Harlem MART 125

The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone’s redevelopment of a through-block lot across from Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater positions itself in a rapidly changing social and architectural context. One half of the lot, fronting 125th Street, offers a series of office spaces for media non-profits and other cultural tenants, as well as a public screening room and a large restaurant. The other half, fronting 124th Street, offers 34 much needed affordable housing units, designed for aging jazz musicians. Both sides of the site are designed around spaces meant to promote socialization and cross-pollination of ideas: communal living rooms and a generous fitness center in the affordable housing, and a series of shared meeting and production spaces on the cultural side. A public sequence pulls individuals--whether residents, commercial tenants, or the general public--into a central elevated courtyard, using daylighting and a strong organizing diagonal. This central courtyard, along with the smaller communal spaces on both sides, is meant to foster social interactions between otherwise distinct groups, capitalizing on the striking demographic change playing out in Central Harlem.

Critics Sara Caples, Everardo Jefferson, Jonathan Rose | Fall 2015

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