Forest Houses

The Forest Houses are a housing project in Morrisania, Bronx. The project consists of fifteen buildings, 9, 10 and 14-stories tall with 1,350 apartment units. It covers a 17.72-acre expanse, and is bordered by East 163rd and East 166th Streets, and Trinity and Tinton Avenues. It is owned and managed by New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).[1]

Forest Houses
NYCHA property
Location within New York City
Coordinates: 40.825040°N 73.904660°W / 40.825040; -73.904660
Country United States
State New York
CityNew York City
BoroughBronx
ZIP codes
10456
Area code(s)718, 347, 929, and 917

Development

Plans for the Forest Houses began in 1949 with securing the funds from the federal government. NYCHA officials stated that the housing program is primarily a slum clearance program and they intend the finished development to provide better living conditions and a walkable community for the residents.[2] During demolition of the slums, the area was likened to a "bomb blast scene" and held a defense test on the site.[3] The development's design incorporated well-received modern features at the Carver Houses, including compact kitchens, electric ranges, and a refrigerator with freezer.[4] NYCHA publicized that the tenants would be 58% Black and 42% non-Black, most of which were Puerto Rican.[5] The Forest Houses were completed on November 12, 1956.[1]

In 2013, Forest Houses residents worked with artist Thomas Hirschhorn to a space to encourage the exchange between people, ideas and communities in the form of a pavilion.[6] Also that year, NYCHA and Mayor Bloomberg sold a portion of the development's property for the addition of a new privately owned building to offset the agency's capital needs.[7][8] The eight-story LEED-certified building was designated for low-income households earning less than 60 percent of the area median income and cost approximately $37.7 million to build.[8]

Notable residents

References
  1. "MyNYCHA Developments Portal". my.nycha.info. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  2. "80,000 APARTMENTS IN CITY PROJECTED; 500,000 Will Live in Public Housing Here by 1957, Local Authority Hopes". NY Times. November 20, 1949. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  3. "AREA FOR DEFENSE TEST; It Is Housing Project Site and Resembles Bomb Blast Scene". NY Times. November 23, 1952. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  4. "TENANTS REJOICE IN CARVER HOUSES; Aged Get First 8 Apartments in Uptown Project -- Special Features Have Big Appeal". NY Times. January 26, 1955. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  5. Bloom, Nicholas Dagen (2014-08-04). Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812201321.
  6. "NYCHA - Forest Houses Residents To Help Build New Art Monument". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  7. Bloom, Nicholas Dagen; Lasner, Matthew Gordon (2016). Affordable Housing in New York: The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167817.
  8. "An Arbor In the Forest: Green Affordable Housing Development Opens In the Bronx". Observer. 2013-02-21. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  9. "Which NYC Housing Projects Have Produced the Most Famous People?Marcy Houses". Complex. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
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