The art deco building at 550 West 20th Street in Manhattan has lived many lives. It’s well-known in Chelsea for its chamfered corner that greets pedestrians turning from West 20th Street onto 11th Avenue.
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon—the same office behind the Empire State Building—designed it in 1931 to host a YMCA. Then, in the 1970s, the state bought the 9-story building and converted it into a women’s prison, Bayview Correctional Facility. Decades later, the building was shuttered in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy and has sat vacant since.
In 2016, Deborah Berke Partners (now TenBerke) won a competition to transform Bayview Correctional Facility into a center for girl’s and women’s rights advocacy, but that effort fizzled out. Now, the 100,000-square-foot building is being transformed by COOKFOX into affordable housing. This adds to the office’s extensive project portfolio in the neighborhood like the new Google office at St. John’s Terminal, the Meatpacking District’s Apple Store, and ongoing Fulton Elliott-Chelsea redevelopment with PAU and ILA.
Upon completion, the building will be called Liberty Landing. Signage will be tacked onto the facade with lettering that pays tribute to the art deco structure. Seven stories will be added to the top of 550 West 20th Street, making the property reach 16 stories. The new stories will be setback from the perimeter so as not to cast shadows over passersby.
Liberty Landing will host 124 permanently affordable units for low-income residents and formerly incarcerated individuals reentering the community. Fifteen of those units will be specifically catered to residents with mental health needs.
Bethany Borel, an associate partner at COOKFOX, said: “This project will preserve the art deco history of the building, recover its heritage as place of refuge, and transform its legacy as a place of incarceration into a place for renewal and thriving.”
A 9,300-square-foot community facility unit dedicated to youth-oriented programming serves the development as well. The 9th floor will be used as an expansive, planted terrace. It will sit not far from a new project by Bjarke Ingels Group, One High Line, and the twisting IAC Building by Frank Gehry.
As per Community Board 4’s request, COOKFOX will preserve much of the building’s character, and the additions will be clad in brick to match the historic neighborhood. Development partners on the project are the State of New York, Camber Property Group, and Osborne Association. These private firms have pledged $108 million for the transformative redevelopment.
Jon Monsalve, CEO of Osborne Association, said the building is in “direct response to the overrepresentation of older adults and LGBTQIA+ people in our jails and prisons and the dearth of housing options for them when they return to the community.”
