The Other 41: Mid-Rise Housing for a High-Rise City

Join us as a panel of architects, journalists, developers, and planners share innovative approaches to creating, developing, and financing mid-rise housing.

Of the 51 council districts in New York, 10 districts are home to the majority of the city’s affordable housing and new market-rate housing, and these districts are disproportionately neighborhoods of color. Zoning reforms proposed as a part of the City of Yes housing initiative aim to unlock moderate density across all neighborhoods, most of which have had little new development in recent years. This wave of density will not only change the urban fabric, but will result in smaller, more mid-rise buildings that are atypical of the city’s existing affordable and market-rate housing.

What will it mean to design and develop mid-rise housing in our neighborhoods? What will it look like, what will it cost? Who is working on this issue, and what are the challenges and opportunities for architects and advocates alike?

Panelists will highlight projects across the city, and from other cities that have dealt with the challenges of small-scale housing for decades. We'll also discuss The State of Housing Design 2023, a recent book from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies that features housing designs, trends, and ideas from around the county, including several New York City projects.

Speakers:
Sam Naylor, Associate, Utile; Co-editor, The State of Housing Design 2023
Brian Loughlin, AIA, Principal, Magnusson Architecture and Planning; Co-chair, AIANY Housing Committee
Stephen Zacks, President, Amplifier; Contributor, The State of Housing Design 2023
Juan Barahona, Founder, SMJ Development

About the Speakers:
Sam Naylor is an architect, educator, and researcher of multifamily housing in the US. Currently, he is an Associate at Utile; the lead designer for Equitable by Design, a zoning research project at Northeastern University; and a Harvard Druker Fellow investigating cooperative housing around the world, and is putting theory into practice by decarbonizing and renovating a cooperatively owned triple decker with friends in Jamaica Plain. He is an author of the recently released report: Legalizing Mid-rise Single-stair Housing in Massachusetts, as well as a co-editor of The State of Housing Design 2023, a book about national design trends—both published by The Harvard Joint Center for Housing. He believes everyone has a right to a dignified, affordable, and delightful dwelling; and is in pursuit of more expansive & imaginative designs for housing—from the block to the bedroom.

Brian Loughlin is a Principal at Magnusson Architecture and Planning where he brings expertise in public housing, master planning, community engagement, special needs housing, trauma informed design, and sustainability, building on the firm’s long history of community-based planning and human-centered affordable housing design. His career in community development and affordable housing also includes over 15 years in Public Housing and the non-profit housing sector. As the Co-Chair of the AIANY Housing Committee, Loughlin has organized symposia including: NYC’s Housing Crisis; Public Housing, Practice, and Design: New York + London; Housing Opportunity: Office to Residential Conversion in New York City; and the annual Ratensky Lecture. He is a former Chair of the Housing and Community Development Division of the American Planning Association, a frequent author and panelist on current issues in housing, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Architecture and Real Estate Development at Columbia GSAPP.

Stephen Zacks is an advocacy journalist, architecture critic, urbanist, and project organizer based in New York City. A graduate of Michigan State University and New School for Social Research with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary humanities and a master’s in liberal studies, he founded Flint Public Art Project and serves as president of Amplifier Inc., a non-governmental organization that employs emerging ideas, media, design, and aesthetic strategies to advance alternative political and economic frameworks and institutional transformation. He has published in The New York Times, Village Voice, Art in America, Abitare, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Dwell, Architectural Review, Oculus, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper, Domus, Brownstoner, Places, Curbed, Monocle, Blueprint, Mic, Print, and Hyperallergic, and previously served as an editor at Metropolis. His projects have received awards from ArtPlace, Creative Capital, Warhol Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Graham Foundation, MacDowell Colony, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Newtown Creek Fund.

Juan Barahona has been working in the affordable housing industry, both public and private since 2001. In 2014, he launched SMJ Development. SMJ is an organization dedicated to the development and preservation of affordable housing in NYS. Barahona leads and/or partners in transactions that now total over 2,000 units in four of the five boroughs. He leverages his experience navigating the City’s byzantine development process to seek out and create value for investors and tangible neighborhood development results for communities and other local stakeholders.

*Please note – virtual livestream attendance is not eligible for credit.