Join NYCxDESIGN and affordable housing architect Mark Ginsburg for a tour of Livonia Ave’s public & affordable housing, highlighting decades of design, connectivity, and placemaking.

How can we enhance streets to make physical and social connections among varying building types? What placemaking approaches can enhance local identity and foster people’s safety, health and wellbeing?

Historically characterized by a high concentration of public housing and long associated with socioeconomic violence, Brownsville is emerging as a locus of new affordable housing opportunities and a cultural center characterized by innovation and entrepreneurship. These changes are thanks to many community-driven grassroots efforts as well as public reinvestment.

City and local community stakeholders will host an open house and exhibition featuring various community-centered planning, design and placemaking efforts focused on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville. The event will also include a tour of public and affordable housing sites along Livonia Avenue with Mark Ginsburg, an architect renowned for redesigning affordable housing structures on the tour. The aim of the event is to engage neighborhood residents, community organizations, city agencies and developers in creating a sustainable, community-centric urban vision for Livonia Avenue and Brownsville.

The tour’s itinerary will feature Brownsville’s mix of high- and mid-rise public housing, mid-century urban renewal projects, and the growing stock of modern affordable, supportive, and mixed-use developments. Starting in the 1940s, the city replaced tenements on traditional street grids with “superblocks” developed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The Tilden Houses built in the early 1960s are an example of the "Towers in the Park" concept featuring high-rise residential slabs surrounded by open, landscaped space.

The 1970s heralded in a new era of public housing design and development in Brownsville. Developed by the New York State Urban Development Corporation, Marcus Garvey Village was one of the first public housing developments offering an alternative to the “Towers in the Park” typology :the low-rise, high-density townhouse-like structures span nine city blocks with stoops, private backyards and semi-public courtyards.

Presently, developers have invested in a variety of affordable housing, including L+M’s Marcus Garvey Extension, a mid-rise development along Livonia Avenue which brings critically needed affordable housing units, community facilities, and commercial space to Brownsville. Concurrently, Brownsville communities have worked hard to prioritize public space by adding urban gardens, public art and street installations in the area. Join us as we appreciate the reciprocity of placemaking and dwelling in Brownsville!