Summit-Heights: Affordable & Progressive Housing in Washington Heights

New York City: a global hub of entrepreneurship and opportunity. My home town of New York City year after year continues to grow as one of the most desirable locations to live and work across the entire planet, and with the image it upholds, it’s not hard to see why. However, to many, the reality of living in NYC is a completely different story. To some, what appears to be a glittering utopia full of idealism, to others is a gritty and hardworking amalgamation of people, holding tight to the community and traditions that they’ve known for years.

While one’s perception of NYC is that of ambition and growth, the bitter truth is that only few get to live the lavish life which the city portrays. Beyond the surface of what is told, a tale of rising prices, gentrification and generations of a growing divide in prosperity and quality of life has become a normality in the “City that never sleeps”. In a city where billionaires have multi floor penthouses which they don’t inhabit for half the year (Billionaire’s Row), there are also working families struggling to pay rent, or even acquire a home in the first place.

Hope is not lost, though, as various attempts to tackle perhaps one of the biggest issues the city faces, the affordability crisis (And within that the affordable housing crisis), have persisted in their efforts for decades. That very fight leads me to where I stand right now, giving my best endeavor at tackling that same problem. As a student who has had the luxury of learning how to utilize CAD softwares during my high school tenure, I felt motivated and excited to try and provide a resolution within this very topic. With so much square footage of empty space in vacant buildings, parks, and even golf courses, what I present today is an online model and potential construction of a multi-family housing community designed to tend to the needs of people who need it the most, while raising awareness for the continued fight for increased housing as a whole.

With all I have created, I aim to do all I have just stated, while also providing resources for heightened education and sustainable living features, like energy and food. The appropriately named “Summit-Heights” reflects the goal of providing life-long residents of New York City the help they need to succeed in life, from schooling to homing, and furthering the affordable movement in neighborhoods all across the country!

Online Modeling:

1. Computer/Laptop
2. Autodesk Fusion
3. Autodesk AutoCAD

*Students Get Free Accounts*

Physical Model:

1. Laser Cutter (Thunder Laser Nova 35)
2. 3D Printer (Bambu Lab A1 Lab Mini Printer)
3. Printer Filament
4. 1/8” Oak Wood Planks
5. Felt/Fabric
6. Scissors
7. Glue
8. Popsicle Sticks
9. Small Human Cut-Outs

If we want to craft up a solution to the affordable housing crisis, we first need to take into account where the issue stems from and its implications to the real world. Simply put, housing is an industry that follows the same principles of supply and demand as nearly every other product or service does [1]. When you have a lot of people wanting something (High Demand), but not nearly as much of the actual thing (Demand), then prices rise. In our case, as the largest generation in America, the millennials [2], started to reach the age of typical home ownership, many would start to realize that the high prices were indicative of the fact that there were not nearly as many houses available as needed. If we go through the numbers, starting from 2010 until present day the average number of houses made was 1.1 Million, noticeably less than the 1.6 Million needed to support the population growth [3], whereas in the 2000’s decade it was roughly 1.3 Million a year made, which not only is more than made now but also was during a time of less people AND a horrid market crash [4]. To put it simply, as time progresses we are noticing a trend where cheaper houses that majority of people are intending to buy are not being created, and rather luxury housing for those already wealthy are made instead, contributing to the housing crisis that affects so many people today.

This begs the question… Why? If the solution to this crisis is to make more houses to accommodate more people, why haven’t we done so? For the answer to this, we can look to two principles named zoning policies and space restrictions. To define both quickly, zoning is the way land is allocated to building a certain type of building [5], and space restrictions refer to the way these buildings can be constructed once given the green light [6].

If we first look at zoning, we can categorize buildings into 3 main parts, commercial, single-family, and multi-family (But being as housing doesn’t involve commercial buildings, we will talk about the last 2 mainly). In any given area, land is allocated to fit these 3 kinds of buildings, and buildings have to fit the categories that they find themselves in, in other words “obliging by their zone”. If our main goal is to house as many people as possible, then multi-family housing is far and away the best way to do so, as it allows more people to live in a given area.

Next up, we have spacing restrictions, which again refers to how the space a house takes up can be used or worked around. Several laws regulate this in terms of house construction, which include but are not limited to the height (or amount of stories) a building can have, how much space needs to surround a building, the space set aside for parking and more. If you take a look at any specific place, you have to consider how the spacing restrictions play into the zone a house finds itself in. It is for this very reason that a single family zone may not house many people (As the house needs a certain amount of space between it and the next for example) and why even a multi family zone doesn’t house many people (As it isn’t allowed to have a certain amount of stories or square feet for example).

Taking into account both of these factors it becomes clear right away that fixing the affordable housing issue in America is not a “one-size fits all equation”. In one area, it may be to a lack of land set aside for multi family dwellings, whereas in another the zones are not the issue as opposed to the restrictions of space and resources the building finds itself in. If we want to tackle this issue as best as we can, we need to look at each given area with nuance and get creative in with its own parameters, making sure we find a solution that works to address its issues and not somewhere else’s. We know what the bottom line is to fix this problem, we need to make more homes, but the way to go about changes depending on where it is you look.

Since I am from New York City, when I first saw this issue my mind immediately went to the affordability crisis in my own city. Even to those not from New York City it is well known that everything, especially housing, is very expensive. However, in the last few years, the cost to purchase a house has exploded and become insurmountable even for NYC standards. In fact, median rent prices have increased 32% whereas homeownership prices have jumped a whopping 74% [7]. As more and more people from across the country and even across the world move to New York City for its opportunities in education and career, this issue will continue to grow, which is why I am here to try to pose a solution to the issue.

The first piece of the puzzle in this situation is to find the root cause of this issue so that we can craft a city-specific solution. If we take into account the two aspects of housing prices from before, it becomes apparent extremely quickly after a bit of research that the cause is due to spacing restrictions and NOT because of zoning. As evident by the first attached image, New York City housing is predominantly comprised of multi-family housing zones, with Staten Island as the only outlier (where even there there is still prevalent multi family zoning). If you take a moment to think about this, it makes total sense. If you picture in your head what you may expect to find yourself in if you envision living in New York City, chances are your mind immediately jumps to apartment complexes and/or living in a penthouse, both of which fall under the scope of multi family. Aside from the suburban areas primarily found in Staten Island and Queens (and a little bit of Brooklyn and the Bronx), New York City housing is multi family, which then leads to the question of “Why is it still so expensive”.

New York City housing is a bit of an interesting example of housing in America. Even if we address every issue of housing in general perfectly, median and average housing costs will still be more than pretty much everywhere purely because of the title of New York City, and what it means in the context jobs and more. If you dig deeply to the root cause of this all, you quickly find out that the space in New York is just so limited yet sought after that prices will always be relatively high, as its extremely hard to make enough residencies to meet demands. If your mind then jumps to building houses UP, rather than across, you would be right if it wasn’t for the 12 F.A.R. Cap, a 1961 law that limits the vertical size of NYC buildings [8]. This is an example of a spacing restriction from before, and goes to show how it can impact housing in a given area. New York City has so much of its land allocated to multi family housing, but the silver lining is that lawfully it is hard if not impossible in some places to comfortably house as many people that want to live here.

