SLCE Architects Receives 2018 New York State Historic Preservation Award for Randolph Houses

October 16, 2018

Randolph Houses, SLCE Architects’ recently completed affordable housing project in Harlem, has received the 2018 Historic Preservation Award from New York State for the second and final phase of the rehabilitation of the homes.

Each year the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation recognizes excellence in the preservation and rejuvenation of New York’s historic and cultural treasures. The award will be presented at a ceremony in December. Also on the project team were Higgins Quasebarth, Trinity Financial, West Harlem Group Assistance, Mega Contractor Group, CANY, Ideal Masonry, Art Stone, Corinthian USA, and CW Metals.

Much like their surrounding West Harlem neighborhood, the Randolph Houses have a rich history. Multiple owners and varying levels of neglect had left an entire block of late 19th-century tenement buildings largely vacant. By the early 2000s, many of the buildings were emptied and slated for demolition, but following their listing on the National Register of Historic Places, New York City issued a Request for Proposals for redevelopment of the buildings as affordable and public housing.

SLCE’s redesign strategy was to combine the 36 individual buildings into three contiguous buildings to create a total of 283 affordable housing units. The renovation combined state and federal historic preservation tax credits with low-income housing tax credits and other city financing, and earlier received an additional two awards for preservation: the 2017 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York and the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

The rehabilitation of the Randolph Houses maintains the 19th-century New York streetscape while introducing modern standards of living; it serves as a model for the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings for affordable housing and for creative solutions for improving public housing.