Unlocking Air: Reparative Design Strategies
New York, NY
2022-present
FAR is the buildable square footage on a property based on criteria from the 1960s zoning laws. The majority of lots in Harlem have slivers of remaining square footage that is legally buildable, but not appealing from a financing approach. Air rights transfers facilitate the sale of unused FAR from a under built source site to a property where a developer intends to build larger than allowed by the existing zoning. While this process is restricted to certain areas and conditions, the sale of air rights can prove lucrative. Currently, most air rights transfers are used to create a distinctly financial style of building, the super-tall. This project proposes a smaller scale approach, unlocking air rights above existing residential development, adding 2-4 stories to create a higher, yet still contextually relevent, density.
To ensure that the development of this new type of housing solution benefits community members, we propose a novel funding and management arrangement be established to manage the new properties which come from unlocking the significant potential of Harlem’s air rights. The concept proposed is not an architectural solution. New developments would leverage uniform engineering strategies and site analysis for efficiency, while allowing for a wide range of aesthetic approaches based on the site conditions to ensure neighborhood fabric is well maintained. When broadly implemented, this proposal has the potential to yield over 10,000 residential units — 85% of them affordable to Harlem’s actual income — while returning the financial benefits ofthe new developments to neighborhood residents.
Team
Matthew Morgan, Alden Copely, April De Simone, Alyssa Lewis