El Barrio’s Artspace PS109

About the property & it's history:
PS109 is an amazing building. Snyder and completed in 1898, this structure is five stories tall with a steeple pitched roof. Exterior details include several copper-clad cupolas and a wealth of decorative terra cotta. After the building was boarded up in 1995, much of the terra cotta was removed; it will be restored as part of the project, which is a partnership

between Artspace and El Barrio’s Operation Fightback, an East Harlem-based nonprofit community development organization. How it happened:
In 2004, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awarded Artspace the first in a series of grants to help identify a site for a live/work project in New York City. After a two-year search that took Artspace through all five boroughs, former Public School 109 in East Harlem was selected. For the future:
PS109 will contain 90 units of affordable housing for artists and their families and 10,000 square feet of non-residential space for arts and cultural organizations on the ground floor and lower level. It will serve the El Barrio community by creating permanently affordable housing in a neighborhood at risk of gentrification. To help the area retain its traditional Latino identity, Artspace will reserve at least 50% of the units for current El Barrio residents. Visit here to learn more:
http://www.artspace.org/PS109

Go here for upcoming events/info sessions in El Barrio about this project: http://www.artspace.org/events

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The Team:

Architects: Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects, Victor Morales Architects

Development Partner: El Barrio's Operation Fightback
About El Barrio’s Operation Fightback
El Barrio’s Operation Fightback Inc., (EBOF), located in the Northern Manhattan community of East Harlem, was founded in 1983 out of the struggles of tenants and community residents to secure decent affordable housing for neighborhood families in the glaring context of housing neglect, abandonment, arson, crime and drug proliferation. Incorporated in 1986, El Barrio’s Operation Fightback Inc. today focuses on the housing, economic development and social service needs of East Harlem’s diverse and growing community. About Artspace Projects:
For more than 30 years, Artspace has brought its hard-earned expertise to more than 300 cultural facility planning efforts from coast to coast. Of these projects, 33 have been developed and are owned and operated by Artspace itself, representing a unique, $500 million investment in America’s arts infrastructure. With headquarters in Minneapolis and offices in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., Artspace is America’s leading developer of arts facilities. To date we have completed more than a thousand affordable live/work units for artists and their families as well as more than a million square feet of non-residential space for artists and arts organizations. www.artspace.org