All Work

Castle III

Castle III, a 15-story supportive-housing facility in East Harlem, continues C+GA’s collaboration with The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that provides innovative services and advocacy for individuals with justice involvement. The project consists of 82 units, support spaces, a community room, a teaching kitchen, a laundry room, and space for use by the larger East Harlem community.

Sculpted frames around groupings of windows at the masonry framed south-facing street façade provide shading. The mix of modern elements with traditional materials blends the building with a neighborhood of manufacturing, commercial, and residential buildings. A landscaped rear yard contains gardening, exercise facilities, and varied seating areas for the residents. Skylights at the rear yard provide daylight to the support spaces below.

Castle III will be an all-electric (except for a back-up generator), low-carbon building designed to meet Passive House standards, with materials and finishes selected to minimize the building’s carbon footprint. The solar array forms a ‘crown’ at the roof. When completed, the building will meet City and State energy requirements for 2050. This all-electric, low-carbon building required a special permit through a ULURP process from the City Planning Commission and City Council.