Grace’s Place senior housing

LOCATION: Far Rockaway, Queens, NY

PROGRAM: Mixed-Use Affordable Senior and Supportive Housing

TOTAL AREA: 41,750 SF

CLIENT: Brisa Builders

PARTNERS: Dagher Engineering; GZA GeoEnvironmental; RDG Consulting Engineers; ZeroEnergy Design

Grace’s Place is a 9-story mixed-use project located in the heart of Downtown Far Rockaway, Queens, NY. The new multi-family, mixed use development will include a community center, an outdoor recreation plaza, and 80 studio housing units with a range of Affordable, Senior, and Supportive programs.

Grace’s Place provides quality of affordable units to NYC’s housing stock through the delivery of light-filled units and common spaces, effective wayfinding and active design methodologies, and healthy building design and construction protocols. The development provides high-quality interior environment through high-performing, energy efficient architecture - while meeting budget efficiency goals. The building’s performance metrics surpasses baselines set by the 2016 NYC Energy Code and the NYC Building’s Emissions Law making this development a model for efficient buildings meetings the city’s long-term sustainability objectives. The massing of the building permits generous amounts of daylight and air to each apartment unit on a dense site, providing expansive views for its occupants within the studio units while each corridor and elevator core features robust glazing to encourage resident interaction, active lifestyles, and connection to community context.

The Passive House thermal envelope, fresh air energy recovery ventilation, VOC- and asthmagen-free building materials, combustion-free and high-efficiency electric appliances all contribute to superior resident experiences and health metrics. Solar roof array and facade-integrated PV arrays will help MPB achieve its resiliency goals, providing a safe-haven for the entire community, a much-needed resource in the Rockaways while aiding an offset to the building’s energy demand and reducing stressors on NYC’s energy grid.