Inwood Shelter & Memorial

Organization Name: ESKW/Architects; Bowery Residents’ Committee

Project Title: Inwood Shelter & Memorial

Project Location: Inwood, Manhattan

Project Description:
Inwood Shelter & Memorial is a new 4-story, 32,000 SF purpose-built shelter providing 116 beds for single women experiencing homelessness. Operated by the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC), it offers onsite mental health services and group therapy and will connect to BRC’s Landing Road Shelter across the Harlem River to expand programming. The recessed entrance on 10th Avenue features a covered porch with seating, leading to a lobby where the reception desk has clear sightlines to the porch, social services suite, and corridor to the dining room. The dining room includes a warming kitchen and movable partition for multipurpose use. Dormitory floors are arranged with double-loaded corridors, each monitored by a central security desk with visibility to the dorms, recreation room, and through to the laundry. Each floor includes a recreation room, social services suite, two bathrooms with showers, and dorm rooms for up to 11 residents High-traffic circulation and gathering areas are generously scaled and daylit. The façade combines cream EIFS with a brick base featuring vertical bonds and distinctive openings. The project meets 2015 Enterprise Green Communities standards.

Community Impact:
The Inwood Shelter & Memorial addresses both present and historical needs within the community. By providing 116 beds and onsite mental health services for women experiencing homelessness, the project strengthens local support networks and expands BRC’s capacity to serve vulnerable New Yorkers. Equally significant, the site’s layered history as a burial ground for enslaved Africans and a Lenape ceremonial site inspired a deeply collaborative design process. BRC convened descendants, historians, and community advocates to ensure the project respectfully acknowledges this heritage. A permanent memorial, accessible to the public from 212th Street and designed by Peggy King Jorde, Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, and Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects, creates a contemplative space for remembrance and education. Together, the shelter and memorial offer healing and dignity, bridging the site’s past and present as places of care and community.

Organization Description:
Bowery Residents’ Committee is a leading provider of housing and services. BRC provides outreach to homeless people, drug treatment, mental health care, medical services, vocational services, and supportive communities in which to live. Since 1960, ESKW/Architects has collaborated with mission-driven organizations to design and build shelter, educational spaces, cultural institutions and healthcare facilities for all New Yorkers.

Team Members:

Structural: RGCE. M/E/P: OLA Consulting Engineers. Civil: Key Civil Engineering. Geotechnical: MRCE. Environmental: AKRF. Lighting: Goldstick Studio. Energy: Bright Power. SSDS: Roux. GC: Procida.