The Bloomberg administration has given the go ahead on a project that will construct mini apartments in New York City.
The city selected a winner for a miniature housing model competition Tuesday, the Observer reports.
The competition, launched last July by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 33 entries for creating “comfortable, attractive housing units between 250 and 375 square feet” to be implemented within the city, according to the city living publication.
The winning design, My Micro NY, a collaborative design by Monadnock Development, the Actors Fund for Housing Development and Capsys and New York firm nArchitects, will be developed into an actual housing complex that will be constructed in the Manhattan neighborhood, Kips Bay at 335 East 27th Street.
Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of 2014, according to Business Insider.
The building will feature 55 rental apartments with “with big windows, ample storage space, and Juliet balconies,” the business news website details.
The building will boast such amenities as a “public meeting space, café, and common rooftop garden for residents, as well as a laundry room, residential storage space, a bike room, and fitness space.”
The Observer notes that My Micro NY will be the first modular development in Manhattan. The construct aims be a model for possible future miniature apartment development in the city.
Plans for the development’s construction entail modular construction, meaning each module will be built individually. That project will be spearheaded by modular home manufacturer, Capsys at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Currently, building apartments smaller than 450 square feet is illegal; however, as New York City is home to over 8 million residents, many scrambling for limited housing availability, the Mayor stated that the development will be an exception.
The contest that discovered My Micro NY is a part of Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan that aims to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for approximately 500,000 small-household New Yorkers, according to Business Insider.
“We’ve chosen Manhattan because more than three-quarters of its homes are one or two person households,” Mayor Bloomberg said at a press conference Tuesday.
“We already have the population seeking housing for a small number of people; we just don’t have the apartments to house them.”
Units will be priced between $940 per month and $1,800 per month; the city expects that there will be a wait list implemented for availability. Business Insider notes that some units will also cater to low-income tenants.
