Essex Crossing Redevelopment Master Plan

To shape an urban design vision for the 6-acre redevelopment, BBB facilitated a community-driven process on behalf of Community Board 3 and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Through a rich and productive dialogue among many stakeholders, and assisted by innovative methods of engagement to make complex design issues accessible, the community built consensus around challenging questions of height, density, and public space. Principles established through the process call for enhancing the pedestrian realm, maximizing street-level activity, supporting density and mixed-use development at a transportation hub, and promoting variety in architectural scale and orientation to respond to the urban form of surrounding neighborhoods. The resulting zoning and redevelopment guidelines, created in close collaboration with the Department of City Planning, gained unanimous approval through New York City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

Following the city master planning approval, BBB and SHoP Architects, in conjunction with the development team selected by the city to implement the project, led the master planning of the six-acre complex. Today it includes retail markets, restaurants, offices, a movie theater, parks, the International Center of Photography, and 1,000 apartments, half of which are reserved for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families.

As part of the plan’s implementation, BBB was also selected to design two buildings, on Sites 5 and 8. The former is now The Rollins, a 15-story mixed-use building with 211 apartments—half of them affordable for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families—as well as 73,000 SF of retail space and a 15,000 SF park. The latter, 140 Essex Street, contains 93 affordable studio apartments for residents aged 62 and older.