At East Clarke Place Senior Residence, a 122-unit, LEED-Platinum, affordable senior housing development in the Bronx, social equity dovetails with design excellence to create a vertical village with indoor and outdoor social spaces and healthy, sustainable homes where residents can thrive. To encourage socializing and movement, the building’s many gathering spaces, distributed across all 14 floors, are conveniently accessible from the circulation spine that rises from the main entrance up the west side of the building. In addition to a large community room and rear garden terrace on the ground floor, there are furnished lounges on every floor, a 12th-floor roof garden adjoining a sunlit reading area, and roomy alcoves that project from the glazed corridors above. Large windows and glass walls reminiscent of a luxury building provide equitable access to daylight for all occupants. A light-filled “Active Stair,” beckons with its north-facing glass walls and a transparent enclosure in the lobby. Various lounge and service configurations cater to different activities and give residents a reason to visit different floors. With energy performance and long-term operational cost savings a priority, the building has an efficient envelope and a rooftop solar array. Horizontal sunshades along south-facing façade echo the traditional fire escapes that adorn neighboring buildings. The lively color palette of the rainscreen façade system reappears inside the building, where accent walls aid in wayfinding. In this spirit of health and longevity—human, architectural, and environmental—East Clarke Place Senior Residences shows how equity and mission-driven work can define design excellence.

Location: Bronx, New York
Developers: Volunteers of America – Greater New York and Robert Sanborn Development, LLC