New York architecture studio official development assistance Released the masterplan for the community at Queens Called Innovation QNS, it will have residences, retail and public spaces.
The community, located in the Astoria neighborhood of New York City’s borough of Queens, was recently approved by the New York City Council, and ODA claims it will be the first true “15-minute” neighborhood in the city.
The plan includes a variety of residences, retail, offices, cultural centers and facilities all built around a 40,000 square foot (3,716 square metre) public park.
It is designed as a 15-minute city The concept of urban design was formulated by the scientist Carlos Moreno It suggests urban configurations where all amenities are within a 15-minute walk or public transit ride from someone’s home.
“It’s all built together in five apartment blocks, to serve not just the new community, but the entire neighborhood,” official development assistance Founder Eran Chen told Dezeen.
“Very few places I can think of in New York City or anywhere else have that.”
The site, which spans five blocks between 35th and 36th Streets near the Kaufman Art District, is currently occupied by concrete-covered parking lots and industrial buildings.
The forms of the project, which ODA noted are subject to change as the project progresses, show a variety of mid-rise residential blocks planned for the site.
Queens has one of the smallest ratios of green area per capita in the city, so implementing a public park became central to the plan.
Each block will have communal gardens or squares that will allow people to enter the blocks in the middle and create flows through the development at large.
ODA said the project was a response to changing work patterns, which Chen said prompted them to reconsider the configuration of outdoor public spaces.
“There is no going back to the way things were when street life was the only game in town for provisions and social interaction, nor is it possible to rebuild our great cities from scratch,” he told Dzin.
“Instead, it is about strengthening our streets as the backbone that underpins the culture of the city and the community to which we all belong.”
Including the Central Park, up to 92,000 sq ft (8,547 sq m) of the development will be dedicated to public spaces, including dog parks, playgrounds, and playgrounds.
The housing will include market-rate housing as well as 40 percent more affordable housing, some of which will be geared towards seniors.
Views show solar panels and green roofs on many of the structures planned for the development.
The plan provides environmentally sustainable measures such as green roofs, solar panels, major biophilic design including hundreds of trees, water harvesting and highly sustainable building structures.
The city’s approval of the ODA plan with developers Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and Bedrock Real Estate Partners marks the end of a long period of indecision regarding the use of the land, as a series of plans to develop the area have failed over the past decade.
Construction work on the project is scheduled to begin in 2023, with the first buildings due for completion in 2025.
ODA has been responsible for other large-scale development projects in New York City Including the Rheingold Project apartment complex in Brooklyn.