Essential Architecture

(This essay appears in the New York Review of Architecture, No. 11, May 2020)

According to New York City’s Essential Active Construction Sites website, 501 West 30th Street, an opulent, glassy tower in the cloistered enclave of Hudson Yards, is “affordable housing.” As such, the project is proceeding with construction during the state-wide coronavirus shutdown. It is not without irony that many luxury developers are relatively immune to the economic effects of the shutdown, benefitting from a decade-long meteoric rise of luxury development now deemed “essential” due to the city’s affordable housing plan (see Alfonso, “What Have We Been Doing?” in Review no. 10). Benefiting from policies such as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, many developers can continue construction thanks to both city policy and the essential, at-risk workers building their projects. 

This new designation of essential architecture will not only impact the development and construction sectors, but also recent graduates; coveted firms have laid off large percentages of their staff, uncertain about the speculative, market-dependent projects (luxury residential, commercial, hospitality, and “high-caliber” cultural) that comprise much of their workload. However, practices designing affordable housing are finding that this ostensibly less-profitable work—typically less-revered—is now keeping their (virtual) office doors open. Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, known for their extensive portfolio of affordable housing, have publicized their recent hire, a senior position, and are showcasing their employees’ new work-from-home situations. KPF, responsible for 501 West 30th Street, have also posted open positions. 

Many firms that are actively hiring are also focused on non-luxury housing, healthcare, and education. In addition to socially conscious private offices, such as C+G and Stephen Yablon Architecture, whose work will continue to have a beneficial impact on the New Yorkers facing both a health and an economic crisis, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and Department of Buildings (DOB), with their budget allocations months and years in the making, continue to hire: the search results for “architect” on NYC Jobs yields an extensive list of positions, including “Architect” at NYCHA, “Assistant Landscape Architect” with the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), and several inspector positions (construction, plumbing, electrical, et cetera) with the DOB. 

Even with pending budget cuts, these departments are integral to the operation of the city and will continue to be during and after the pandemic. This is in stark contrast to large firms that are either freezing work and hiring (SHoP Architects) or laying off upwards of twenty percent of their staff (RAMSA and Gensler). 

In fact, this rapid downturn is yet another reminder that today’s most coveted architecture firms are susceptible to extreme volatility, booming only in an economy propped up on rising costs and incomes. The precarity produced by these cycles is becoming untenable, and the crisis has yielded a moment to reconsider current practice-wide priorities. Instead, what is now classified as essential might, with all but guaranteed pandemics and crises to come, be conceived as stable and even desirable.