Webster Green

Organization Name: The Doe Fund & Robert Sanborn Development

Project Title: Webster Green

Project Location: Bronx, NY

Project Description:
Webster Green is a mixed-use affordable and supportive housing development in the Bronx designed for nonprofit developer and service provider The Doe Fund and partner Robert Sanborn Development. Located on a grayfield site, the 77,000 sf MAP designed building consists of 82 apartments (studio, one- and two-bedrooms). On the ground floor, there are several administrative and program management offices for The Doe Fund, two community spaces facing onto Webster Avenue (one faces the rear yard as well) and the laundry room. There is also a 7th floor lounge that looks out onto a landscaped roof and the Bronx Botanical Gardens. A planned landscaped courtyard at the ground floor will have native and drought resistant/tolerant plants and shrubs, seating areas, permeable pavers, and drip irrigation system. Designed to achieve LEED Gold status, sustainable elements include high efficiency PTAC heating and cooling in the apartments and VRF heating and cooling in amenity and social services areas, LED lighting throughout, large, low-E thermally broken Energy Star windows for increased daylight in both the public spaces and apartments, low VOC paints, primers and caulks and water-saver faucets and showerheads.

Community Impact:
In consideration of the corner lot and the site’s street frontages, the structure has an “L” shape. A glazed front entrance and elevator lobbies help to emphasize the building’s corner and bring natural light into the public corridors. The fenestration also breaks the building massing into two volumes. The brick exterior along one side is consistent with the brick facades on its block, while the other side fronting on a main thoroughfare is clad in metal. The strategy helps the development fit in with the surrounding architecture, while also helping to establish a new aesthetic within the neighborhood.

The sustainable design of this development ties thematically to the park down the block, lightens the environmental impact on the neighborhood and helps to highlight the value of nature within this urban context.

Half of Webster Green’s 82 apartments are reserved for eligible low-income households at or below 60% of area median income and 41 units are supportive homes for formerly homeless individuals and families. Supportive services are provided on-site by The Doe Fund.

Organization Description:
The Doe Fund’s mission is to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism by providing holistic services, housing, and work opportunities. Robert Sanborn Development: Expert builders with decades of affordable housing finance and project management experience.

Team Members:

Magnusson Architecture and Planning (MAP), Galaxy General Contracting, Steven Winter Associates, GACE, Johnson & Urban, Philip Habib & Associates, Terrain-NYC, Design 2147

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