Design and Advocacy in the South Bronx
Urban Omnibus
By Nandini Bagchee
After a grueling battle with Fresh Direct for the environmental health of the South Bronx, the activists of South Bronx Unite (SBU) had their hearts set on securing permanent, community-controlled space in the neighborhood. A former health clinic that symbolized a history of neighborhood self-sufficiency could provide permanently affordable space for the community advocates and non-profit service and cultural organizations that help the neighborhood thrive.
So when Nandini Bagchee approached SBU about collaborating on a studio, they knew just what they needed: to prove that their visions of a community center on West 140th Street were achievable, and to find a way to extend the site’s radical past into a viable future in a changing neighborhood. For Bagchee and her students at the Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York (Aiyah Mousa, Christopher Lee, Emanuel Gjini, Elif Karamustafa, Jeremy Iannucci, Julian Usman, Cindy Santamaria, Sarwat Yunis, Sofia Mojica, Sean Kim, Shola Owolewa, Sonnathan Maharaj, and Victoria Graziano), this meant getting out of the studio and getting familiar with the building, the neighborhood, and most importantly, the people and organizations who would inhabit it.
