“Union Square” Sketches Revealed

Townhomes shift into high-rises as the buildings transition from the Hill to Downtown, anchored by a ​“central green.” In the mix is a coffee kiosk, an outdoor theater, and a pedestrian promenade.

A team of architects and designers sketched out those ideas on Thursday for a future mixed-use, mixed-income development at the vacant site of the former Church Street South housing complex and the current Robert T. Wolfe public housing apartments.

They presented those designs on Thursday evening at El Centro Youth Enrichment Program at 148 Sylvan Ave., to a crowd of over 50 Elm City Communities staffers, city officials, former residents of Church Street South, and current Robert T. Wolfe tenants.

The presentation marked the culmination of a four-day rapid design session, also known as a charrette, led by Torti Gallas + Partners. The designs draw from nearly a year’s worth of community input about what should come next at the expansive, overgrown ex-Church Street South lots right across from Union Station.

Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven purchased that 8.27-acre property for $21 million last November. The public housing agency and its nonprofit development arm, the Glendower Group, are halfway through a two-year planning process for the project — branded as ​“Union Square.” That planning is fueled by $500,000 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant.

“Community input is at the heart of this planning,” said Elm City Communities Project Manager Haley Vincent. ​“Now, folks are able to see something” — and provide feedback on concrete visuals.

The agency intends to build mostly-affordable apartments for a range of incomes, as well as commercial space and amenities, on the vacant site where the privately-owned, 300+ unit subsidized housing complex was condemned in 2015 and demolished in 2018. They have not yet committed to a specific number of residences to be built.

Tenants forced out of Church Street South due to the unsafe conditions there will be guaranteed the opportunity to move into the new buildings. So will current tenants of the adjacent Robert T. Wolfe apartments, a public housing building that Elm City Communities also plans to demolish and redevelop. 

Designs for the development have been widely anticipated, partly due to the project’s location right across from Union Station — another site slated for nearby new housing construction — and partly due to the site’s historic nature.

Church Street South was notorious for moldy, deteriorating conditions that left many residents with chronic health problems, as well as for drugs and violence, which gave the complex its nickname of ​“the jungle.” At the same time, to generations of New Haveners who lived there, Church Street South evokes memories of hip-hop-powered block parties, competitive double dutch, and matchbox ​“car” races through popsicle-stick tracks. In the years since state and city agencies shut down the apartments, tenants won an $18.75 million settlement — as a private developer’s attempt to rebuild the complex fell through, leaving the fate of the property uncertain. 

The team that presented on Thursday included planners and architects from the City of New Haven, Torti Gallas + Partners, BFJ, Kenneth Boroson Architects, Interface Studios, Urban Strategies, Yale School of Management, and the Yale School of Architecture, alongside community members serving on the steering committee.

The designers envisioned organizing the development around a ​“central green” — an open green space right across from Union Station, signifying the ​“front door of New Haven,” said Torti Gallas architect Michaela Mahon. The green would be ​“lined with retail” — perhaps including a grocery store, as some neighbors requested. 

That green space could host festivals and rallies, Mahon said. ​“Maybe a coffee kiosk. A playspace for kids.”

The designers envision townhouses and smaller-scale buildings in the southern side of the development, Mahon said, reflecting the houses more commonly seen in the Hill. 

To the north of the development, the side closer to downtown, the buildings would transition to taller buildings that fit in with the high rises that mark the city’s center.

The exact height of those buildings — and the total number of apartments to rise on the site — is still undetermined. Mahon said that Elm City Communities would first begin building the townhouses. Once that phase is completed, the agency will assess the Downtown-facing portion of the project, with ​“flexibility based on the market to decide how tall those buildings should be.”

The designers also sketched out a pedestrian and bike-friendly promenade along the southernmost side of the development. That street would be lined with townhouses, with balconies and porches. ​“It will have a neighborhood feel. You can imagine neighbors chatting with each other, watching children,” said Mahon.

The designers envision additional ​“community-serving space” — perhaps an ​“outdoor theater,” Mahon said.

At that, Robert T. Wolfe resident Robert Mannick raised a skeptical hand.

"Who Are You Doing This For?"

“You’re talking about outside theater, downtown coffee — that’s not my situation,” Mannick said Thursday night. 

“I don’t need to live in a fancy building,” he said. He stressed that the goal should be providing ​“low-income housing” — but the designs presented made it seem to him that ​“some people will be chased out of there.”

“Who are you doing this for?” he added. ​“Residents or tourists?”

“We don’t want gentrification,” Mahon assured him.

Elm City Communities President Karen DuBois-Walton jumped in. 

“We can design things you can afford and they can be beautiful,” she said. 

Mannick wasn’t convinced. ​“It’s not like a residence. It’s like a tourist spot,” he said, noting that he wants to live in a residential community, not a bustling retail center. 

“What I’m hearing is you don’t see yourself in it yet,” DuBois-Walton said. ​“We want to make sure you see yourself in it.”

Mannick explained that at Wolfe, where he’s lived for two years, the sole elevator breaks on a regular basis. The building was designed for elderly and disabled tenants, and when the elevator shuts down, many residents are stranded. How is it possible, he asked, for the agency that manages his building to build a snazzy development with commercial units while also keeping the rents affordable to people like him?

DuBois-Walton pointed out that while Wolfe is a traditional public housing project, the Union Square development would be a mixed-income project funded by a medley of public and private investments. 

She pointed to Elm City Communities’ track record of using quasi-public funding to build mixed-income housing with deeply affordable units, like at Monterey Place or Mill River Crossing. That funding structure enables more resources for maintenance, she argued.

“The reason we’re not just tearing down and building up public housing the same way we did it before is that we know that didn’t work,” DuBois-Walton said.

After the presentation, a group of architects and city officials approached Mannick to continue discussing his concerns. By the end of the evening, though, Mannick said he still was not convinced that the designs would truly serve low-income tenants.

He was, however, heartened to learn from one of the architects that his input at a previous planning session directly inspired the team to keep higher-density buildings on the downtown side of the project. ​“It’s nice to hear that something I did say was inputted into the process.”

The architectural plans, as Project Manager Haley Vincent noted later, are only part of the planning process funded by the HUD grant. Elm City Communities also intends to implement educational and supportive services at Union Square, which the next year of planning will focus on. A resounding message from the community, Vincent said, is that ​“we need more supportive programs.”

Hopes For Target, Balconies, Community

After Thursday’s presentation, as attendees milled about to examine the sketches up close, several former Church Street South tenants marveled at Mannick’s comments, given that they’d had the opposite reaction to the designs.

“We want something different!” said Carmen González.

González lived in Church Street South for 18 years. She misses the community there, she said. González now lives in the Ninth Square, where she’s generally content, but laments that ​“I never see my neighbors.”

Yosianis Bernabel, who’s turning 11 next month (and asked not to be photographed), also found herself with no critiques of the designs.

“I liked the houses” on the Hill side of the development, she said. And she said she hopes a Target will move into one of the retail spaces.

Bernabel’s mother, Ana Sanchez, lived in Church Street South as a child; her grandmother, Fior Soto, lived there for 19 years. They all plan to move back, with González, when the new buildings go up.

“We’ll have a balcony there,” González said.