Queer Visibility and Redevelopment in the Bronx Hub Anthony Q. Crusor, MsRED, AIA
INTRO Paralleling the LGBTQ community’s civil rights struggle, the physical expression of queer places within the urban built environment have gone from closed door underground speakeasys, often persecuted and raided by police, to segregated gayborhoods, to an emerging mainstreaming that suggests a new level of integration within the larger society. The evolution of what a Queer place is follows a trajectory of being invisible towards a self-definition of visibility. The fact that we are of every background, gender, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnicity, class, religion and any other subset that comes to mind means we have presence and a stake in shaping the redevelopment of the communities where we live and work. As the Bronx, and particularly the South Bronx, faces a future of confronting increased pressures of gentrification, expanding the definition of what needs to be included in the process of redeveloping existing neighborhoods can be an asset in helping to create a more balanced and healthy built environment. Affordable housing, healthcare, education, and healthy food options can be thought of as a palette of community needs that can be planned for, and physically integrated and designed into the built environment. Queer presence— visibility—should be part of that palette of community needs. BACKGROUND Historically, the “The HUB” has been the retail, theater, and restaurant heart of the South Bronx. Its epicenter is located where four streets intersect: East 149th Street, and Willis, Melrose and Third Avenues. The HUB has also been called "the Broadway of the Bronx” because of its density and diagonal geometry, but also because it was previously home to a concentration of theaters and entertainment venues. The larger macro neighborhood is roughly bounded north and south by 156th to 145th and east to west from St. Mary’s Park to Morris Avenue.
Moving Picture House
Royal Theatre
Miners Theatre
National Theatre
Bronx Opera House
Piano Factory
Bromley Insurance Map; Bronx Hub, 1921
Much of existing current built fabric of the HUB is resultant development of a postrural Bronx constructed in the early 20th century. As such, the area was developed through ad-hoc zoning (first established in NYC in 1916) and significantly shaped by both subway and elevated transit systems which ran elevated along Third, Bergen and Westchester Avenues, and underground at 149th Street. During the 1920s there were half a dozen theaters in the immediate area along Third Avenue, as well as small department stores and small manufacturing facilities, including a piano factory. Post WWII, the neighborhood demographics shifted from Italian and Jewish, to a Puerto Rican, African American and generally colorized neighborhood. As part of a larger trend and attitude towards inner-city neighborhoods, racism, coupled with white flight, redlining and overall economic disenfranchisement, brought about abandonment and disrepair of the area’s building stock, while also seeing all of its historical entertainment venues and theaters close. PRESENT DAY Presently, the neighborhood reflects the macro redevelopment forces in play across the city and, in particular, to areas close or adjacent to Manhattan. The discussion regarding gentrification plays out against a backdrop of new development projects already taking place. Two projects, Via Verde and La Central are noteworthy because they are representative of the city’s policies regarding arresting outright marketdriven speculation and gentrification. Via Verde, the cutting edge, green affordable housing complex of 222 units, and the under construction La Central, with a planned 992 units, are development models with a complex layering of public/private financing, political/philosophical attitudes regarding affordability, and governmental structures set up to interact with, as well as provide input from, the surrounding neighborhood. They represent one formula for addressing the need for affordable housing in New York City that is being replicated in economically disenfranchised neighborhoods spanning from East New York, Brooklyn to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx.
Because of their scale and resultant footprint these new affordable housing developments typically include “community facilities” which are meant to provide a level of support services and cultural enrichment to the newly-constructed housing component. These facilities are typically available/ accessible to the surrounding neighborhood. Depending on location and zoning, retail and commercial spaces can also be part of the new development, but, in areas which are primarily zoned residential, commercial occupancy is by code (commercial overlay) zoned to be a subordinate use group.
The current boundaries of the HUB BID encompass 8 blocks (some partial) running north from 148th Street to just north of 152nd Street, along Third Avenue, and also Bergen Street. There are approximately 72 buildings and 4 vacant lots. 24 buildings (+/- 25%) are 4 stories in height or more. 48 buildings as well as the vacant lots (+/75%) are 3 stories or less in height.
THIRD AVENUE BID In 1988 the Third Avenue Business Improvement District (HUB BID) was created along the Third Avenue Shopping corridor. The HUB BID straddles the boundaries of both the Mott Haven and Melrose communities and presently is made up of a building fabric that is almost exclusively commercial, but also that exists intact as a Pre-War, heavily foot trafficked pedestrian shopping street. According to the HUB BID more than 200,000 people cross the intersection of 149th Street and 3rd Avenue on a daily basis. The area is zoned for commercial use but has the option for the allowance of mixed-use occupancy buildings.