Now while we know the reason for affordable housing being hard to come by in New York City specifically, it seems that finding a solution is hard given established laws and whatnot. However, New Yorkers are tenacious, and while a solution is hard, it is still very much plausible.

If we really want to end the housing crisis in New York City, that is to say creating more housing units, there is going to have to be some innovative designing alongside large political changes made. Namely, laws that have existed for several decades are going to have to be overturned which in turn will allow for more homes to be created in the same amount of space. Although many citizens in New York for years now have been trying to do just that, aiming to rally support for the cause, the truth of the matter is that there is still a large population of more affluent New Yorkers, and similarly rich immigrants, to where change isn’t necessary, and if anything scary. What we need to do is create a platform to which this change is welcomed and fought for, promoting the establishment of more affordable houses, and a solution to the root cause of the issue at hand.

To do just this, my idea is to create a self-sustainable community, which includes several units and amenities, that are able to function independently and tend to the needs of its residents. In trying to establish housing areas that feature more than just living-quarters, that is to say additional energy systems, education centers, public works and more, then the push for increased housing will really start to gain traction as a greater scope of people are included in the benefits. If we get creative with the limited land we can work with currently, not only do we create more residencies as is, but we also create a platform for the movement as a whole to grow. A large problem with affordable housing is gaining the support from those who are less impacted by the issue, and in making communities where everyone reaps advantages in some way, I hope the narrative of tearing down anti-affordable housing efforts gets pushed, so that we can create more and more houses and help more and more people!

Several neighborhoods in NYC fit the bill as places where rent/home prices have continued to rise, yet have spaces that can fit the changes that I intend to create. Across the 5 boroughs, there have emerged a few areas where culture and history have deep roots and people have lived for generations, that only recently have begun to really feel the effects of the aforementioned crisis. With all the possible choices however, I decided to choose the neighborhood of Washington Heights located in the north of Manhattan, and did so for a few reasons:

1. There are many significant buildings, historical landmarks and communally binding places found near the premises of the neighborhood. Some examples include, but are not limited to Yankee Stadium, Fort Washington Park & Holcombe Rucker Park (Check Image 3 to see Kevin Durant playing basketball there), various museums and my personal favorite, the Armory Indoor Running Track, which I have gotten the liberty to compete at several times (Seriously an amazing track to run on with incredible history, if you're ever nearby please check it out)!

1. There have already been a few buildings in the area that have undertaken several reconstruction processes, demonstrating that efforts to create more houses in the area are not in vain. Names of some areas going through new constructions include The Audubon Houses, Bethune Gardens, and Marshall Plaza. If we want to create a new sustainable/affordable community, then doing so in an area that seems to be on board with the idea is a good place to start.

1. There are various areas within the neighborhood that have a fair bit of free space surrounding them that would allow for a lot of creative builds and ideas to unfold.

Overall, Washington Heights checks off a few boxes that render it a good candidate for the type of project I have in mind. It is a very culturally significant area that houses many people, meaning trying to promote even more affordable housing in the area is a noble and needed cause. Additionally, several reconstruction efforts have already begun, meaning we have a good base to improve and work in the area, and with a few locations that have a fair bit of space around them, the neighborhood of Washington Heights seems to be a great one for this affordable housing undertaking.

With the neighborhood all figured out, now we need to find the exact place we intend to start building in. To recap, the exact site we inevitably work on needs to have a bit of space, with some existing infrastructure around it (So that we can improve the lives of those who are struggling in the most efficient way possible).

As I intend to create several new buildings/amenities in this community, including educational centers, sustainable-properties, and even some athletic fields, I deemed that the best location for this would be somewhere near a park, giving us space and resources to play off of. Due to all this, after some research I deduced that the place to accommodate such a task would be 453 West 162nd Street. This location is a great place to build a community such as the one that I envisioned, as it has many of the needed details for a sustainable and affordable community:

1. The area has approximately .05 Acres of free space, in other words a vacant lot [9].
2. Has several buildings around it, and is in what is considered an "Opportunity Zone", meaning it is an area designed to help economic distress [10]. This is important as in addition to the land that is purely unused right now, there is opportunity to reform even more land around it as time goes on.
3. Several plans have already been passed and discussed, including a large vertical building (Which is great at tackling affordable housing).
4. It’s adjacent to the Morris-Jumel Community Garden, and near various other parks and vastly open spaces, perfect for establishment of athletic fields or general indoor-outdoor integrated living.

453 West 162nd Street is a large, empty plot of land that finds itself in the heart of several gardens and general space, perfect for the establishment of new communal buildings and improvements. In the neighborhood of Washington Heights, an initiative to transform this area (And its surrounding area as well), gives us a great chance at promoting affordable housing through increased units and amenities, while continuing to bolster the community and serve the people who have living there for several decades or longer.

Lastly, before we start sketching or making the actual community, we need to brainstorm exactly what it is we are going to include. Being as I hope to make an integrated system of buildings, rather than just living quarters, we need to figure out what we will be making and THEN decide how it will be arranged or organized.

First off, as expected, there will have to be some buildings dedicated to purely housing people. In the system I have in my mind, there will be almost a ring of units and amenities, providing easy access to wherever it is you want to go. Imagine an "X", where each edge/corner of the letter is where a building will be, and each of the spaces an area to walk, with the center as an area to bridge the buildings to the outdoors. In this model there will be 4 buildings, and if the aforementioned fix to affordable housing is to make more places to live, then I want to dedicate two of these 4 buildings purely to living units. In the actual construction of this community, there will be a maximum height, but for the purposes of this model I will make both buildings pretty tall (10+ stories) trying to fit as many as possible.

With 2 of the 4 building spots reserved, we have 2 more to work with. With the topic of living units out the way, next I want to tackle education, and find a way to improve it. My idea for this is to dedicate the 3rd building as an education focused center, but not quite just a classroom environment. I think a great idea will be to separate the building into several stories each with a different task. In my mind, I like to draw parallels in work to real world applications, and when I think about success I’ve found in my education, I think to 3 different aspects, research, instruction, and hands-on work. For research, I will have one level be like a library, providing books and informational devices with the intention of providing everyone (In addition to only children), the ability to learn at an individual pace. The next aspect is instruction, and this caters more towards much younger children. This will not be a school setting per-say, as to have a proper functioning school you probably need much more space that this center will get. However, this will be a little tutoring center, with tables and learning space, alongside a few qualified adults, that will provide aid to young children who may need it in different areas of studies. Lastly is the hands-on experience, and for this I’m thinking a combined Maker-Space and computer lab. Providing students a workspace with many materials and devices to get creative and bring their ideas to life is a great idea to tap into a different kind of thinking, one that is fun and very useful today.

