Queensbridge
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Queensbridge Houses is the largest public housing development in the United States. Queensbridge which is located in Long Island City, New York in Queens opened in 1940. The 3,142 unit complex is the country's largest such housing project and is owned by the New York City Housing Authority.
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Location
Long Island City is located in the southwestern part of Queens, which is one of New York City's five boroughs. The Queensbridge Houses, the largest of Queens' twenty-two developments, is located between Vernon Boulevard and 21st street. It is to the immediate south of Keyspan energy's Ravenswood power plant. And Queensbridge gets its name from the Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge, which is just south of the complex. It is separated into two complexes, the North Houses on 40th Avenue and the South Houses on 41st Avenue.
Subway commuters would recognize the complex's name from its stop along the F train’s route. Queensbridge is the only building complex, let alone housing project, to have a subway station named after it. The stop’s official name reads "21st Street Queensbridge." As its name would suggest, the station, which is only marked by a sign and a tarnished metal staircase, is located on 21st street. The station, located on the western side of 21st street, is indeed inside the Queensbridge complex.
Buildings
Its six-story elevator buildings are highly distinctive for their shape, which resembles the letter Y jammed onto another Y. Architects hoped that the Y-shape would give residents more access to sunlight than a cross-shape would. Importantly, they touted the design as cost-efficient, and they saved even more money by building elevators that stopped only at the 1st, 3rd, and 5th floors. Political pressure accounted for their skimping.
Otherwise, the buildings of Queensbridge are very similar to most government-built housing projects of their time. They are a worn grayish brown with a large amount of attrition and weathering noticeable. Also an eyesore, slight amounts of graffiti can be spotted on just about every building in the complex. The roof-tops, a popular hangout spot, generally have more graffiti than other parts of the complex.
Each building is painted red to about four feet up from the ground. This gives a united feel to the entire complex because a uniform red "layer" is close, no matter where one is located in the complex.
On each of the corners in Queensbridge, the New York City Housing Authority has posted signs indicting the projects name and management—"Queensbridge North (or South) Houses NYCHA." These signs come in several varieties depending on their age. The oldest signs, erected in the early nineties, are simply orange and blue. Newer signs feature graphics, like those of many other projects. However, Queensbridge’s signs have a unique touch—their graphic features an illustration of the Queensboro Bridge.
To gain access to any building in the complex one must use a key or be allowed in by a new intercom system. Recent additions also include heavy metal doors to protect residents from break-ins. The halls of Queensbridge’s buildings are comparable to most municipal buildings. They are dilapidated and lined with worn light blue tiles. Apartments are painted white and are fairly small, even by New York City standards.
A large (about four feet high) black metal fence surrounds the entire complex and its walking paths. Another set of chain-link and barbed wire fences separates the housing complex from an area sheltered by an onramp to the Queensboro Bridge. That area is historically home to many homeless folks.
Within last few years elevators have been rebuilt and now stop at floors 1-2-3-4-5. Kitchens have been completely renovated and now have frost free-fridges. 3000 bathrooms were renovated with new tubs, toilets, vanities, floor tile and lighting in 2000+. This followed a renovation in 1986 where 1000 of the bathrooms were renovated by Arc Plumbing, a firm for which the salesman to NYCHA was John Gotti.
Amenities and parks
The US Congress would only approve funds for public housing (the 1937 Wagner Act) if the housing was unattractive to middle-class families who would otherwise buy or rent homes in the private housing market. The original plans nonetheless included some basic amenities, like a central shopping center, a nursery, an auditorium, and six inner courtyards for play.
The buildings in the complex are divided by a series of paths and small lawns. Also in the complex are several basketball courts. Like most parks, benches line the courts and play-areas in the Queensbridge housing complex. Across Vernon Boulevard lies Queensbridge Park, which has a fully lit baseball diamond, running paths, lawns, and areas for picnicking. That park, home the Queensbridge little league, is the primary place of recreation for tenants of the projects. Queensbridge Park is the venue for numerous summer-time live concerts with music ranging from R&B to Latin.
Music
As large as Queensbridge is, its fifty acres (200,000 m²) were too cramped to contain the hip-hop music produced by its inhabitants. Marlon “Marley Marl” Williams was the first in a long succession of acclaimed rappers from “The Bridge,” which became one of the most prolific rap-producing neighborhood in the country. Marl, MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté, Nas, Mobb Deep, and Capone-N-Noreaga, among many others, all added a new edge to pop-culture lore about “the projects.”
Sources
- “Queensbridge, New York, N.Y.,” Architectural Forum 72 (Jan. 1940), pp. 13-15.
- Samantha Henry, “A Good Rap: Residents of the Queensbridge Houses Make Their Claim To Fame,” Newsday, 5 Aug 2001.
- New York City Housing Authority, “Factsheet” April 19, 2004. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/factsheet.html
- Gail Radford, “The Federal Government and Housing During the Great Depression” in John F. Bauman, ed., From Tenements to the *Taylor Homes: In Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth Century America (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylania State University Press, 2000), pp. 102-120.
