JESSOR - Architecture Walk: Van Cortlandt Village/The Bronx Cooperative Laboratory
Join the curators of the exhibition JESSOR on an architectural walk through the neighborhood around the Amalgamated Cooperatives in the Bronx. Herman Jessor designed 23 apartment buildings in this neighborhood from 1923 to 1970, most of which were built for the cooperative developer Abraham Kazan and the United Housing Federation. Hemmed-in by Van Cortlandt Park, the Jerome Park Reservoir, and the former Putnam Railroad, Jessor and Kazan used this hillside enclave at the edge of the city as a testing ground for architectural and financial ideas to be used in other developments across the city. The walk will begin at Risse Street Park and end at Fort Independence Playground.
We will trace the development of Jessor’s design approach from courtyard tenement to tower in the park, referring to original drawings and historical maps along the way to situate the cooperative project within broader geographic and social contexts. In addition to visiting the first completed Mitchell-Lama housing development, we will also see works by Paul Rudolph, Andrew Berman Architect, and Mitchell Giurgola, and discuss the policy incentives behind their realization.
This event is an extension of the exhibition JESSOR: The Architecture of The Limited-Equity Cooperative Movement in New York 1925-1974 currently on view at Citygroup.
Attendance is free but we kindly ask you RSVP to help us plan accordingly.
Photograph copyright Zara Pfeifer, 2024.