Lavanburg Homes, erected in 1927, is a six-story building with 95 apartments owned by the New York City Housing Authority and operated by the Henry Street Settlement.
The storm surge catalyzed by Superstorm Sandy flooded the cellar and submerged the boiler room of Lavanburg Homes for several days. The saltwater brought on by this storm effectively destroyed or severely damaged all mechanical and electrical systems in the cellar. Although maintenance personnel and emergency contractors made strides to replace the damaged mechanical equipment, the facility continued to remain dependent on a temporary street boiler to provide heat and hot water for years after the storm.
For this project, Nelligan White was hired to put together a comprehensive resilience package for the facility. Through this plan, Lavanburg Homes will be connected to a new steam plant at the adjacent Baruch Houses to ensure efficient and reliable heat. Furthermore, we are creating improvements to the facility by elevating critical electrical equipment and entry plazas, renovating entry lobbies, replacing roofs and two security offices, and implementing full LED site lighting.
The Lavanburg Homes project is a piece of a broader project to create a resilience master plan for Baruch Houses, the largest New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development in Manhattan. Baruch Houses has 18 buildings in addition to Lavanburg Homes, with over 6,000 residents in total. NYCHA challenged us to consider the long-term resilience of this development and to create a model for reconceiving how the Authority organizes and maintains its existing building portfolio.
