Bernard M. Baruch Houses, or Baruch Houses, is a public housing development built by the

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...

(NYCHA) on the Lower East Side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Baruch Houses is bounded by

Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...

to the east, E.

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River i ...

to the north, Columbia Street to the west, and

Delancey Street __NOTOC__ Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of New York City's Lower East Side in Manhattan, running from the street's western terminus at the Bowery to its eastern end at FDR Drive, connecting to the Williamsburg Bridge and Broo ...

to the south. The complex, the largest NYCHA development in Manhattan, occupies (equivalent to fifteen blocks), of which buildings cover 13.4%, a percentage similar to that of most "

tower in the park Towers in the park is a morphology of modernist

" project designs. It has 2,194 apartments, which house an estimated 5,397 people. These apartments are distributed throughout 17 buildings. Baruch Houses I is seven stories tall, Baruch Houses XI, XIII, and XV are thirteen stories tall, and the rest (II-X, XII, XIV, XVI-XVII) are fourteen stories tall. Combined, these buildings have . Baruch Houses Addition, or Baruch Addition, is an eighteenth building for seniors, built in 1977. Baruch Addition is located on Columbia Street, at the start of Rivington Street, and has 197 units in twenty-three stories.

Development

The Baruch Houses were designed by Emery Roth & Sons and was completed June 30, 1959. Between the construction of LaGuardia Houses and Baruch Houses, 1,650 people were displaced in 1953-1954. It is named after Bernard Baruch, a Wall Street trader, economic advisor during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and confidant to six presidents. In 2013, the Baruch Houses were included in mayor Michael Bloomberg's 80/20 infill plan that would lease the development's open space to housing developers to create 80% market rate housing and 20% affordable housing. In 2015, under Bill de Blasio, the plan changed to 50/50 infill. The infill plan is intended to fund the $241.9 million the development needs for repairs. NYCHA tenants and affordable housing advocates oppose the plan. After

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

, NYCHA received $355 million from the city to repair properties damaged by the storm in 2017. The Baruch Houses improvements include new roofs, flood proofing, installation of full back-up power generators, new heat and hot water service, restoration of the playgrounds. Architects Nelligan White designed elevated central heating plant and outbuildings for backup generation system as part of this plan. Roberto Napoleon is the Resident Association President for Baruch Houses. Samuel Manguel is the Resident Association President for Baruch Houses Addition.

Notable people

Ursula M. Burns (born 1958), businesswoman and former chairman and CEO of

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...

References

External links

Official map
{{Lower East Side, Manhattan, state=collapsed Public housing in Manhattan Residential buildings completed in 1959 Lower East Side Emery Roth buildings Residential buildings in Manhattan

Development

Notable people

See also

References

External links