For the final building, I want to incorporate some kind of renewable energy station that also functions as the main space for all controls on the complex. Here I intend to process both the solar energy due to the solar panels found on the buildings, and also filter the water and distribute it to all other buildings. Additionally, as a way to experiment with self-sustainable food sources, I want to attach a hydroponics lab to the station, playing off the water systems already present. This lab will not only give the community a chance to try renewable food sources, but doubles as a potential learning experience for the children as well!

Finally, we have every outdoor feature. Connecting the buildings themselves, in the center of the “X” so to speak, will be a nature walk way with a central fountain, providing integrated indoor-outdoor living and a beautiful aesthetic. Then, a little off to the side and near the existing park, will be the final inclusion, state of the art basketball courts, tennis courts and a football field. In addition to providing affordable and multipurpose housing, I want everyone to keep active and have fun while doing so. Sports are a way to keep ones body and mind in check, and with so much flexibility on the fields, I have no doubt this inclusion will be a much needed one. Talking from personal experience, and considering the opinions of thousands of others, communities thrive and flourish when people are engaged in positive activity together, and these facilities provide a perfect platform for just that!

With everything planning related complete, it's time to start actually constructing the community. We will start by visualizing the space, buildings and any extra details we will include. On your workspace, start by creating a sketch on the XY plane (The Floor). From there, mark off the center with a circle that will be used to denote the fountain in the middle of everything. From there, as seen in the image, create 4 symmetrical rectangles angled at 45 degrees facing the middle. To do this, I recommend drawing a line from the center of the circle outwards at a 45 degree angle, and from that point creating two symmetrical halves that combine into one grand rectangle. In my case, I used a dimension of 140mm by 100mm, so from where I placed that initial 45 degree line, I made two 70x100mm rectangles with a central line, leading to the final rectangle.

Once this was all done, I mirrored this first horizontally and then vertically to get a totally symmetrical floor-plan. The last part here is to denote where the nature walk will be. Using the ellipse shape, I created a 4 petal look that extends to the middle of the buildings in every direction. This breaks up the geometric and angled look that the rectangular buildings create, and add a flowing and free feeling, which fits the nature aspect that the shape will play off of.

When designing a model for athletic fields, it's important to keep the scale of the fields in mind. To make this process as simple as possible, I'd recommend creating a ratio using the largest real world field parameters that you are working with, and making it fit the space you need. For example, a football field is the biggest field I am remaking, so first take the dimensions of the real field (360 ft by 159.9 ft), and then see how long the field has to be in my model (In my case 480 mm). Then, I convert everything to the same unit, for me this was millimeters, and then divide the length of the real field by the model to get a ratio of 228.6. I then divide the width of the real field by this same ratio and get the width of the model (Which for me was 213.2 mm).

For the remaining fields, whether it be basketball or tennis, I repeated this same process of finding a ratio between big field and small field, which got me the dimensions of my field. Lastly, once I had my dimensions, all I had to do was move them around to fit space and create a nice symmetrical, aesthetic look.

Keeping the scale in mind when including something that has set parameters, like fields for sports, makes sure your model remains accurate while being easier to create in real life (The 2nd picture are my notes for trying to get the scale right; I recommend you carry one as well)!

Now, with the floor plan all compete, we will start by modeling the buildings.Taking two of these rectangles adjacent to one another, I simply extruded the shape up by 185mm. From this resulted two large rectangular prisms. Making our building this simple has a few benefits:

1. For one, in construction terms, it means it is very easy to sketch on the leveled surfaces to model windows, doors more. There is virtually no easier shapes to work with than simple, geometric ones, which is why buildings already present in Washington Heights feature just that.

1. Secondly, simpler buildings are the best for affordability. In New York City, there is a very prominent gentrification process going hand in hand with the affordability crisis. Simply put, in areas that have traditionally been more affordable, the implementation of luxury buildings attracts richer people who move in, then incentivizing landlords and private owners to raise rent prices in hopes of collecting more money [11]. In keeping the buildings simple yet effective, I hope to combat this issue.

Once we have the shape of our buildings established, we can start putting some doors and windows on the surfaces to simulate rooms and entrances. On the sides of the buildings FACING INWARDS TOWARDS THE CENTER FOUNTAIN, start a new sketch on each. From there, in the middle of the horizontal component, sketch a 10x15mm rectangle to simulate a door. From there, we can start making windows. The process for creating the windows on the front and back of the buildings will be same, and it goes as follows (If you want to follow my dimensions):

1. On the bottom left corner, sketch two lines back to back, first going 10mm to the right, and immediately after that on the same line, going 20mm up.
2. Once you are in this position, where you are will be the bottom left corner of your 10x10 window. Sketch out a square with the dimensions 10mm by 10mm and have it finish back at your original corner.
3. Highlight the square and under the "Create" dropdown, select rectangular pattern. From here you will make 8 horizontal copies at a distance of 110mm, and 13 copies vertically at a distance of 140mm.

Once this is done, the same process can pretty much be applied on the sides of buildings, only this time moving 2.5mm to the right from the bottom left corner, and copying 6 horizontally at a distance of 80mm.

Lastly, we will want to extrude the windows and doors to make them separate from the walls of the buildings. A trick for this is to hide the visibility of the bodies of the buildings, highlight all your sketches, and then bring the buildings back so that you can extrude everything at once very fast. Extrude these sketches small distance, like .5mm for instance, and you should have 2 large buildings that simulate over 500 units each!

As a means of furthering the education of the residents in our community, we will construct the Education Center. Like talked about prior, this center will feature 3 distinct levels for 3 distinct purposes, which I will furnish accordingly later. To start extrude another sketch of a rectangle like we did prior, only this time extrude it only .2mm or so, keeping it very thin. As you can see, the building has a glass exterior, so we need to keep our first extrusion thin to model a floor. Glass learning environments promote collaboration and learning ability [12], so our model will follow suit.

On top of the floor we just made, create another sketch and use the "Project" command under the create tab to copy the exact outline of your floor once more. Then, using the "offset" tool, offset that outline inwards by 1mm. What we just did is create the shape and thickness of the wall, as once extruded up by 30mm and given a glass material, we have a hollow room with glass walls. Lastly, make another sketch on top of you wall, project only the outermost edge of the wall, and extrude it the same distance as you did the floor, completing the room like in Image 4.

Once you have this done, it is a matter of repeating it 2 more times to finish the other 2 stories, expect with a slight twist. Looking at the first image shows how the middle level slightly protrudes outside the bottom and top, in other words is a little bit bigger. Doing this breaks up the monotony of the building silhouette, and is a great way to add an aesthetic twist while remaining still simple in concept. To do this is very simple, just offset the border OUTWARDS by 1mm in the middle, rather than inwards like we did before. Every other step remains the same, and applying a glass material to every wall wraps up the 3 floors.

