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Co-op City

Architecture, Design, Physical Plant; Rent Strike

Herman J. Jessor (1895-1990), architect

Here is an essay from the Co-op Village site, by Tony Schuman of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, "Labor and Housing in New York City: Architect Herman Jessor and the Cooperative Housing Movement".

DEFUNCT LINK FROM OLD BOARD, c. 2000:
See ongoing discussion about Jessor's orginal plans and the architecture of large apartment complexes on CasalsK's Co-op City Message Board

See more recent thread on the new Board

In a link off the Canadian Centre for Architecture web site I found a reference to Dolkart, Andrew Scott: Homes for people: non-profit cooperatives in New York City, 1916-1929 which references Jessor as the architect of the second United Workers Houses in the Bronx.

Similarities to Cortlandt Towers

The drawings of Cortlandt Homes presented six buildings, fifteen stories high, each made in the shape of an irregular star with arms extending from a central shaft. The shafts contained elevators, stairways, heating systems and all the utilities. The apartments radiated from the center in the form of extended triangles. The space between the arms allowed light and air from three sides. The ceilings were pre-cast; the inner walls were of plastic tile that required no painting or plastering; all pipes and wires were laid out in metal ducts at the edge of the floors, to be opened and replaced, when necessary, without costly demolition; the kitchens and bathrooms were prefabricated as complete units; the inner partitions were of light metal that could be folded into the walls to provide large on large room or pulled out to divide it; there were few halls or lobbies to clean, a minimum of cost and labor required for the maintenance of the place. The entire plan was a composition in triangles. The buildings, of poured concrete, were a complex modeling of simple structural features; there was no ornament; none was needed; the shapes had the beauty of sculpture.

Page 588:
Cortlandt Homes, the $15,000,000 Federal Housing Project to be built in Astoria, L.I.

Rent Strike

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