Living Livonia

Brooklyn, NY

C+GA’s design response to a request for proposal from the City of New York, LIVING LIVONIA will transform Livonia Avenue by creating a new Town Center with transit-oriented development, sustainable affordable housing, beneficial community uses, vital new commercial options and artistic vision. The LIVING LIVONIA sites provide the opportunity to do more than just design four buildings; it strengthens Livonia for the future and creates a new community of neighbors.

The proposed commercial and community uses include a charter school, low-cost artist studios, a federally-qualified health center, support services for veterans, family dining and small retail stores.  These amenities, along with streetscape improvements, and residential entrances will increase activity and sustain a street life along Livonia Avenue. The key to making this area a place people want to be is reinventing the current dark and monotonous streetscape created in part by an elevated subway trestle. Our buildings are pulled back from the property line, creating wider streets and a larger gap between the buildings and the trestle and allowing more light and air on the street. The addition of integrated design elements such as lighting, a comprehensive streetscape plan, colorful acoustic baffles and permanent window planter boxes animates the area below and above the trestle, connecting the community and announcing itself as the Town Center.

The scale of the buildings relative to the neighborhood, and the trestle which cuts the view of the façade horizontally above the ground floor is addressed by breaking up the facades vertically. When a subway travels past, the buildings have more visual activity, and the scale is closer to that of its surroundings.  The four buildings have a consistent overall design providing unity for LIVING LIVONIA, with each having distinctions based on their program and the location, emphasized through the use of different colors and patterns.  A double height space in the residential lobby connects each entrance to the outdoor space at each building, adding to the excitement and welcoming nature of the building. The connection of the stairs to this exterior space encourages an active lifestyle for the residents.

Livonia Avenue will reawaken with its new and engaging greener streetscape and modernized lighting. A gentle night glow from inside the glassy retail spaces and pedestrian scaled lighting will provide wonderful moments along the Livonia commercial corridor. Curbside seating outside of retail establishments contributes to safety and wellness and an active street life.

• Sustainability:
  – Enterprise Green Communities Program
  – NYSERDA Multifamily Performance Program
  – LEED HOME

• Size: 363,798 SF / 186 units