The final step is to now create a staircase so that one can access all 3 levels. First offset the plane of one of your longer walls into the middle by using the "Offset Plane" tool under "Construct". Once this new plane is in the middle of your building's width, you can start a sketch on it. From here, create a simple staircase pattern by utilizing the "copy" command, allowing each step to be the same length and height, and make it go all the way to the top floor. Then, where each step intersects the floor, sketch and cut a hole so that there is space to walk, and your staircase is all done.

To bring the education center to life, it is time to furnish it with the appropriate models. Just to recall, the center was split into 3 different levels each with a different purpose; the 1st level acts as a library, the 2nd as a tutoring/care area for younger students, and the 3rd level is a hands-on makerspace where one can research and create.

The first level features quintessential library equipment, complete with stocked bookshelves and several tables for sitting and reading. The actual pieces themselves are clearly shelves and tables respectively (Image 4), but the way each are modeled are a bit unique and a twist on classic furniture. The bookshelves have a very abstract and geometric shape, which hold books as intended but with a very special silhouette, and the tables similarly feature a cool spiral stand that break up the uniformity we might see otherwise.

When we move on the second level, it follows a more traditional almost classroom sense. There are multiple long tables able to fit 6 students on each (2 on each long side and 1 on each short side), with interestingly patterned carpets under each, and of course the open glass walls allowing for a lot of natural light to be let in. Because of the staircase that protrudes the middle of the classroom, the rooms lends itself to be split into 2 sections, allowing for differences in learning to be accommodated without hampering the other.

Lastly, the top most level features several workstations and PC’s. There are 4 computers spread out across the four corners, allowing for anyone to go and research a project they’d like to complete, or find a piece of information they’ve been needing. Additionally, the 4 workstations function an area to complete tasks, and double as a place to store materials and whatnot. This not only maximizes use of space in the center, but also acts as a way to organize things and make sure the materials being used are kept close the area they are to be worked with. Also, in the middle is another cushy carpet adding to a cozy and comfortable feel on the third floor.

Water is a crucial resource that every building in the complex will need, so making sure clean and useable water is provided is a big concern. To do so, we will implement a 4 chamber water filtration system in the sustainable center designed to pick up and clean as much debris in the water as possible.

To actually design the filter, first look to Image 2. You simply need to create a half silhouette of each individual filter, copy the shape 3 more times to get 4 chambers in total, and then revolve it around its flat axis. Make sure the space in between each chamber before you revolve accommodates the added length of the unit once it is revolved (It will be its bottom length doubled). Once you have this, simply model some pipes that stretch across the whole units and go downwards at each end to model the travel of the water.

As for the purpose of each chamber, they are as follows:

1. Our first chamber is the “Sediment Filter”. Here, we aim to remove as many relatively large particles as we can. Utilizing various gratings of mesh, which will progressively allow only smaller and smaller debris to pass through, it is intended that our first chamber will remove particles with a relatively large size such as sand or silt [13] (We will remove finer particles in a bit).

1. The second chamber is the “Contaminant Filter”. In this chamber, potentially harmful dissolvents will be attempted to be handled, cleaning the water further from outside defiles. To accomplish this, we will make use of a carbon cleansing system [14]. Carbon is great in a filter system like this as activated carbon and/or biochar are very porous, and will absorb many chemicals and contaminants in the water that we want to get rid of.

1. Next up is the “Finer Particle Filter”. This chamber aims to discard the smaller and finer particles mentioned before that the sediment chamber couldn’t prevent. The way we will handle this is with a zeolite and manganese greensand that captures ammonia and metals alike (Such as iron) [15], and a ceramic layer on the top which will acts a microbial barrier. [16]

1. The final chamber will be the “Disinfection Chamber”, which as the names suggests acts as the final station to clean the water, killing any pathogens that may have endured the other chambers. To do this we can either make use of a UV LED Unit, or boil the water [17]. This depends on what form of energy you are willing to use, either electrical power or heating. However, because we will make use of solar energy in a bit, for our system the UV LED Unit makes more sense.

With this 4 chamber system, we aim to rid the water in the complex of any debris, and purify it further getting rid of any dissolved metals, chemicals or pathogens.

For the medium to get water into our filter system, we will construct a simple water collection barrel, which not only aims to hold and transfer water, but collect it as well (Like the name suggests).

The main features of the barrel are the inlet and outlet valves, with the inlet pipes taking in water and the outlet pipes transferring it out respectively. On the top, you can see the 4 inlet pipes that face upwards to make use of rainwater. The pipes extend up a distance of roughly 1/10 the height of the barrel, and also funnel open to capture as much as possible while remaining sleek and making the best use of space. Similarly, in Image 2, you can see the inlet pipe that will connect to the filter system (Circled in red).

As for the barrel itself, it is a pretty simple cylindrical shape with a tapered top that can be removed. The process to make it is exactly the same as the filters, and consists or sketching a half silhouette of the barrel, and revolving it around itself to complete to whole shape. With the barrel fully constructed, you can then offset some planes vertically and horizontally to complete the pipes.

Pairing together the water collector and the filter system yields us a paired system where each part benefits the other. The water in the collector is sent into the filter system via the outlet pipe, where the water can then be obviously filtered for consumption, hygiene or crop growing as we will see in a bit.

With our water system fully constructed, we need to now make some pipes that will carry our clean, purified water to every system in the complex. To do this, we will go below the ground and model the pipes under every building, as it not only replicates how pipes are built in real construction projects but because it also it out of the way of everything else. The pipes will be modeled pretty simply here, and consists of extruding several tubes below the center of every building, and extending them on the sides to connect with each other, providing a connected piping system. Of course, it all stems back to the central water system in the sustainable center, which will act as the hub for everything “water” in the build.

The final thing to note about these pipes is that they will be regularly maintained and lined with a substance known as Orthophosphate. Orthophosphate is a mineral lining that creates a protective barrier from the water and the pipes [18]. This is especially important in piping as majority of pipes are made of metal, and overtime, exposure to the elements and the water itself can lead pipes to corroding and leeching harmful substances into the water [19][20]. To protect our filtered water, we will regularly line our pipes with this substance, following recommended limits, as a way to keep our water as clean as we can for as long as possible.

Hydroponics is defined as the growing of crops using only nutrient rich water as opposed soil. Hydroponics is an emerging branch of agriculture, and features many benefits from increased output to saving space [21], which is especially helpful in the city setting we find ourselves in here.

Implementing a hydroponics lab is a great idea not only for the purposes of food for the community, but also because of the water system we created just prior. In placing the lab right next to the filter and container, we not only have access to clean water but happen to have it right by each other. Shown in the images is a recreation of what you might find in a basic hydroponics lab. This includes a few cabinets to store materials, control processes and more. Then, you have a few tables where the actual growing of crops will be held.

