Ebenezer Plaza

Organization Name: Perkins Eastman

Project Location: Brownsville Brooklyn, New York

Project Goals:
• Core design values: A design with a dignified, inviting, engaging, pedestrian friendly, community building and secure residential environment
• Incorporate principles of inclusionary housing, accessibility and sustainability as the planning and design objectives
• Create a new community image while respecting the existing residential neighborhood fabric
• Transform and activate the streetscape with pedestrian friendly design environment
• Create individual identity for each building: special street level design for residential entries to establish a sense of place and home, the community church complex and the retail storefronts
• Optimize the building plan orientations on the sites to create different views and experience for the residential units
• Create dedicated outdoor and indoor recreation spaces for the residents
• Broaden the neighborhood experience with exterior building design articulations along the streets, while preserving the Brownsville community history

Project Description:
The Ebenezer Plaza is a mixed-use affordable housing development and will include retail, community facility and affordable residences developed under the HDC and HPD ELLA Program. The site is located in Brownsville, Brooklyn on two building blocks. The construction will be completed in two phases. Each phase will have two separate buildings with independent building services. The program includes approximately 470,000 SF of 531 new affordable residential units along with the Church of God of East Flatbush 40,000 SF complex, and approximately 30,000 SF of ground floor retail. The residential program for each phase will consist of Studios, One Bedroom, Two Bedroom and Three Bedroom. The anticipated construction start dates are January 2018 for Phase I and July 2018 for Phase II.

Community Impact:
Ebenezer Plaza will bring much needed affordable housing to the underserved Brownsville community. This privately sponsored development will transform what are on currently two run down blocks consisting of single story industrial buildings into 531 units of affordable housing in a mixed-use development. The new Ebenezer Plaza development will connect the nearby homeowners north of New Lots Avenue to the Brownsville Recreation Center and Park, south of Hegeman Avenue. This vital community amenity is currently being shut off from the residential community by the industrial complex. The new residential mixed-use development will capture the full potential of redeveloping the neighborhood to a diverse urban fabric with affordable housing, community recreation indoor and outdoor spaces, commercial and retail street life, and dedicated community program places to serve and support the neighborhood at large.

Organization Description:
Creativity, Humanity, Purpose Perkins Eastman is a New York City headquartered international planning, design, and consulting firm that was founded in 1981. Today, the firm has a professional staff of almost 1000 in ten offices across the US and five overseas. The firm prides itself on diversity, and on progressive and inventive design that are sensitive to and meets client goals and enhances the human experience. Perkins Eastman works closely with developers and owners on assignments from niche buildings to complex projects that enrich whole communities with the depth and range of our diverse practice areas. One of Perkins Eastman’s largest practice specialties is housing—in addition to significant mixed-use projects. These projects include all types of housing from affordable to market rate apartment complexes and housing for special populations.