3.  Affordable New York: A Housing Legacy at the MCNY

The NYCHA exhibit at the 1939-40 World’s Fair, June 8, 1940. La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York, courtesy of the New York City Housing Authority

This timely exhibit on affordable housing in New York City delves into the history of affordable housing and the battles that will be waged to create and preserve the 200,000 units of affordable housing promised in the next decade. The exhibit, Affordable New York: A Housing Legacy, now on view at The Museum of the City of New York, is curated by architectural historian and author Thomas Mellins.

New York City was a pioneering force behind the affordable housing movement in the 19th century, and was the first city to pass a comprehensive tenement house law, with philanthropic tenements appearing as early as 1877. The exhibit showcases the range of affordable housing initiatives, like Mitchell-Lama, Title 1, and Stuyvesant Town, and also adaptive reuse programs like Westbeth Center for the Arts in Greenwich Village. The Museum is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets. The exhibit is on view through February 16, 2016.

In a related event, Untapped Cities will co-sponsor a discussion titled Designing Better Affordable Housing at The Museum of the City of New York on Tuesday December 1, from 6:30-8:30 pm. A distinguished panel of developers, architects, and professors will be taking crowdsourced questions from the Untapped Cities community. You can register here, or submit your questions about affordable housing via the hashtag #UntappedMCNY on Twitter