VISIBLE QUEER PLACES AQC Architect began working with the Bronx HUB Third Avenue Business Improvement District (HUB BID) in May of 2017. Our initial work involved providing as of right massing models for potential development sites, that reflected a new mixed-use building typology for the district (combined commercial, community facility and residential occupancies). During this period several Bronx-based LGBTQ organizations that are seeking permanent space explored the possibility of finding space with the HUB BID District. Destination Tomorrow, The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), Bronx Pride and Boogie Down Pride are all Bronx-based LGBTQ organizations that could benefit from the HUB’s central location and availability of developable square footage. One aspect of the historical marginalization of the larger LGBTQ community within American society is linked to the community’s invisibility outside of urban queer districts (gayborhoods). Marginalization is physically expressed through a lack of visibility within the built environment such as physical markers that readily signify the existence/presence of LGBTQ community and people. Within economically disenfranchised neighborhoods this is further exacerbated because of the additional layering of systems of institutionalized oppression such as racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, poverty, etc. Planning that incorporates dedicating a portion of the future redevelopment of the HUB District to community facilities that house permanent spaces for LGBTQ organizations would be beneficial to the macro development of the area based on the following:
1- Because some of the LGBTQ organizations are based on performance arts, the reestablishment of entertainment venues comes full circle with the area’s history as a theatrical destination. 2- The HUB is already a unique mix of peoples from various cultural, ethnic, racial, linguistic, and religious backgrounds. By embracing its LGBTQ community, the HUB enriches its identity and uniqueness as a distinctive and diverse neighborhood. 3- Queer visibility through planned symbolic architectural expression helps to normalize and integrate the LGBTQ community within the larger built fabric. Not only does it provide a physical foundation for previously marginalized organizations to achieve permanency and sustained growth, it offers non-LGBTQ people the possibility to engage and develop working bonds with the queer community. AQC Architect produced schematic renderings, imagining queer organizations being housed at three different sites. Each site has a corner condition and is located strategically close to the HUB intersection at 149th Street and Third Avenue. Architecturally, the idea was to propose three different expressions of visibility that are unique to each site, while also creating a visual linkage across the neighborhood that begins to define a sub-set neighborhood.
THREE SCENARIOS OF VISIBILITY 2- Veiled Beacon: Existing building fenestration/openings are used to reveal a symbolic sculptural beacon at a highly visible corner.
3- Sculpted Void: Facade retracts and creates an in-out relationship with the street, where performance can be shared by a formallyseated audience or visually, from the street.
2- EXISTING BUILDING
1- VACANT LOT
1- The Aquarium: 3- DEMO-NEW CONSTRUCTION
Gigantic-sized lobby reception space faces street behind glass wall; use of jumbo-sized imagery related to neighborhood performance artists.
1 - VACANT LOT 423 WESTCHESTER AVE. THE AQUARIUM
The first condition, a vacant lot on the corner of Westchester and Bergen Avenue. The lot has a foot print of 16,655 s/f, with 120 l/f along Westchester Avenue. Under the Community Facility Zoning a mixed use building of approximately 125,000 s/f could be developed at the site. A 20 story building with a full lot coverage base up to 60 feet in height containing a performance space and commercial occupancy, would support a 16 story residential tower above.
The lobby of the performance space is imagined as a glass box with larger then life eye candy imagery of performance artists affiliated with Bronx LGBTQ venues and visible from the street. The scale of the imagery is reminiscent of Time Square.
2 - EXISTING BUILDING 2885 THIRD AVE. VEILED BEACON
The second condition is adaptive reuse of an existing building. The building built in 1896, was the first steel-skeleton building built in the Bronx. Initially it served as a dry goods store/warehouse under the name of Lyons & Chabot. In 1911 it became the Blumstein & Co Department Store, in 1940 it was transformed into the Sachs Furniture Store until the late 1970’s. Recently a new Blink Fitness Center opened up on the 1st and 2nd floors, the Third Avenue BID was looking at using the vacant third and fourth floors as a possible LGBTQ center for the Bronx.
The corner of the building at 150th and Third Ave is visible and identifiable from all corners of the intersection at 149th and Third Ave., including the entries/exits of the 2/5 subway stop. A non-rectilinear shard shape comprised of rainbow colored glass is inserted into the corner at the roof and penetrates down to the ceiling of the Third Floor. The rainbow shard serves as a beacon and would be engineered to have a palette of natural and artificial lighting options.
3 - DEMO/NEW CONSTRUCTION BLOCK 2293 SCULPTED VOID
Block 2293, bounded by Willis & Bergen Avenues, between 148th and 149th Streets. The block consists of several 2-3 story retail commercial buildings and one large warehouse building. Many of the spaces at not occupied above the ground floor and the west side (Willis Avenue) is adjacent to Roberto Clemente Plaza.
Block 2293 totals 34,700 s/f. Under Community Facility Zoning the block could yield up to 260,000 gross square feet (including cellar), this would include more then 85,000 square feet of new residential occupancy.
Taking advantage of the site’s relationship to Roberto Clemente Plaza an indoor/outdoor performance space would link the pedestrian street level with a formal seated auditorium space by means of a stage for performance arts.
I - CROSS NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTIVITY STREET & AERIAL VIEWS
II - CROSS NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTIVITY STREET & AERIAL VIEWS
Anthony Q. Crusor principal AQC Architect PC based in the Bronx HUB. Anthony holds both Architecture and Real Estate Development degrees from Columbia University and has been a practicing architect in New York City for over 25 years.