Is NYC the only US city with such a high concentration of mid rise and high rise residential buildings? (townhouse, neighborhood)
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Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, not far from where I live. Not a highrise neighborhood, per se, but an area of very dense midrises. In contrast to the previous South Bronx example, this is an affluent neighborhood, with family sized coops usually in the $1.5-$2 million range.
I don't think this type of neighborhood exists anywhere outside the NYC area. There may be a block or two here or there, but not on a neighborhood level.
That area reminds me so much of Columbia Heights in DC, but even still the density level of NYC is glaring:
Yeah, Columbia Heights has pretty good density too. 16th and Columbia have lots of dense housing.
There's still a pretty big difference, though, IMO. Notice the Columbia Heights buildings are mostly setback with lawns and/or driveways, and are more spaced apart. If you scroll around Prospect Heights the buildings will be much more packed-in, using every inch of their property.
Also, in DC you can go a few blocks east or west and will have fairly low density areas. There are no areas of lawns or detached homes around Prospect Heights.
See the thing is cities like Philly, Baltimore, DC, Boston, Chicago have rowhomes, tripledeckers or greystones, which kinda resemble the brownstones and 2-3 family homes found in Harlem, Bed Study, East New York, Soundview, Canarsie.
But as far as high rise tenement buildings like the type found in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn (especially Flatbush and Crown Heights), the only place in da country (outside NJ) that has a similar housing stock is the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, immediately north of the city's downtown. And even that's a stretch.
But as far as high rise tenement buildings like the type found in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn (especially Flatbush and Crown Heights), the only place in da country (outside NJ) that has a similar housing stock is the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, immediately north of the city's downtown. And even that's a stretch.
I don't know if I agree with that. Old City Philadelphia has what would be equivalent to several neighborhoods in Cinci with that type of style.
It isn't like north Philly is entirely flat either. It is littered with apartment buildings for as far as the eye can see. It just never hits that NYC density. Though some neighborhoods are getting rebuilt denser than they ever were before
I don't know if I agree with that. Old City Philadelphia has what would be equivalent to several neighborhoods in Cinci with that type of style.
Eh, Old City is part of the general Center City Philly. Obviously a city center will have some apartment buildings.
The vast apartment neighborhoods in places like Brooklyn, Bronx, Western/Central Queens aren't in the city center. And unlike Old City, these apartment buildings absolutely dominate their neighborhoods, where 90% of people live in the midrises. Old City is primarily a townhouse neighborhood.
And that picture you posted is just of Center City Philly. It's showing primarily commercial structures. Philly has comparatively little of the 5-12 floor housing typology that dominates NYC. Philly is a rowhouse city.
And that picture you posted is just of Center City Philly. It's showing primarily commercial structures. Philly has comparatively little of the 5-12 floor housing typology that dominates NYC. Philly is a rowhouse city.
well I was talking about the neighborhood in the foreground and I was talking about in comparison to OTR.
Also the Vine Street expressway is the cutoff, which you can see in my picture, everything north of that is what people call the fairmount/art museum/spring garden neighborhood.
See the thing is cities like Philly, Baltimore, DC, Boston, Chicago have rowhomes, tripledeckers or greystones, which kinda resemble the brownstones and 2-3 family homes found in Harlem, Bed Study, East New York, Soundview, Canarsie.
But as far as high rise tenement buildings like the type found in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn (especially Flatbush and Crown Heights), the only place in da country (outside NJ) that has a similar housing stock is the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, immediately north of the city's downtown. And even that's a stretch.
Tenement buildings aren't true highrises of course. They're a particular kind of 19th century apartment building. As they were built prior to the elevator, they tended to max out at six stories - it just wasn't practical to expect anyone, no matter how poor, to climb more flights of stairs than that.
These are active construction sites, not merely proposals. Nos. 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22' and 25 include rental. I realize that some of the projects are 20+ stories but I noted them anyhow. Conversely, I did not include the existing apartment refurbishments or condos id'ed in this article.
All that said, to your point I don't think Philly will ever come close to the level of NYC, of course. In recent years, however, I've noted more and tear downs and in-fills replaced with mid-level mixed use development incorporating residential. Here are a couple of examples:
Tenement buildings aren't true highrises of course. They're a particular kind of 19th century apartment building. As they were built prior to the elevator, they tended to max out at six stories - it just wasn't practical to expect anyone, no matter how poor, to climb more flights of stairs than that.
True, but most of the midrise housing in NYC isn't tenement-style housing. It's mostly elevator buildings, from the 1920's boom, and then from the 1950's-1960's boom.
19th century tenements aren't common in NYC outside of core Manhattan, and even then, they don't dominate except for a few parts of the Lower East Side, Clinton and the like. Even the South Bronx is mostly from the 1920's and 1930's.
The typical midrise housing typology in NYC is like this (where a friend of mine lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn)-
A six or seven floor elevator apartment building, converted to a co-op, probably dating from the late 1940's or early 1950's. This is standard Outer Borough middle class housing, not for the rich or for the poor. It's the NYC equivalent to the South Philly rowhouse or the Boston triple-decker; ie, where the regular people typically live.
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