Northside Apartments - A missed opportunity for adaptive reuse or deconstruction

210 4th St, Ithaca, NY 14850

Affordable housing is critically endangered in Ithaca. The Northside Apartments complex, owned by the Ithaca Housing Authority, once housed a busy neighborhood of townhouses containing 70 units of low-to-moderate income housing in Ithaca’s Northside neighborhood. In 2021, the Northside Apartments were demolished to make way for the reconstruction of the site, which includes an additional 12 affordable units but with fewer bedrooms (225 bedrooms before, 208 bedrooms after). 70 units of housing were demolished over the course of several weeks, sending a significant amount of materials to landfills and leaving the neighborhood quiet. Former tenants were forced to relocate while the site is being redeveloped and will be given first preference to return to the new Northside Apartments once they are completed. The buildings that once constituted a neighborhood have been erased through demolition, leaving a construction site in its wake. The neighborhood can hopefully reemerge after the project is completed. This site represents the power of demolition to create nothing from something, if only temporarily.

Read more about Northside Apartments in this Ithaca Voice article.