Great Architects Who’ve Built Great Housing Cooperatives From Aalto to Wright

By David Thompson of Neighborhood Partners, LLC www.community.coop

Alvar Aalto

• Southwestern Finland Agricultural Co-operative Building • A multi-purpose commercial, office and residential building with a hotel, restaurant and theater. Aalto and his family lived there.

Santiago Calatrava

• Built for HSB, Sweden’s largest Housing Co-op • Turning Torso, Malmo • Tallest residential building in Europe (54 floors) • Conference Center (52-54) • 147 Apartments (14-52) • Office Suites (2-12) • Commercial (Ground Floor)

Le Corbusier

• L'Unité The five Largest Single Block Apartment Complexes in France 300+apts 1,000 people • Concrete, pilotis feet • Le Cite Radieuse his most famous work • Nantes stayed a Co-op • Most successful, best maintained, still serving working people

George Da Cunha

• The Gramercy #34 Gramercy Place • Oldest continuing co op in NYC – 1883 • Member of privately owned Gramercy Park • 45 co-op apartments on ten floors

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

• The Dakota NYC • 1884 Ten Floors • 103 apartments • Luxury Co-op • Judy Garland • Lauren Bacall • L. Bernstein • John and Yoko • John Madden

Daniel Liebeskind

• Grew up at the Amalgamated Co-op in NYC • Westside Shopping and Leisure Center, Bern • Shopping Mall, Hotel, Wellness, Leisure and Living • Owned by Migros, largest Co-op in Switzerland • 3.5 visitors a year, largest private construction project in Switzerland, European traffic node

Hannes Meyer

• Freidorf, Switzerland • Garden Village • Co-op Suisse Employees • Director, Bauhaus 1930’s • Co-op store, plaza, allotments, on tram line, shopping center, senior housing • Lowest cost housing in Basle

Luigi Moretti

• Watergate, Washington • 1967 a Ten Acre City • Three Co-ops with 600 apartments • Offices, Hotel, Mall • One infamous office • Co-op Members • Bob & Libby Dole • Condoleeza Rice • Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Monica Lewinsky

Robert Owen

• New Lanark, Scotland, Model Factory Village • Villages of Cooperation Community, Co-op Shop, School, Allotments, Health Insurance • UNESCO World Heritage Site & Housing Co-op Again,

Mies Van Der Rohe

• Lafayette Park, Detroit 78 acre Master Plan • Apartments, offices, park • Contains 2 co-ops • Nicolet Place (to the left) 21 Townhomes • Lafayette E. Cooperative 286 apartments, 29 floors • Diana Ross lived here

Frank Lloyd Wright

• Usonian Homes, Pleasantville, Just north of NYC • Co-op 47 homes on 100 Acres with 38 acres of communal land • Wright did many other housing co-ops • He did a design for Circle Pines Co-op Camp in Michigan • Cooperative Homesteads, Detroit UAW, 160 acres, Berm Housing