Bronx, New York, USA
Bronx Point reconnects Bronx communities to the Harlem River with a 4.6-acre park, waterfront esplanade, and 540-unit 100% affordable housing building housing The Hip-Hop Museum, opening summer 2025. A flexible plaza at Exterior Street gateways neighborhoods, featuring seasonal programming, a nature-themed playground, water get-down for education, Billion Oyster Project reef, and amenities.
Bronx Point by Marvel Architects, won an American Architecture Award 2025 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
In populous, ethnically diverse Bronx Community District 4 (4.9% growth 2000-2010; ~150,000 in wider area, 50-80% Hispanic), community input shaped the design via 20+ meetings, workshops, pop-ups, site walks, and senior center sessions with boards and a dedicated committee.
The design balances active spaces with ecology and learning, fostering jogging, BBQs, family gatherings, and child exploration. A Mill Pond Cove get-down provides water access per community surveys. As coastal cities face housing and resilience needs, Bronx Point pioneers as the first waterfront affordable housing project earning Waterfront Alliance’s WEDG verification, guiding through ecosystems, regulations, stakeholders, sea rise, and storms.
Resilient features include a naturalized shoreline slope replacing a relieving platform to dampen tidal energy, native tidal marsh vegetation, cove get-down, and planted revetment for stabilization and ecology. The inclusive nature playground serves ages 2-5, 5-12, and all abilities (including wheelchairs) with equipment, discovery zones, water sprays, and musical instruments.
Bronx Point proves community-driven design delivers affordability, access, and restoration for NYC waterfronts.
Architects: Marvel Architects, Landscape Architects, Urban Designers, PLLC.
Design Team: Jonathan Marvel, Yadiel Rivera-Diaz, Lissa So, Tyler Silvestro, Tim Fryatt, Sami Sikanas, and Ruth Benjamin
Landscape Architects of Record: Abel Bainnson Butz, LLP.
Architects: S9 Architecture and Engineering, PC. (Mixed-Use Building)
General Contractor: TMS Waterfront
Clients: L+M Development Partners LLC., Type A Projects LLC., New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Photographers: Ashok Sinha, Albert Vecerka/Esto
