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Alexander Gorlin Architects

Alexander Gorlin Architects

New York, NY

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Nehemiah Spring Creek Housing

Alexander Gorlin Architects has completed 301 affordable pre-fabricated townhouses with 431 units of housing on a 45 acre landfill site in East New York, Brooklyn, for the Nehemiah Housing Development Fund.  This is a non-profit developer who sells the houses to first time homebuyers to create new communities where urban blight has destroyed the original urban fabric.  Named after the Old Testament prophet, Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, the program works through local community groups, in this case the Catholic and Baptist churches to build support for new housing.  The modular homes are built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and trucked to the site, then assembled like Lego blocks with twelve different facades and ten colors to create identity and texture for the new neighborhood. The facades are clad in a cementitous board that is with color that is baked on in the factory.  Parking is in rear yard alleys that have become a center of neighborhood play and community use.  The houses are modern interpretations of traditional brownstones, with urban street walls and front stoops on the street for public interaction to further the development of community.  Bay windows project onto the street to further emphasize variety and a human scale along the street facades. 

 
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Status: Built
Location: Brooklyn, NY, US
Firm Role: Architect / Master Planner

 
Townhouse Facade
Townhouse Facade
Master Plan Aerial
Master Plan Aerial
Construction
Construction
Construction in the Navy Yard
Construction in the Navy Yard