While the competition is relatively small scale, the department hopes it will have an outsize effect on neighborhoods. “It’s really important to have continuity on the block,” said Hayes Slade, a partner at Slade Architecture and the president of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter, who is one of the jurors. A vacant lot in the middle of the block is “like missing teeth,” she said, and the competition aims to fill those gaps. Entrants will be asked to focus on a property on West 136th Street in Harlem, a 17-foot-wide, 1,665-square-foot mid-block lot that is overgrown with weeds and home to a number of feral cats. It was chosen because many of its challenges, including narrow frontage and limited sunlight, are present at other lots on the list, according to a spokesman for the project. The department may consider co-living or micro-unit arrangements, but it is mostly anticipating plans for two- or three-family homes for buyers selected through the affordable housing lottery, although income limits have not been established yet. Below-market-rate rentals are also being considered. Some in the community are apprehensive, as they have seen city-subsidized developments, on larger lots, that they believe neglected the needs of longtime residents, said Paula Z. Segal, a senior staff attorney for the Community Development Project's Equitable Neighborhoods practice. About 10 blocks away from the small lot in Harlem, an almost 8,500-square-foot property recently used as a community garden is expected to become a 36-unit, below-market-rate apartment building, with a restaurant and “tech incubator” space. Units will be reserved for tenants making 30 to 90 percent of the median area income; for a family of three, that ranges from $28,170 to $84,510 a year. But that is a poor match for local tenants, Ms. Segal said. The median household income in this part of Harlem is about $38,000, according to census analysis by the data site Social Explorer.
New York City’s the American Institute of Architects has launched a competition to design affordable housing on 13 of its more difficult plots of land. Problems including building codes and spaces left in zoning decisions have made the lots undesirable for developers, with some of the land empty for several years . The competition, launched in partnership with the American Institute of Architects of the American Institute of Architects , aims to develop lots with areas as low as 1,008 sq ft and as narrow as 23 ft. Potential residents said they are wary about the affordability of the resulting homes.