Body Lawson Associates completes Home Street Residences – 63 units

Bronx, NY Body Lawson Associates has completed an innovative new affordable housing complex for formerly homeless seniors and a range of low-income residents.

Designed by Body Lawson Associates (BLA), an architecture, interiors and urban design practice, Home Street Residences offers a congenial and memorable presence at an intersection near two Bronx River parks.

Led by Victor Body-Lawson, AIA, the project team created 63 apartments averaging 550 s/f each, with 30% for formerly homeless seniors and the balance for low-income individuals and families. Efficiently constructed with panelized steel stud framing and extra insulation—and clad in part with grey brick to recall schist from a church formerly on the site—the economical architectural approach allowed for living units and common areas with custom furnishings of site-salvaged wood.

According to the non-profit affordable housing policy and advocacy organization, New York Housing Conference, the 75,000 s/f new building “Transforms an underutilized site into a vibrant affordable housing project for seniors living in the Foxhurst neighborhood of the Bronx,” with a “Community facility space providing services for residents and community members.” About 50,000 people applied for the apartments, according to Body-Lawson.

The developer of the project is Home Street Partners, LLC, working with manager-operator Bronx Pro Group. Community space programming is by the award-winning nonprofit DreamYard, which collaborates with schools, families and youth in the borough.