Aside from the actual hardware, there are some additional aspects of the lab that render it a good location to grow plants in the way we’d like. The building for one has a glass exterior, allowing for a lot of light to enter, which is especially crucial for hydroponics as with the absences of soil we need a surplus of light. Additionally, the cabinets feature holes in them allowing for disposals or introductions of outside materials which keeping the system sealed (So long as the medium doing the transfer is the same size as the whole). These are crucial inclusions in a successful hydroponics lab [22].

This provides a basic hydroponics lab setup that is a great start to a community trying to get involved with the craft. Of course, this doesn’t include the trays, sensors or external products that you bring into the lab, but being as these don’t need to be built into the lab like what we have introduced already, the lab stands as a great example of a potential sustainable food source that builds upon an existing system in the community

And as an added measure to ensure the community is as sustainable as possible, I thought to implement solar paneling on the roof of our residential buildings. Solar energy is an ever growing means of acquiring power, as it makes the most of the sun’s renewable energy without the environmental harm that burning fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy forms provide.

The solar panels I implemented are a very basic model, thin-film solar panels. Thin-film solar panels are a great choice for this community as they are known for their relative affordability and ease to set up. The way these panels work is as the sun’s rays hit the panels (Which typically have a darker color surface to absorb more UV rays), the photons from the light excite the electrons found in the materials of the panels. By definition, these newly free-flowing electrons are current, more specifically direct current. This current is then inverted by an inverter found in the system, making it alternating current, which is used in homes and other buildings [23].

To make the panels, you first must create the shape of the roof. For this shape, I decided on a triangular shape that is hollow in the center, to allow people to still go on top of the roof if they'd like. As seen in Image 4 a uniform thickness of 2.706mm and created a very simple roof shape where the middle isn't filled (Did this on both buildings). From there I simply extruded outwards the length of the buildings so it encompassed the whole roof. Once I had this simple roof, I started sketches on the planes of these slanted roofs and sketched out a 3x6 grid of rectangles on each of the 4 slants (Refer to Image 2). With this complete, I lasted extruded these rectangles out a bit and the solar panels were done.

With the buildings in the compound done, it is time to start working on some of the indoor-outdoor integrated features. While it may seem small, fixing aesthetics and including a touch of nature in designing, especially residential designing can be a pretty big touch. Biophilic Design, or creating architecture which includes aspects of nature, has been shown to not only improve productivity and creativity [24], but also contribute to a better emotional state and foster communal connection [25]. In making a central fountain, we not only provide a way for these positive aspects of nature to flow into our space, but also mark the center of the buildings as a nice totem of sorts.

To start making the fountain, we will create the bottom dish. The easiest way to do this is to utilize the revolve command. Shown in image 2 is a look into what the revolve command does; whatever shape you draw on one half, revolved around the axis of your choice, becomes a full object of that shape revolved however many degrees you’d like, but in most cases 360. To make the dish, craft a semi circle of sorts, cut it in half vertically, and offset it however much you’d like (This offset will be the thickness of the dish). Once you have this shape, you can revolve it around the flat edge from where you cut the shape in half, and get a nice dish on the bottom.

From there, you can really get creative with the shape of the rest of your fountain. Like seen again in image 2, you can sketch any design you’d like with a flat edge in the center, and from there use the revolve tool to complete it. Play around with your designs, as I constantly would re-sketch and tweak my design until I got a finished product I liked. In my final design, I included a second dish, a central pillar and a bulbous top. The design has parallels to another New York City staple, the City Hall Park Fountain.

The last piece is to model some water in the fountain to add to the Biophilic qualities. To do this, start a sketch with a plane that runs perpendicular to fountain, and sketch out a wave pattern using the arc tool. Once your wave extends to the end of the edge of the fountain, revolve it one last time and give it a blue material to really make it pop.

Continuing to add more aspects of Biophilic Design, the next implementation is a nature walk. As a way to provide a beautiful integrated medium that connects every building in the community, a nature walk blends features of both the indoors and outdoors into one, providing all the aforementioned benefits with even more aesthetic charm.

In this walk there are 5 main parts, 4 if you disregard the fountain made prior. These include, the lighting, benches, grass arrangement and flowers. To model the grass, we will simply extrude the pattern in the floorplans surrounding the fountain up and give it a green textured material; symbolizing freshly kept grass. Because we made this shape symmetrical between the buildings, we will add each additional part in a symmetric layout as well to keep everything uniform.

For the lamps and the peonies (flowers), I have attached the model below that I imported. Depending on the size of your surrounding buildings, you might need to scale the files up or down, but once you have it, you can start laying things around. For the flowers, I drew inspiration from one of my favorite parks in New York City, Bowling Green (Image 3). It is very small but I love the way the pink flowers surround the large fountain in the middle, utilizing different colors and textures of materials to create a nice aesthetic. Then for the lamps, I felt it would be nice to place them as an entrance of sorts on each petal of the walkway, and made it symmetrical by using the polar array command.

Finally, including a few benches would provide a few nice areas to sit and relax and clear your mind. I couldn’t find any models of benches that I liked, so I decided to make my own (Attached below as well). Very simply, I made 4 squares in each corner of a 20x15mm rectangle, extruded them up and extruded a large rectangle up on top of them to make the seat. Then, I extruded out a backrest with an arched design, and cut a few rectangles out from it to break up the uniform shape. Lastly, I gave it a dark wood material. With it finished, I placed 4 in the nature walk all facing inwards to the fountain for a nice view.

This design further extends the marking of the center of the buildings, and breaks up the concrete and glass look that many of the buildings provide.

Moving on to the sports fields of this community, I decided to start with the biggest, the football field (Which could also double as a soccer field). Taking the scaled floor-plans of the fields from before, I started by just simply extruding the shape of the football field up by only .5mm, keeping it virtually flush on the ground but allowing me to add texture and design to it later (As you can't do that to a flat sketch).

With a little bit of thickness on the field, I could then move on to making it look like a football field. I did so using the "Insert Canvas" command, which allows you to attach an image onto a flat surface. Firstly, I went online and saved an image of a football field to my computer. Once this was done, I selected the "Canvas" option, uploaded said image, and applied it onto the extrusion of the field. Because of my calculations from before, I was able to scale up the image (As it saved to the computer a lot smaller than the field) and have it lay perfectly upon the field.

The football/soccer field will give everyone, not only children, a chance to be active and connect with others in the community. Providing a medium to play and engage in conversation and shared interests through sports is a very powerful opportunity, and might just yield Washington Heights as the home place of the next great NFL legend!

Similarly to the football field, the process to modeling a basketball court is the exact same. First I extruded the sketches of both basketball courts up by a very small amount. Then, I went online and found a nice image of a basketball court, and lastly inserted it via the "Canvas" command onto the extrusions of the courts. After the appropriate scaling, it was all complete!

