Located in Downtown Brooklyn, the Nevins Street Apartments reinvigorates a century-old building through a gut renovation and addition to provide affordable housing, supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals, and mental health services. The historic site of 50 Nevins Street, with its new 10-story addition, now features 129 new apartments serving those in need.

The original building was the Institute of Community Living (ICL)’s first housing program launched when the organization was founded in 1987. The historic building, designed by famed Brooklyn architect Frank Freeman, opened in 1913 as a YWCA for 225 single women. Nevins Street Apartments have undergone various interior and exterior alterations while still maintaining its meaningful purpose.

An extensive portion of the building was shaved off to enlarge Schermerhorn Street and make way for the subway line in the early 1930’s. That adjustment resulted in an imbalance to the massing of the Young Women’s Christian Association’s very symmetrical Colonial Revival Style. Dattner Architects was mindful of the building’s evolution while developing what is clearly an asymmetrical design. Dattner’s design interventions ascribe value to the existing building and help restore the balance it had lost.

The project features Glen-Gery’s White Plains Velour, and Black Hills Velour in a contrasting, asymmetrical pattern enveloping the building. Black Hills Velour is a darker, neutral toned brick perfect for a monochromatic backdrop for the design and finishing statements. White Plains Velour is a lighter brick, yet holds a range of deep greys and brown tones across a common velour texture.

The building is served by a common entry and lobby with shared facilities on the ground floor, including a pantry, art gallery, medical room, mail room, and community/recreation room. ICL’s support and office spaces are located on the cellar and the ground floors. The building complies with Enterprise Green Communities Program energy and sustainability requirements.

This case study features a unique U-shaped luxury apartment building located in the heart of Mineola, known as Morgan Parc. The masonry façades of Morgan Parc draw upon turn-of-the-century mill buildings whose architecture is expressed in their strong deep structural piers and intricate brick detailing. The expansive project utilized over half a million of Glen-Gery’s Charleton Colonial bricks and more than 100,000 special shapes to create the complex details that aid in humanizing a building of such scale. The brick piers extend the full height of the building, opening up at the ground floor to create a retail arcade that wraps the courtyard. Sizeable industrial size window units span between the deep piers, flooding the apartments with natural light.