Harding Park

Bronx, NY
6,000 SF
Completed 2016

This bungalow, one of dozens, got its start in the late nineteenth century, constructed as a summer rental for City dwellers’ who would travel by ferry from Manhattan to the upper reaches of the East River. By the 1920s, the area was known as Harding Park and many renters were no longer seasonal. Some stayed on, improved and winterized the bungalows, and made them their permanent homes. For the next fifty years, tenants paid ground rent to ever changing land owners. In 1978, the last land owner defaulted on its taxes and the City took control of the land. It spent the next few years in grueling negotiations with the tenants. Finally, in 1982, the City gave the deed for Harding Park to the tenants through the Harding Park Homeowner’s Association and essentially grandfathered the noncomplying construction, more or less exempting it from zoning rules and building codes. There were no Certificates of Occupancy or sidewalks, few paved roads, and the sewage went by cracked clay pipes directly into the East River.

The challenge of this project was to create a commodious welcoming safe and legal single family residence for a sight impaired retired US Army Specialist and his spouse. The existing structure included an original bungalow with one hundred years of non-conforming improvements plus a recently built non-complying two-story rear yard addition. After documenting and analyzing the existing conditions and history of the site, we determined the scope of work that would be required. It included excavation of the first floor of the two story rear yard addition to create sufficient and legal floor to ceiling height; reconstruction of the exterior walls to meet fire rated resistivity and energy codes; creation of ventilating attics; redesign of all facades, most importantly the one on the waterfront with its sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline; and a gut renovation and complete redesign of the entire lay out. In order to avoid an Alteration Type 1 filing, which would have sacrificed grandfathered existing conditions and forced the structure to reduce its footprint, we strategically presented the scope of work to fall within an Alteration Type 2 filing.

Collaborators: Bank of America, Homestar Property Solutions, Harding Park Homeowners Association, Retired US Army Specialist Semisi Tokailagi and Miriama Tukana, and Anastos Engineers

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