New York/The Bronx

Third Avenue, the Bronx

Traveled up to the South Bronx to take a few photos for a column my wife (Renée Schoonbeek) writes for a Dutch planning magazine. She is interested in a new housing development to be built on a vacant piece of land near the Hub (Google map), a busy shopping area that has seen better days, but is obviously on the way back up. Lots of sneaker shops and fast food, but a new stretch of stores featuring national brands on Third Avenue as well. The proposed housing, designed by Grimshaw Architects, was the result of a design competition–common in Europe, but still an unusual way of working in New York.

Just a block or two away from the Hub things can get pretty desolate, though there are lots of low rise townhouses of recent vintage, and almost none of the abandonment that characterized the South Bronx in the '70s and '80s. I photographed the vacant development site, but we decided to go with the picture above to give a sense of the local street scene.