Process

Dey Street

530,000 SF
Jer­sey City, NJ

This project is a rede­vel­op­ment of the Amer­i­can Can Build­ing com­plex in Jer­sey City, NJ. The strat­egy was to pro­vide res­i­den­tial units dif­fer­ent from the large, loft units in the reha­bil­i­tated Can Build­ing. As a result, three hous­ing options were devel­oped: multi-dwelling apart­ment blocks, court­yard town­houses and rowhouses.

Located on the large west­ern block, the multi-dwelling blocks are formed by a series of L‑shaped build­ing units linked together along Dey Street. Four large, open-ended court­yards pro­vide light to all dwelling units. Taller blocks inter­rupt the over­all mass­ing and con­tain areas for com­mon spaces as well as pent­house units. More

Com­mon park­ing exists under the entire block. In the mid­dle block, a row of court­yard town­houses with base­ment park­ing form the street wall of Sen­ate Place. Units are dis­trib­uted both hor­i­zon­tally and ver­ti­cally for a diverse mix of dwelling options. An inti­mate court­yard pro­vides shared space for up to 7 units.

Finally, sim­ple row­houses form the block clos­est to sim­i­lar exist­ing row­houses, estab­lish­ing a con­ti­nu­ity with the low-scale sur­round­ing neighborhood.

In all blocks ideas of “outer” and “inner” build­ing skins are rep­re­sented by changes in mate­ri­als. A con­cept of plant­ing arma­tures located at strate­gic view­points is intended to add an ele­ment of change and evo­lu­tion to the over­all devel­op­ment design.