-a-park development consisting of 7 buildings. These red brick buildings are simple rectangular shapes with no ornamentation. Post-war public housing typically is not highly regarded for its architecture and site planning, which is often seen as adding to the negative stigma associated with public housing and its residents. But the Sedgwick Houses development, at least from the exterior, is well maintained and has attractive landscaping. The site has a slight hill, including rock outcropings (not visible in this photo); the decision to retain these features rather than level the site's grade seems to enhance its visual character. The architect, Bunshaft, designed a number of notable buildings including the Lever House office building in Midtown Manhattan that was built and designed about the same time as the Sedgwick Houses.
***
For more information on the Sedgwick Houses, please see my article on Untapped Cities:
untappedcities.com/2015/08/24/daily-what-the-architect-of...