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On The Outskirts Of New York City, A New Housing Model Aimed At Millennials

What's Inside a Neighborhood in a Box?

JUL 20, 2017

By DAN GLASS

Read More: https://www.citylab.com/design/2017/...-a-box/534024/

Quote:

The peaked wooden eave jutting from the facade of the charcoal glass tower is trying to tell you something. So is the neon sign over the entranceway that says “home sweet home.” But it takes a beat to realize that the light-box sign reading Urby is not for an upmarket extended-stay hotel. You’re supposed to live here.

- The new mixed-use residential development on Staten Island’s crane-studded north shore is the first in a proposed chain of apartment projects from New Jersey-based Ironstate Development, which has a record of building large luxury developments on the “Gold Coast” of the New Jersey waterfront. --- Other locations in the works include Jersey City (one of three towers completed), Harrison, New Jersey (now renting), and Stamford, Connecticut (underway). Each complex comprises ultramodern living units, ground-level retail, amenities such as heated outdoor pools, fitness centers, and keyless entry via phone app.

- But Urby’s marketing emphasis is on common areas intended to facilitate interaction between tenants, like the coffee shops integrated into the lobbies and communal kitchens that host wine pairings and cooking demos. Ironstate has dubbed their model Urban Ready Life, or URL—“an all-encompassing living experience for today’s urbanite.” --- “The idea for the concept came about from what I would call a spatial exploration,” says Ironstate CEO David Barry. "It’s expensive to create space. I don't want to shoehorn [people] into places, but with all the on-demand services that exist today, you just need less storage and less space in general."

- For design inspiration, Barry looked to the dense urbanization patterns of Europe and the Dutch architectural and design identity firm Concrete, which has a roster of luxury hotel, restaurant, and retail clients in Europe and abroad. They built mockups in warehouses to study how to make a small space feel bigger, and decide what the primarily Millennial market would and wouldn’t do without. The collaboration resulted in sleek apartments of somewhat Tokyo-esque proportions, making clever use of pocket doors, station-like kitchens and baths, and closets with built-in shelving. Nonessential furniture and decor and extra room to entertain were jettisoned.

- So was parking: Urby sites are located almost within Frisbee-throwing distance of commuter rail stations, and include common bike rooms. The developments adhere to New Urbanist principles—emphasizing dense, mixed-use, and walkable neighborhoods with access to public transportation. --- Barry says that at least 80 percent of Urby tenants are under 39, don't have children, and expect to stay for perhaps three years or so; he calls them “starter apartments.” At $5,190 for a two-bedroom in Jersey City, or a Staten Island studio that starts at $1,995, they’re not for the stereotypical basement-dwelling young adult just leaving the nest.

- Ironstate sharpened its appeal to Millennial renters not only by using common areas as a living space, but by filling those spaces with “human programming,” Barry says. “You can’t just take a space and throw people in there and expect that they’re going to figure out how to have their own wine tasting or cooking class or that they’re going to connect with each other." --- So Urby employs a cultural director with a nightclub and hospitality background and deputies to organize activities for residents. There might be stump-the-chef or other paid event in the kitchen, standup comedy in the cafe, and flower arranging in a workshop room. “It’s a boost,” Barry says, “to help people in this demographic connect to each other—and make them feel more emotionally connected to the brand."

- Each location has a different programming focus: Jersey City Urby has a scientist-in-residence, and Harrison will have a resident jazz musician. Staten Island’s farmer-in-residence works a 4,500-square-foot urban farm, selling produce at weekend markets and to tenants who can enjoy locally grown kale smoothies. --- This isn’t an exercise in co-living, however, where apartment-sharing companies like Common seek to fill a niche for those willing to have roommates or share bathrooms. Barry says that approach is too aggressive for his audience, which seeks a faster commute but with a higher standard of comfort than they can afford in the city. This may indicate a perhaps less-than-trendy trend: that many of them don't actually want to live in a city, with all of its expenses and eccentricities, but they want the amenities.

.....

Urby Staten Island, a new 900-unit housing complex, offers a curated city-living experience. Kind of. Ironstate Development

https://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/ci...mod=1500415210

I wonder if the programming lasts beyond the second month. Will people live there because they like having a cruise director, or because it's affordable even if they just want to be left alone?

