Space and Community at Sunnyside
Part 2. Design and Development
Sunnyside Gardens site plan
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The City Housing Corporation was established
in February 1924 to develop model neighborhoods and towns
based on the garden city principles forwarded by the Regional
Planning Association of America (RPAA). Alexander Bing, a reform-minded realtor from Manhattan, spearheaded
the creation of CHC, and with the help of his colleagues at
the RPAA, set out to find an appropriate development site
for a trial project.
New York City had voted to exempt new housing developments
from real estate taxes during 1923 and 1924, so Bing had incentive
to begin work quickly.
After a brief search, Bing purchased 77 acres of land
on lots 154 and 155 in the First Ward of Queens, and immediately
commissioned RPAA members Clarence Stein and Henry Wright
to come up with development plans.
Stein, an architect, and Wright, a landscape
designer, created a plan for 1200 moderately priced units
on 28% of the site, leaving the remaining land for community
open space. Rowhouses, which constitute most of the
structures in the development, were built close to the sidewalk
to allow more space for common courts behind the buildings.
In addition to the courts, the plan created small private
gardens in the rear of each house, as well as a three-and-a-half
acre private park for recreational uses.
Stein and Wright’s design also called
for the development of eight apartment houses, including four
30-unit cooperatives, three 70-unit rentals, and Phipps Houses,
an Art Deco building demonstrating the latest in garden apartment
aesthetics. Managed by a non-profit housing development corporation,
Phipps Houses, finally built in 1931, provided an alternative
model to cooperative living in Sunnyside Gardens.
| "In
new communities that have been planned as social units,
with visible coherence in the architecture, with a sufficient
number of local meeting rooms for group activities, as
in Sunnyside Gardens... a robust political life, with
effective collective action and a sense of renewed public
responsibility, has swiftly grown up."
Urbanist Lewis Mumford, a longtime
Sunnyside Gardens resident.
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Members of the RPAA hailed Stein and
Wright’s plan for Sunnyside Gardens as a “democratic” design
which would encourage its middle class residents to adopt
the cooperative values and behavioral patterns of more wholesome,
pastoral communities.
The attempt to create a microcosm of
cooperative village life within New York City did not, however,
entail the creation of low-income housing.
While Bing made a strong effort to keep the cost of
units down, houses in Sunnyside Gardens generally sold for
around $2000 more than speculatively built housing in the
immediately surrounding neighborhoods.
Nevertheless, the first generation of middle class
buyers attracted to Sunnyside Gardens did use the community
gardens and public spaces for just the kinds of cooperative,
progressive community activities envisioned by the RPAA.
In order to ensure that its social and
political objectives remained intact, CHC drew up a series
of covenants and easements which placed restrictions on everything
from common court access to house painting. These legal agreements
were drafted over the course of the neighborhood’s development,
which lasted from 1924 to 1928.
The final Declaration of Easements
and Restrictions, signed in March 1926, not only reserved
the central courts “for the common benefit of the property
owners in each of said respective blocks,” but also stipulated
that:
"[N]o garage of any kind or nature....no
fences, hedges, outbuildings, clothes poles or lines, radio
poles or lines, signs or awnings shall be erected.....[N]o
changes, alterations or additions of any kind shall be made
to the porches or exterior of any building on said premises,
including exterior painting in any different color than
at present, without written consent of said Trustees."
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"Some
resented the fact that they had to paint their windows
yellow and their doors green. I painted my windows
white. I said, 'white on brick is terrific, why
can't we have white? Why is it that stupid yellow?
And green.' But the thing is the green came out
because it was predominantly Irish, and the Irish like
green!"
Longtime
Sunnyside resident
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With the exception of several “light
easements,” as well as easements protecting the mews, the
restrictions imposed by the CHC were scheduled to expire on
January 1, 1966, approximately forty years after going into
effect. Banks and insurance companies, apparently concerned
about perpetual easements on properties for which they were
providing mortgages, required this arrangement.
The CHC’s Declaration of Easements
and Restrictions also established a five member board
of trustees to oversee the maintenance and use of the neighborhood’s
common gardens, streets and parks, financed through annual
fees paid by residents.
Court associations were also created to look after
individual common courts. This arrangement fell apart
during the 1930s when Sunnyside Gardens residents staged a
rent and mortgage strike and CHC declared bankruptcy; a new
group, the United Trustees, stepped in however, assuming most
of the responsibilities held by the original trustees.
The management of the private park, supported by membership
dues from those residents willing to join, also shifted during
the 1930s from the original trustees to a new organization
called the Sunnyside Gardens Civic Association.
In spite of the financial and managerial
difficulties of the 1930s, Sunnyside Gardens met many of the
expectations of its designers and developers. For the first
twenty years or so, the covenants and easements facilitated
a sense of community unusual in New York, and gave residents
an opportunity to live at near-suburban densities in the middle
of the city. During the 1950s, even as the park and many of
the common courts began to fall into disrepair, many Sunnyside
Gardeners nevertheless attempted to extend the life of the
easements, fearing that their expiration would signal the
end of the community. This effort resulted in the extension
of easements by 54 of 60 homeowners on Hamilton Court, but
did not convince the majority of residents to renew their
commitment to the RPAA’s principles. Thus in 1966, Sunnyside
Gardeners enthusiastically began renovating, fencing, and
curb cutting en masse.
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