Although it’s often forgotten now, the Amsterdam Houses were designed by some of the country’s best architects who were responsible for many of New York most loved buildings (such as Rockefeller Center) and who saw in the development an opportunity to put their long-standing commitment to better housing for the masses into action.
But the building of the Amsterdam Houses can also be thought of as a moment of important change in the history of public housing in New York City.
In the decade and half of public housing in New York before the completion of the Amsterdam Houses (1947 – 48), the New York City Housing Authority tended to build developments that were at least somewhat part of or reflected their surrounding street grid and whose function was primarily to house the low-income residents who had lived on or near the site of a development before its construction.
After the completion of the Amsterdam Houses, NYCHA tended to build developments that had little to do with the surrounding street grid and whose function was often to house residents displaced by the demolition of neighborhoods elsewhere as part of “urban renewal” and these residents may not have lived anywhere near the original site at all.
Indeed, the history of the Amsterdam Houses shows how larger forces pushed NYCHA away from aspects of its original mission.
Building the Amsterdam Houses:
Visions and Compromises