$5,100 for Staten Island two bedroom is not particularly affordable with or without cruise directors. You can find two bedroom apartments is desirable Manhattan neighborhoods for the same rent, or less, depending on the variables.. http://www.nyhabitat.com/new-york-price.html

^VICE did an article on the one above which is exactly what I was thinking about from the original post. It sounds... not great... maybe if the location weren't shit and you were new to the city / temporarily on business. Although I imagine most people end up sticking to their rooms so if you were so inclined would probably have pretty good run of the amenities.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/w...dence-in-acton

^actually I think the whole idea and public areas would attract the kind of people, like a swarm, who describe themselves as 'bubbly' but whom everyone else describes as loud, grasping and annoying as fvck.

• Video Link

They have these in Japan except they're cheap because they don't have an artificially engineered housing shortage.

Indeed, before WWII these type of communal living arrangements were common in the US as well. Part of the reason modern zoning and building regs were introduced was to crack down on them because it was believed they promoted "immoral" values.

Looks like a cross between a dorm and daycare

Quote:

Originally Posted by muppet (Post 7875617)

It's pretty much student dorms for the thirty somethings. The landlords will even stump you up £50 if you want to hold a party.

When you put it bluntly like that, it sounds terrible. But it's accurate. You have to pretty much throw away the concept of personal space if you want to live there. What happens when someone wants privacy because they have a date over for dinner? What happens when you invite a couple friends and their wives over to catch up? Can you lock people out of the community kitchens? Do you have to do paper-rock-scissors to decide what to watch on a Sunday night in the communal TV room?

I would think that most people retire to their homes to avoid people they don't want to see. Home, for instance, is a place where I can keep all the people from work out of my life. Sometimes that means I like to be by myself when I'm making breakfast, or I like to take a nap on the couch by the window and not be disturbed with people walking and talking all around me.

By the way, are those library books in the library painted on?

With all the space those amenities in the London bldg take up, couldn't they just use that space to make bigger apartments instead?

Maybe there are just some people who never want to leave their college dorm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx (Post 7875793)

You make your food and fuck in the room. It's not that complicated. :haha:

dorms for techies. ok. thats fine i guess. id be more excited if there were a chain of dorm style cafeterias, but you know, for adults. with a punch card and everything. id never go grocery shopping again.

Not necessarily the city center, the suburbs also have houses, beautiful spaces!

Quote:

Originally Posted by austlar1 (Post 7875514)

I would hope so. Those are silly prices for a 2 BD.

The cruise director thing sounds useless, but the idea of tiny dorm-sized housing is crucially important. It's the only way to build new housing for decent prices that doesn't require subsidy. Obviously it's generally singles living there.

I think we're discussing two different things. There's the co-living model, which is increasingly common in NYC, SF and other high-cost cities with lots of young, transient people.

This article is about the Urby brand, which is a major residential developer in the tri-state area that concentrates on millennials, but which has conventional apartments with just tons of amenities. So not really co-living (which is basically a dorm for post-college crowd).

So I'm not really understanding the article, as it isn't anything really unique, except maybe for the fact that Urby tends to build in less obvious millennial places (Staten Island, Jersey, Westchester, Connecticut and the like), as long as they're connected by transit into Manhattan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhays (Post 7875940)

Single women presumably. Imagine trying to get a girl back to your dorm room in Staten Island...

There could be an old peoples home version of this too, or a treatment centre.

Common areas are good for single, college like people who don't have kids and share common hobbies: drinking, getting high or studying. Would suck to be watching TV and some guy decides to flip to Tucker Carlson. I could see problems then. A fight might ensue, and then that person will be on Nancy Grace but would be acquitted because Tucker Carlson watching is considered torture, and thats a felony. He would be just, and stand his ground.

But I think would most rather have privacy. I can't fathom sharing a common area with annoying neighbors. Co-living can work, but with like-minded people.

Undersized, overpriced suburban apartments with an unnecessarily long list of amenities and community programming hardly makes for a new housing model. This is an exercise in marketing & branding more than anything.