Queensbridge

Queensbridge Houses is the largest public housing development in the United States. Queensbridge which is located in Long Island City, New York in Queens opened in 1933. The 3,142 unit complex is the country's largest such housing project and is owned by the New York City Housing Authority.

Buildings

Its twenty six-story elevator buildings are highly distinctive for their shape, which resembles the letter Y jammed onto another Y. Architects hoped that the Y-shape would give residents more access to sunlight than a cross-shape would. Importantly, they touted the design as cost-efficient, and they saved even more money by building elevators that stopped only at the 1st, 3rd, and 5th floors. Political pressure accounted for their skimping.

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Otherwise, the buildings of Queensbridge are very similar to most government-built housing projects of their time. They are a worn grayish brown with a large amount of attrition and weathering noticeable. Also an eyesore, slight amounts of graffiti can be spotted on just about every building in the complex. The roof-tops, a popular hangout spot, generally have more graffiti than other parts of the complex.

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Each building is painted red to about four feet up from the ground. This gives a united feel to the entire complex because a uniform red "layer" is close, no matter where one is located in the complex.

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On each of the corners in Queensbridge, the New York City Housing Authority has posted signs indicting the projects name and management?"Queensbridge North (or South) Houses NYCHA." These signs come in several varieties depending on their age. The oldest signs, erected in the early nineties, are simply orange and blue. Newer signs feature graphics, like those of many other projects. However, Queensbridge?s signs have a unique touch?their graphic features an illustration of the Queensboro Bridge.

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To gain access to any building in the complex one must use a key or be allowed in by a new intercom system. During the 1950's, the street doors to the buildings were not locked. Recent additions also include heavy metal doors to protect residents from break-ins. During the 1950's, there were few break-ins. The doors to residents' apartments at that time were also metal and contained bolt locks with buttons that you could set so that the door would automatically lock when you closed it. A lot of people got locked out that way and had to call the maintenance to let them back into their apartments. The halls of Queensbridge?s buildings are comparable to most municipal buildings. They are dilapidated and lined with worn light blue tiles. Apartments are painted white and are fairly small, even by New York City standards. During the 1950's, the apartments were painted buff with green trim. They had asphalt tile floors, casement windows, no air conditioning, no shower heads, wooden clothes dryers that were strung up over the bathtubs, and double sinks in the kitchens--one shallow sink for dishes and the other a deep one for washing clothes and babies.

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A large (about four feet high) black metal fence surrounds the entire complex and its walking paths. Another set of chain-link and barbed wire fences separates the housing complex from an area sheltered by an onramp to the Queensboro Bridge. That area is historically home to many homeless folks.

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There was no fence surrounding the complex during the 1950's and no barbed wire fence near the Queensboro Bridge. I do not remember any homeless people there at that time. The outside car lanes on the Bridge were, at that time, trolley car tracks for the last remaining trolley car ride in New York City. You got to the trolley by ascending the stairs in what was called "the upside-down building" at River Park and waiting at the top or first floor. The trolley travelled across the Bridge to Manhattan for a nickel. I believe there are still some remains of the old underground station from where you emerged on the Manhattan side. You got a "transfer," a piece of paper, to hand the driver for the trip back.

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Within last few years elevators have been rebuilt and now stop at floors 1-2-3-4-5. Kitchens have been completely renovated and now have frost free-fridges. 3000 bathrooms were renovated with new tubs, toilets, vanities, floor tile and lighting in 2000+. This followed a renovation in 1986 where 1000 of the bathrooms were renovated by Arc Plumbing, a firm for which the salesman to NYCHA was John Gotti.

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During the 1950's, the management changed the racial balance of Queensbridge by transferring all families whose income was more than $3000/year, a majority of whom were Caucasian, to middle-income housing projects, and replacing most of these tenants with black and Latino families. One result was that more black and Latino families who needed safe and sanitary housing got it. Another result was that the children fought with each other, race against race. By the 1960's, the project was predominantly black and Latino.

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