*This is the same process for the tennis court as well in the next step*

The look of the tennis court(s). Just to note, a small detail I added was a little walkway between the two courts to sort of organize the two sides and not lay them right next to each other.

And this is the look of all the fields and courts next to each other. I really like the idea of having each facility close to the next, as it marks the area as a location where all kinds of activities can be partaken in.

With all the parts of the model complete, we can move onto creating a render for our community, for an elevated presentation.

This will be done with the “Render” tab in the workspace. Before moving there, though, you will want to apply materials and textures to the surfaces of your build. Depending on what you made, you will want to apply a different kind of material. If it’s a window, you’ll want to apply a glass texture. If it’s a metal object, then you’ll want a type of metal texture, and so on so forth.

When everything is to your liking, then move onto the render tab, and click on scene setup. Here, we will apply lighting and a background to our render. Depending on what you want your render to look like, this background can either be a solid color or an actual setting. I chose a solid color, a light blue hue. With this, I then chose to apply a lighting called “Rim Highlights”, illuminating edges of surfaces. This gave a nice defined look to my render, but I recommend playing around with which lighting you prefer the most.

Once you have your renders done, the last little thing you can do to make them better is to enhance them in Photoshop. Photoshop offers free trials for students, and there are many tools and tutorials online on how to improve image quality!

(You might have to zoom in or out a bit to make the model fit to your screen; Also not viewable on mobile)

Before creating the model in person, let's take a moment to consider the possible costs for a project like this. Due to the size and location of the community we have created here, prices will be rather high, but in the end we will reflect on why it is still a good idea to go through with it.

1. The Apartment Complexes:

Looking at average cost per square feet in New York, buildings roughly the same size as the ones designed here have a pretty wide range from $350 per square foot for a smaller less luxury unit to $750 per square foot for bigger more luxury units [26]. Because we are not building luxury housing however, we will stay on the lower side and say $350 per square foot. With an estimated size of roughly 100,000 square feet for one unit, multiplied by our 2 units and a price of $350 each square foot, and we get a cost of roughly $70,000,000.

1. The Education Center

With a similar ballpark of roughly $350 dollars per square foot [27], and an estimated square footage of 30,000 give or take for 3 stories, we see that our education center will be much cheaper than our apartment complexes. Multiplying both values, we get a building cost of roughly $10,000,000, but taking into account educational equipment, we will say $12,000,000.

1. Sustainable Center (With Hydroponics Lab)

High quality specialized labs run the quote of roughly $400 per square foot [28], so for a roughly 10,000 square foot building, taking into account all the equipment again, as we should intend it to be high quality, we are looking at a cost of roughly $4,500,000.

1. Football Field

Full size turf field installations cost near $1.5 Million, but say we get the clearance to take a chunk of the nearby park and transform it, we can utilize the existing grass which will reduce costs greatly, roughly $600,000 [29].

1. Basketball Courts

Different quotes can be given depending on where you look, but considering the range of $25,000 for a lower quality court, upwards to $150,000 for a premium court, and we can say that considering it’s an outdoor court, most likely made of concrete and materials of the sort, that each will cost $65,000 [30]; Multiply by 2 courts of course to get $130,000.

1. Tennis Court

Constructing the actual court will be relatively cheap, about $50,000, but for other installation costs we will say $75,000 [31].

1. Lighting, Fountain, Landscaping and Piping

To bunch all the aesthetic and utility costs together, general lighting across the whole grounds will range from $400,000 to $800,000, plumbing and overall piping will range from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000, and landscaping (including the fountain) another $1,000,000.

All together, the estimated costs of this large project (If constructed in person), will be just around of $90,000,000. Now this number sounds large, and in truth is, but with the money spent in various places in NYC, this should be seen as a worthy investment that in comparison to so many other constructions, is not all too much. The bulk of the cost is of course the apartment complexes, 2 buildings that are large and will house many people in an affordable manner in a location that needs the help. Additionally, the inclusion of community works that help every generation, from the younger generations in their education and athletics, to those a little older via the landscaping and sustainable features that will hopefully provide an alternative to expensive utilities, what we have here is a project that gives back to those who inhabit it. Naturally, the thought affordable housing is the complex’s main attraction, but looking even past that, there is so much here that tends to the needs of nearly everyone living, in an engaging and practical sense, that the large upfront cost seems to have the potential to be worth it many times over!

With everything having to do with modeling complete, we have a really great idea of what this community looks like, and what its benefits and functions are. However, if we want to leave a real lasting impact, it needs to be made true to size and for people to actually live in. The first step of making this dream a reality is to first enter the Pre-Development Stage.

1. First and foremost, we need to gather the team that is going to be working on the project. This includes the general architect and his surrounding team (For designing), a project manager or developer (To oversee), an engineering firm (To make the theoretical designs functional and safe), a legal team (Handling paperwork, zoning issues, and more) and of course the construction team (To physically build the complex).

1. Once this is done, the next phase is to research the land and site deeply. Here, we will need to analyze the surrounding environment, find potential areas for development, meet and negotiate with current ownership, establish potential budgets, and work alongside city departments like the NYC Department of City Planning or the NYC Economic Development Corporation; this all is to make sure we cooperate with and meet certain guidelines, constraints and regulations.

1. The next step, which may seem smaller in significance but is equally as important, is to have community outreach. While I modeled what I deemed as potentially beneficial inclusions in the community, it is true that there is a chance some would rather focus resources into other implementations. In this phase, there will be several instances of town hall meetings, community polls/surveys, and more to find out how we can best address the needs of the people. To be allowed to work on land for certain projects in New York City, you need to have support from the NYC ULURP, which is the city’s process for passing urban planning. A main criteria to allow your project to be passed is demonstrated local support, adding on to why this step is crucial.

1. The last phase of pre-development is going to be securing funding and certain partnerships. Here, we will try to gather as much money as possible in the form of grants, private investment or communal donations. Additionally, we will try to close deals with other organizations, like the NYC Department of Education or local non-profits for example, for their help in creating educational or sustainable opportunities respectively.

The next stage in building the complex in real life is going to be planning the building process and surrounding changes.

1. First we need to get the appropriate permits and approvals. Additionally, we will need to pass our plans through various organizations and policies, which include the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), NYC Department of Buildings, NYC Fire Department, NYC Parks and possibly even have file for rezoning if deemed necessary under the ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure).

1. Following this, we need to finalize the actual design that we are going to build in the chosen site. We will finish the sketches of not only our buildings, open spaces, fields, utilities and everything in between, but how they also connect to the street and pre-established areas as well. With designs complete, we then must develop the engineering and structural plans to ensure the building process is safe and feasible.

1. And the final step in the planning phase is going to be refining the resources that we are going to use. This of course includes the materials and tools we intend to build with, but also estimating total costs (Which I already did) and allocating certain assets to certain branches of construction.

