In the hierarchy of things New York City residents kvetch about, housing ranks near the top. A dearth of affordable apartments has the city in a stranglehold and theres seemingly no end to escalating rents. (Good luck finding a studio in Manhattan for less than $2,300 per month, the average going rate in the borough.) To tackle this problem, former mayor Michael Bloomberg staged a competition in 2012 to design a microunit development. In just three years, the experimental buildings have hit the market. But is it enough to alleviate the affordable housing crisis? Short answer: it opens the conversation about retooling the citys supply of apartments, but its not exactly a panacea for NYCs housing headaches.
While the housing shortage sparked the competition, demographic change influenced the design. The composition of households has steadily morphed over the decades, but the housing stock hasnt caught up. According to research from the Citizens Housing Planning Councilthe nonprofit whose research informed Bloombergs AdAPT competitionthere are 1.8 million one- and two-person households in New York City and just 1 million studios and one-bedroom apartments. Carmel Places 55 units are just a drop in the bucket, but pose a solution for denser living in a city where buildable land is at a premium.
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