NYCHA Housing Portfolio

Marshall Plaza is a New York City Housing Authority residential campus located in Washington Heights, Manhattan. The landscape renovation was designed by Joanna Pertz Landscape Architects as part of the NYCHA PACT program. Marshall Plaza’s design draws on the legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall — a man who believed that democracy lives or dies on the quality of its conversations, its arguments, and its willingness to recognize the full humanity of every person.

“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” – Thurgood Marshall, 1972

This quote is featured on the garden’s wall to honor and celebrate the community’s origins.

Tenants were candid during the engagement process, saying that the pre-existing overall environment did not invite people to linger or gather. They wanted a connection linking the lower level to the street, and they wanted to feel that the space was designed for them, not around them. The design responds directly to those concerns.

By activating the front yard, new spaces along the building’s frontage provide comfortable places for senior residents to sit, chat, and watch the world go by. A grand staircase now connects the lower-level amenity space to street level, physically bridging the previously disconnected areas. Custom precast curvilinear benches and lush planting create intimate spaces for conversation and contemplation. Seating options are designed with the community’s senior residents in mind, featuring sculptural seatwalls with wood bench toppers and fixed tables and chairs for outdoor dining, games, and gatherings. Native shrubs and trees visually tie the landscape’s distinct spaces together, providing color and texture across the seasons. Marshall Plaza ultimately offers what its namesake always argued for: environments where people can come together, be heard, and feel that the world has been built with them in mind.

Thurgood Marshall, who founded the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court, and served as the first African American Supreme Court Justice, built his legacy on the power of discourse, debate, and connection. The landscape honors that legacy by creating spaces designed for exactly those things.

 

 

This project was part of NYCHA PACT, a program that unlocks funding to enable comprehensive repairs and renovations of public housing developments, while preserving tenant rights and ensuring affordability is permanently preserved. In this project, NYCHA PACT ABM and JPLA provided comprehensive landscape design renovations for the exterior spaces of three NYCHA housing developments in New York City’s Washington Heights Neighborhood, each with unique site features and needs. In collaboration with our client, Dantes Partners, NYCHA, Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, and the consulting team, we are excited to be part of this endeavor to elevate and enhance the design of people’s living spaces, cultivate healthy living, foster recreation, and build community.