5. Coney Island Commons

Coney Island Commons includes two apartment buildings built in the western part of the neighborhood, about a 10-minute walk from the area’s famous attractions.  On a site that had been City-owned and vacant for years, Dattner Architects, the co-designers of Via Verde, designed a complex with many of the same sustainability features as the firm’s earlier green affordable project.

Completed in 2013, Coney Island Commons also encourages healthy lifestyles as it features the Coney Island YMCA, a 40,000-square foot facility with a gymnasium and two swimming pools.  The area had lacked a community recreational facility with these types of activities.

With its combination of affordability, sustainability, and community space, the project and its development team, led by Larry Hirschfield and Andrea Kretchmer, received awards from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.  In fact, most of the projects profiled in this article have been award winners.