With our planning done, we can start the actual construction process, which is the longest phase due in part to the sheer size of the project. To start:

1. We have to first prep the site for the building. This includes demolition of the space we need to work on, and establishing the underground utilities that every building needs. This includes our plumbing and electricity. Additionally, here we will also carve out any walkways needed.

1. Once that is done, we will begin the physical construction of our buildings and amenities. This includes construction of the residencies, education center, sustainable center and our fields and courts.

1. With the main part of the complex done, the construction phase then moves on to any landscaping efforts needed. This includes bringing in our fountain and making the nature walk look nice, alongside any general changes that need to be made.

1. Lastly, we will ensure we actually met the guidelines we were instructed to follow, including safety and city codes. We will consult the FDNY (Fire Department), Department of Environmental Protection and make certain that we are in compliance with ADA, LEED and other energy requirements.

And at last, the final step in physically building this complex in the real world will be to check all of the boxes we need following actual construction.

1. We will lease out the units, running the complex by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and of course, as the whole purpose of this complex is to tackle affordable housing, add it to the Affordable Housing lottery (While making sure to give priority to long term Washington Heights residents.

1. We will furnish the 3 stories of the education center and hire candidates to work inside of it, alongside people to handle the sustainable center and general complex up-keepers.

1. The hydroponics lab will have its equipment introduced and we will set up dwellings with kitchen and bathroom appliances, general furniture, and various washing and drying units.

Once this is all done, it marks an exciting beginning for many people in the Washington Heights community, as a beacon of affordable change and communal improvement has finally been completed. With everything set up and finished, a journey spanning over 5 years has been completed, and the only thing left is to:

1. Host the ribbon cutting ceremony and promote the community in the media.

1. Mark the opening of the facilities for use.

1. Begin maintenance and monitoring to make sure everything runs smoothly.

We have already constructed a computer model of Summit-Heights, and gone over what it would take to construct it, so now all is left is to try and replicate our constructed community in a physical prototype. To do this, I will make use of the laser cutting and 3D printing tools that my school provides, as to create the most accurate depiction of my model in real life.

The first step is going to be creating the walls, floors and ceilings in AutoCAD. AutoCAD is another CAD software that works in a 2D space, which will allow us to draw out the length and width of our walls, alongside any windows or additional designs that the cuts may call for. Additionally, we will create the buildings and any additional pieces 15% smaller than designed in Fusion, which was a personal choice to make the physical prototype a little easier to assemble and work with.

Opening a new file in AutoCAD, we will be working pretty much exclusively with the poly-line and array commands. The process for creating the walls will be to see the dimensions of the buildings in Fusion, applying the said 15% reduction from before and making rectangles that keep a 1/8 inch buffer on them. This 1/8 inch buffer is crucial, as the wood we will be cutting are 1/8 of an inch thick, meaning when we inevitably glue them together at the corners, they need the buffer to add up to the actual desired length. Also, the mechanism we will use to attach the walls will be a peg and hole method, where some walls have protruding pegs and others have the holes of the same size to attach. Because they cancel each other out together at the seems, the buffer from before still remains.

For the apartment complexes, I kept the same windows from the model but only change the door and roofs. The door was turned into a double door for added aesthetics, and the slanted roof was made with a grated look to allow for light to pass through and create an invited space for people. The solar panels were kept as is, and will be glued onto the roof later.

The education center and sustainable center kept the same look, but considering the purposes of cutting materials, will feature windows as opposed to a solid glass exterior as the laser cutter cannot cut glass.

(Attached below is the AutoCAD file)

With our walls sketched out in AutoCAD, the next step is to actually cut them out. The software we will use is called Lightburn, which is typically paired with the Thunder Laser Nova 35 that we are using. For more insight on how to set up your cut in Lightburn, check out this video (Click Here).

Once you’ve exported your AutoCAD file into the software however, and appropriately set it up, just start the process and wait for all your pieces to be cut. Be mindful of the thickness and dimensions of the wood you are cutting, as you might hand to change to things depending on said properties.

The cuts are not only extremely precise, as the laser is fine and pinpointed, but also happen rather quickly, so you can cut all of the pieces you need in a few minutes. In the end, you should have all your needed pieces cut straight and efficiently, preparing us for our gluing process in a bit.

Before I glue the wood pieces together however, I decided to 3D print a few of the external decorations and features found in the diorama as well. The pieces I will print are the water collectors found outside the sustainable center and the central fountain in the nature walk.

The tool I will use for this Bambu Lab A1 mini printer, which is the one my school provides. This printer has a respective software as well, and if you want to learn how to set up a print, you can watch this video (Click Here).

I took the exact model of both of these bodies directly from Fusion, and scaled them down 15% as well. Because they were extracted exactly from my file, they were printed with the exact same detail, and rather durable as well. In about 2 hours, you should have 2 containers and 1 fountain printed.

1. Bonus Tip: Make sure the environment you print in is not very humid, as the more humid the more likely it is a thinner part of your print may melt and become warped.

Finally, it is time to start assembling the pieces we cut out. The process is the same for each building, and consists of applying a little bit of glue on the pegs and sliding it into the holes of its respective side pieces.

For the apartment complexes, being as the shape is a big rectangular prism, this was a very easy fit. I applied a bit of glue on the pegs of the long pieces and brought it flush into the holes on the sides of the buildings. As for the roof, I first glued the 3x6 rows of solar panels onto the slanted roof sides. With the completed panels, I applied more glue on the edge of the panel and laid the other panel on it in a triangular fashion, which created the classic roof look. Lastly I glued the panels on top of the flat top of the apartment complex and got the final product.

The education center was even easier, as it was another rectangular prism that didn’t even feature the roof from before. I glued the pegs together once more, and being as there was no triangular roof, could leave it as is.

The final building is the sustainable center, which is in the shape of the letter “H”. The process to glue this was the same as the others, but because it’s an abstract shape, took a little more concentration. I had to make sure that each piece I was gluing at a time on the edge of the floor corresponded to its location, and a good way to make sure you don’t glue a piece in the incorrect location is to mark up the piece of the side that is going to be facing inwards anyway. On the floor piece, writing 1, 2, 3, etc, and then marking each respective piece with the same number is a good tactic to not get confused when gluing. So long as you match them up, you can glue as usual, and finally complete attaching all the buildings together.

To model the nature walk, you will need a piece of green fabric, the fountain from before, and if you’d like some small figures of people. To start, you can cut the fabric to get the rounded diamond shape from before. Simply cut out a square initially, and from there round off the corners to make the shape appear more natural and less rigid. Once you have this, you can feel free to cut whatever pattern and design you’d like, but I kept it simple as to not potentially ruin the sleek look. This acts as the grass portion of the walk.

From there, you can easily attach the fountain in the middle of the shape. A little addition I put in the fountain before attaching was lightly shading the center with a blue colored pencil to give the appearance of water, which I feel adds a nice separation from the all-white filament that the fountain was printed with.

