Bronx AIA/CCNY Design Studio is Honored By Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson
Michael Goldblum, representing the Bronx Chapter AIA, has completed the second annual Bronx design studio, working with Dean Marta Gutman and Professor Fabian Llonch and his students at CCNY’s Spitzer School of Architecture. Goldblum, partner at Building Studio Architects and commissioner at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, created the project in 2022-3 and led the 2024 effort as well.
Borough President Vanessa Gibson lauded the program at a May 2024 award ceremony in the rotunda of the Bronx Borough Hall, a striking, landmarked Art Deco building; her Director of Planning And Development, Juton Horstman, was critical in putting the parties together, organizing the awards ceremony, and obtaining funding. A reception later in May sponsored by the Bronx Chapter AIA presented the winning and second place student teams with their monetary awards.
This year’s site is a triangular lot on Home Street and Longfellow Avenue in the Hunts Point/Longwood neighborhood, a site owned by the NYC Economic Development Corporation, partners in the studio.
The project has several goals:
Educate the next generation of architects about the diversity and promise of the Bronx
Encourage excellence and creativity in new government-led developments by infusing the RFP process by incorporating exciting, community-centered design inspirations into the procurement process
Expose students, community organizers, and city planners to the creative potential of collaborative design
All of these objectives were met with the 2023 project sited at the landmarked Kingsbridge Armory adaptive reuse project; EDC expects to award a contract award in October 2024, which will likely draw inspiration from last year’s remarkable studio projects focused on urban agriculture.
The 2024 site focused on multifamily housing, with each project weaving a community amenity into the fabric of the income-supported apartment building. Students proposed designs that addressed food insecurity, environmental pollution, and access to healthcare, issues that residents struggle with daily, in their creative solutions to this site.
Mr. Goldblum looks forward to both seeing the 2024 designs again influencing the RFP process for this important site, and to repeating this unique partnership effort with CCNY, the EDC, and the Bronx Borough President in years to come.
