West Village Houses, Residential complex in West Village, Manhattan, US
West Village Houses is a residential complex comprising 42 walk-up buildings with 420 apartments spread between Morton Street and Bank Street in Manhattan. The buildings are modest in height and distributed across several blocks, creating a low-rise neighborhood character.
Construction began in 1972 after residents opposed Mayor Robert Wagner's 1961 proposal for high-rise housing in the area. The project emerged as a direct response to community activism seeking low-rise development instead.
The development embodies Jane Jacobs' vision of walkable neighborhoods at human scale, where lower buildings encourage people to interact and know their surroundings. Visitors notice how the modest architecture creates intimate street corners rather than imposing walls.
The complex is residential, but visitors can explore the architecture and street life from outside to understand the neighborhood design. Daytime walks work best for seeing how the layout and streetscape function and how residents use the spaces.
This was the first Mitchell-Lama housing project in New York to transition to market-rate cooperatives, completing the changeover in 2020. The conversion showed how a formerly subsidized housing project evolved into a new ownership model.
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