Occupying six acres of formerly city-owned land at the intersection of Delancey and Essex streets, the master plan called for coordinating several prominent and long-empty sites in a manner that would encourage both renewed vitality and cultural continuity in this historically dynamic neighborhood. The nine-site project comprises 2,000,000 square feet of commercial, retail, community-use, and residential programming, with 50% of all units designated permanent affordable housing. It has been referred to as “the anti-Hudson Yards.” The heart of the development is a new facility for the beloved Essex Market, relocated one block south from its previous home.

Reflecting a shared desire of the neighborhood, our master plan designated a prominent site for a cultural institution. SHoP designed the new home for the International Center of Photography there. It presents a civic face along Essex Street while defining the museum entrance at a more intimate scale appropriate to residential Ludlow Street.

SHoP’s final contribution to Essex Crossing is the residential tower sited at 242 Broome Street. As one of the few sites there set within the existing historic context, the materiality and massing of the building was very carefully considered. The deep texture of the folded-aluminum facade recalls without mimicry the patterns of ornament and fire escapes found on tenements throughout the Lower East Side.