New renderings have been revealed for Highbridge, a 31-story residential building under construction at 1387 University Avenue in Highbridge, The Bronx. Designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning PC and developed by Samaritan Daytop Village, the 333,508-square-foot structure will yield 422 units comprised of 125 affordable homes, 190 supportive housing units, 106 transitional housing units for families, and one unit for the superintendent, as well as 5,300 square feet of common spaces. The fully electric development is aiming for Passive House certification and will be located on a 45,453-square-foot interior lot overlooking the Harlem River between Boscobel Place to the north and Highbridge Park to the south.
The main rendering above depicts an aerial perspective looking south at Highbridge and the Harlem River below, with the Manhattan skyline visible farther south. Below is another aerial view of the building from the opposite perspective showing the nearby arched High Bridge walkway. The tower’s façade is depicted composed of gray brick framing a staggered grid of two-story floor-to-ceiling windows on the podium and broad eastern and western elevations, while the slender northern and southern faces are clad in glass curtain walls partially shrouded by a screen of metal louvers. Some setbacks on the lower levels are shown topped with landscaped terraces, and the structure culminates in a flat parapet capped with a raised canopy.
The property will be surrounded by an expansive green space with meandering walkways, benches, and fountains, as seen in the following renderings.
Highbridge will rise on the site of a former Carmelite monastery that was later converted into a men’s residential treatment center in 1982. The residential program was relocated before the demolition of the historic structure in early 2024. The developer preserved portions of the building’s original front portico among other design elements, including select stone, wood, and metal components, and plans to integrate these features and materials into the new building’s interiors and landscaping.
Sixty percent of all the units will be set aside for formerly homeless families and single adults. Residential amenities will include on-site laundry facilities, an outdoor rooftop recreational space, walking trails with landscaping designed by Terrain-NYC, and 24/7 security.
1387 University Avenue will also provide 100 program staff to support the permanent and transitional residents’ social services needs. These include recovery-oriented and trauma-informed case management, services for substance use recovery and prevention, primary health and behavioral healthcare support, recreation and wellness programming, employment and benefits services, and long-term housing placement and aftercare services.
The nearest subway station from the development is the 4 train at the 170th Street station to the east along Jerome Avenue.
The project broke ground on December 5, 2024, and is being completed with the help of $335.4 million in financing from City, State, and private organizations.
Highbridge is expected to complete construction in June 2027, and is aiming for full occupancy by mid-2028.
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When I lived up the road from this in the 1970s, there was a convent on the site.
Works nicely with the bridge..
Mismatched windows are a design trend that needs to go away. They’re not as bad as cantilevered buildings that loom over their neighbors, but they still look just awful.
All current trends do eventually go away, to be replaced by newer trends..
Great project!
“… 190 supportive housing units, 106 transitional housing units …” Not to sound mean or anything, but that area badly needs an injection of regular middle-class people in order to begin to approach normalcy (the way it once was). It’s already well overrun with Sec 8, subsidies, and halfway houses of all kinds. It doesn’t need even more dysfunctional types cruising the local streetscape.
Totally agreed.
On the one hand, this is the nicest supportive housing I’ve seen, on the other hand, why are they dumping more troubled folks in the neighborhood that has a high enough poverty rate as it is.
But I will praise the architecture, this will be a beautiful addition to a really pretty location. The views will be so great, it makes you wonder how this wasn’t aimed at gentrifiers but for the homeless
The “regular middle-class” fled that area in the early 1970s. The opening of Co-op City emptied out the West Bronx bringing in a lower income population. I know conditions are better now than when I lived there, but it has a ways to go.
the reason is because it already is a rather decrepit old shelter site. i walked by it often after work to walk on the high bridge. i have heard rumors about it becoming a modernized tower for a long time.
Great project. We’ll see after it’s finished.
Hopefully the facade materials don’t look flat and cheap. That would be a real shame with such a high visibility project in such a sensitive location.
I hate racism
How in gods name is this project racist??? Such a random radical statement
LOL what?
You wanna point out where the racism is in the article or project? I don’t see nothing crazy but you
After the immigrants were expelled, the population in these renders appeared to be diminished: Thanks.
I never understood what exactly the term “Families” means. Does for Families means that single people that don’t have any children nor a spouse are not worthy of nice new place to live.
Must take a bus to the subway for this location. The Bronx is the 2ist century NYC home for the poor. Face the fact.
Three words: Ogden-University Subway
It’s time for the 3-Train extension to the Bronx
The building should be all affordable housing, we are in the Bronx friends
Uh, it is?
“422 units comprised of 125 affordable homes, 190 supportive housing units, 106 transitional housing units for families”
The Bronx is viewed as having more low income housing for needy people than any other place.A lot of folks from Brooklyn have been moving to the Bronx due to Gentrification. The prices of rents too high that working class have to pack up and move into shelters from living inside Brooklyn. The Bronx is the only place left
Market rate housing is targeting the South Bronx.
A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable, yes?
Can we also judge how the “vulnerable” take care of the nice things we provide them with?
This is excellent. We need way more of this.
I’m moving back to The Bronx!!!