SoHo’s all-affordable Canal Street high-rise wins unanimous landmarks vote

Every apartment in a planned 20-story building on Canal Street will be affordable, and the project now has the approval it needed from preservation officials. On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously signed off on the design for 257 Canal Street, which sits inside a SoHo historic district.

The 222-foot building would contain 88 permanently affordable homes. Young adults who are aging out of foster care will get 54 of them as supportive housing. Alembic Community Development and The Children’s Village are the developers, and the design comes from BKSK Architects.

What the SoHo affordable housing tower replaces

To clear the site, a two-story building will be demolished. Landmarks officials list it as a “no-style structure.” Its street-level tenants today include a spa, a store selling souvenirs and a business that fixes phones. Together, the lots at 257-259 Canal Street measure roughly 4,000 square feet and have 51 feet of frontage along Canal. The same owner held them for 87 years before they were put on the market in 2023, priced at $13.5 million.

How the Canal Street design changed after the August hearing

When the applicants appeared before the commission in August, commissioners sent them away with a list of requests. They wanted a base with more height and presence, a study of lower floor-to-floor heights and different window proportions. They also asked for a fresh look at the windows and detailing of the mansard, plus a warmer brick nearer to the buff limestone shades found around the historic district.

According to BKSK partner David Cubic, the design team raised the base by five feet. Floors one and two became taller, and each typical floor above them shrank by eight inches. More articulation was added to the base, so it now echoes the grand two-story bases found on many buildings in the district. Combined with the new window proportions, the lower typical floors cut the building’s total height by four inches.

Changes reached the roofline too. What had read as one continuous band of dormer windows is now four distinct dormers. A different brick blend also brings the facade closer to the materials used throughout the district.

Commissioner Frank Mahan led off the discussion by saying the team’s revisions had improved the proposal. “I’m satisfied that it is now taking a stronger stance in its approach to style and detailing,” he said.