Local architecture studio CookFox Architects has unveiled plans to renovate a former women's prison in Chelsea into "100 per cent" affordable housing.
Located just blocks away from the One High Line luxury residential towers by BIG, the building once served merchant marines as the Seamen's House YMCA before it was converted into the Bayview Correctional Facility.
Completed in 1931 by architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, it features art-deco stylings with a facade of brown brick, caste concrete and terra cotta, recognized for its distinctive chamfered corner entrance inlaid with tiles.
In the 1970s New York State converted the building into a women's prison, which was closed and abandoned in 2012 following damage from Superstorm Sandy, and in light of a history of mistreatment of inmates. CookFox Architects has unveiled renderings of an affordable housing project in Chelsea
CookFox Architects plans to convert the building into "100 per cent" affordable housing, which will include restoring the facade to its original YMCA state, including nautical detailing, adding an extension to the back of the building, and converting the interior into apartments. The project is tentatively called Liberty Landing.
Renderings show the restored nine-storey building topped with a tiered volume of additional apartments.
"The building will be totally reconfigured to create safe, comfortable, residences within the historic structure," CookFox associate partner...