Study tour to research low cost seniors/disability housing
MELBOURNE: A study tour departs next week to look at innovations in low cost seniors and disability housing.
City agencies have announced the development of an affordable housing project dedicated to low- and extremely low-income senior citizens in the Soundview section of The Bronx. Known as Casa Celina, it is a collaboration between NYCHA and the city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development with private entities Xenolith Partners, The Kretchmer Companies, ELH Mgmt., and the Jewish Association Serving the Aging, known colloquially as JASA.
Designed by Magnusson Architecture + Planning, the 16-story building will contain a total of 200 studio and one-bedroom units and a 3,350-square-foot community space at the ground level offering onsite social support, health services, and cultural programming. Residential amenities will include a fitness center, a landscaped roof terrace, communal lounge areas, and a laundry room.
“Urban acupuncture was a theme of the design,” said Magnusson Architect and Planning principal Fernando Villa. ‘There was an idea that this one point, this building, could radiate benefits throughout the neighborhood in the form of services and community programming, neighborhood investment, and architectural innovation, or more everyday impacts like improvements in open space and street illumination.”
Casa Celina is positioned on the corner of Watson and Thieriot Avenue, a NYCHA-owned site that is part of a larger collection of parcels named after Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. According to an official statement from the city, the development named the project after Justice Sotomayor’s mother Celina Baez.