The last thing I did here was take some felt human figures which I found at Michaels, and attach them onto some cut popsicle sticks with a little stand on the bottom. I did so with a little bit of glue, and once everything was dried, I glued the stand onto directly onto the grass from before, making it look like there are some people hanging around the nature walk. Additionally if you’d like, you can also attach some small benches or lighting fixtures.

And finally, with every print, cut, and attachment done, we can at last assemble the whole community together and take some pictures of everything together. Referencing the floor plans from the very start of the project, we will start by arranging the buildings in the same diamond shape they were sketched from.

We will place the apartment complexes first facing inwards, and also facing south. This is because if we want to maximize how much sun exposure our solar panels get, which in turn nets us the most energy possible, placing our buildings facing south does just that as we are in the Northern Hemisphere [32]. Following this we will place both the education center and sustainable center in their respective spots and orientation, making sure we place the water containers alongside the hydroponics lab.

Then, with the space in the middle that this arrangement provides, we will lay the nature walk down, complete with the cut lawn, happy pedestrians and of course the large central fountain in the middle. Below this and the buildings, I decided to lay down a piece of gray felt to break up the colors and simulate concrete around the premises, which I think turned out really nice.

The last touch is going to be placing down the fabric that represents the sports fields from before, the football/soccer, basketball and tennis courts. Because this consists of simply just cutting some scaled rectangles, I decided to include the step here. I kept the football field and tennis court appropriately green, but decided to make the basketball court blue to reference my favorite CBB team, Duke.

When all parts are brought together, we can finally take some pictures of the whole community. In this case I decided to take 2 different pictures in 2 different environments, one on some wooden planks and the other on concrete in front of a brick background. With appropriate lighting and a backdrop that doesn’t clash, you can take some really nice photos that look great and really display what the community may appear and function like. I personally love imagining myself as one of the little human cutouts and physically being in the space!

From start to finish, this project has taught me so much about everything it means to work on a long-term project with the goal of impacting many in a positive light. Over the course of many months, I not only sharpened my skills working with modeling software, like Fusion and AutoCAD, but did so through a task which acts to better my own community and city. I feel that my home of New York City, filled with as many different cultures and people as one could possibly imagine, is truthfully one of the best places on the planet. To be given a platform to help those struggling in my own backyard leaves me with a sense of appreciation and gratitude, and I hope that that shined through in every design choice I made.

Beyond just modeling online, actually researching the construction process and physically building the community from the ground up added another whole layer of depth and insight into the world of architecture and engineering that I didn’t have prior. All of the considerations and tweaks I had to include really got me thinking like how real world professionals in the field would, an experience that was equally as enriching as it was enjoyable.

Additionally, I wish that the message I put forth, about tackling the roots of affordable housing, catches steam. While I had a lot of fun making everything above, this journey does not end here. To help as many people as we can, we need to rid our cities of historical barriers in the way of providing us a tangible future, and I know that together the people of NYC, and anywhere in America for that matter, can accomplish just that.

And to top it all off, I want to recognize a few people and groups that helped me throughout this whole process. Firstly I want to thank my track coach, Kavindu Amarasinghe, M.Eng in Biomedical Engineering, for being the first critic of my work, and giving me the idea of going more in depth with the actual building process if it were to be done in real life. Secondly, I want to extend a huge thank you to my CAD teacher, Mr. Joseph Buro. As my introduction into the world of computer aided design, Mr. Buro has taught me practically everything I know in the space, and provided me a lot of help laser cutting and 3D printing my walls and parts respectively. Of course, I’d like to thank the entire Autodesk and Instructables team for this opportunity. Not only have you all given passionate students like myself a medium to exhibit our ideas and goals and share them out with likeminded individuals, but just providing us access to free resources in the first place to design and construct allows us to express our creativity in ways we couldn’t otherwise. And lastly, I want to thank everyone reading this right now, student or not. Thank you dearly for taking the time out of your day to see and read everything I’ve presented, and know that I appreciate everyone who looked over my Instructable here today. I hope you enjoyed and learned something new!

Attached Below Are Links To All The Research Sites Involved:

1. https://globalrealestate.georgetown.edu/insight/why-are-houses-so-expensive/
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/797321/us-population-by-generation/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/briefing/us-housing-crisis.html
4. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST1F
5. https://www.nyc.gov/content/planning/pages/zoning/zoning-nyc
6. https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3#23-01
7. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/spotlight-new-york-citys-homeowner-housing-market/#:~:text=From%202010%20to%202022%2C%20the,homeownership%20price%20has%20increased%2074%25.
8. https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/our-priorities/lifting-the-12-far-cap/
9. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/453-W-162nd-St-New-York-NY/32501060/
10. https://www.wellsfargo.com/the-private-bank/insights/planning/wpu-qualified-opportunity-zones/#:~:text=The%202017%20Tax%20Cuts%20and%20Jobs%20Act,Opportunity%20Fund%20for%20the%20time%20frame%20stated.
11. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02723638.2021.1956112?
12. https://www.bkbureau.org/open-minds-open-doors-the-role-of-glass-walls-in-modern-learning-environments/
13. https://extensionpubs.unl.edu/publication/g1492/2013/pdf/view/g1492-2013.pdf
14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234060484_Performance_of_activated_carbon_in_water_filters
15. https://www.swtwater.com/catalog/pictures/Greensand.pdf
16. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7786122/
17. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26971809/
18. https://www.centerline.gov/DocumentCenter/View/93/Corrosion-Control-and-Lead-and-Copper-Testing-PDF?
19. https://vanmarckeplumbingsupply.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-copper-pipes-to-corrode/
20. https://cityviewplumbing.com/how-pipe-corrosion-impacts-water-quality/
21. https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/11/9/the-future-of-farming-hydroponics
22. https://hopeinnovation.com/blogs/hydroponic-tips/the-5-essential-components-of-a-successful-hydroponic-system?shpxid=ae1bd8a7-425a-4492-b178-648b3abc0c04
23. https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/how-does-solar-power-work
24. https://integrishealth.org/resources/on-your-health/2024/january/biophilic-design?
25. https://integrishealth.org/resources/on-your-health/2024/january/biophilic-design?
26. https://www.clarisdesignbuild.com/2025-update-commercial-construction-cost-per-square-foot-in-the-us/?
27. https://www.bdcnetwork.com/home/news/55165792/k-12-school-construction-costs-for-2024?
28. https://lab.space/faq/how-much-does-the-design-and-construction-of-a-laboratory-cost/
29. https://citylimits.org/costs-and-benefits/?
30. https://apxconstructiongroup.com/athletic-facilities-costs/?
31. https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/91kvbt/how_much_does_it_approximately_cost_to_build_your/?
32. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/why-it-matters-which-direction-your-home-faces/