Accessible for Whom?

A panel at the Center for Architecture organized to mark the thirty-third anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act explored the major barriers to creating affordable, accessible, and community-oriented housing for New York’s senior citizens. As troubling as the continued aversion of some starchitects toward ADA is, money presents the greatest obstacle to realizing such projects, the speakers agreed. “You’re not going to JP Morgan to get funding for this [type of socially oriented] building,” said Darin Reynolds, a partner at COOKFOX. Moreover, legal requirements put in place to ensure accessibility in all buildings can check the aims of designers and non-profits fighting to increase the city’s affordable housing stock. In the words of Jenna Breines, a director of non-profit housing coalition West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, “perfect becomes the enemy of good.” When asked about alternative financial structures that would encourage the development of more accessible housing, one panelist quipped “not in America,” perhaps obliquely calli…