Glenmore Gardens , East New York, Brooklyn

New Foundations Program Testing the Two-Family Home

We designed and developed ten semi-detached, two‐family affordable homes awarded through HPD’s New Foundations Program. Collaborating with Architecture Research Office, Lewis Tsuramaki Lewis, and Briggs Knowles Architecture, the team focused on creating unique identities for the homes to remove the ubiquity often associated with affordable housing. Alloy managed construction costs to under $110 PSF and over 3,000 New Yorkers applied to purchase the homes. In attending the opening of the development in 2007, Mayor Bloomberg recognized the project as a model for affordable housing in the City.

Glenmore Exterior Hero — Exterior View with Neighborhood Context

Design Intent

This project introduced 10 affordable homes in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Via a charrette process, firms collaborated to create two housing types which mimic the local architectural language – a slab-on-grade three-story structure and a two-story building with a sub-grade floor and stoop entry. Simultaneously the teams developed a palette of materials to be shared across the five buildings while composing unique exterior compositions. Standardized details were developed in order to reduce costs and control the quality and consistency of construction. It was not about a grandiose concept of new architecture, but rather a collection of small-scale ideas magnified through a variety of deployments, a collaboration of young firms interested in imbuing a humble housing type with dignity.