hailed as “new york’s ultimate example of futuristic design” by author robert stern, the monolithic concrete duo that are the tracey towers are two of the city’s most fascinating architectural additions
bearing the signature style of their renowned architect and nearing the city’s northernmost limits, the visually-arresting buildings tower over the bronx, imposing brutalism on the borough and commanding attention from afar with their undeniable concrete aura
what are the tracey towers?
tracey towers is the name of a residential complex consisting of two massive concrete high-rises in the bronx borough of new york city. the name of the complex is interchangeable with that of the towers; individually, they are officially named tracey towers apartments one and two
the tracey towers were designed by american architect paul rudolph, known for his brutalist works in new england, and were completed in nineteen seventy-two. they stand at roughly four-hundred feet each, making the tracey towers the second-tallest buildings in the bronx after the river park towers
the towers are located at twenty and forty west mosholu parkway south, the bronx. they are right off the mosholu parkway subway station, the second-to-last stop on the four train. though neighborhood delineations aren’t clearly established — if at all — the tracey towers could be considered as part of bedford park and/or the norwood-bedford border
housing designation
the tracey towers are a mitchell-lama housing program project, a state housing program created for the purpose of building affordable housing for middle-income residents under new york state’s homes and community renewal agency (hcr). some of the program’s developments — as is the case with the tracey towers — are locally supervised. this means that the tracey towers fall under the supervision of new york city’s housing preservation and development (hpd) department, not the hcr
the hpd essentially acts as an administrative regulator. under it, buildings are privately owned, and their respective management oversees them on a day-to-day basis. however, building owners must seek hpd approval on matters such as rent increases, and they must abide by the regulations set forth by the hpd. the tracey towers are currently managed by ry management
the hpd is a different entity than the new york city housing authority (nycha), the city-specific authority for public housing whose purview includes morrisania air rights
are the tracey towers a co-op building?
no, the tracey towers are rental apartment buildings, not cooperative (co-op) housing, and are listed as such by the hdp. this may be a common assumption to make considering the association between the bronx and co-ops by way of co-op city, the world’s largest complex of its kind
the tracey towers in the bronx have no association with tracy towers, a manhattan co-op located in kips bay
the slideshow below shows the tracey towers from the mosholu pkwy subway stop on the four train
how the tracey towers’ building site shaped them
the tracey towers sit on a plot of land at the convergence of several geographic factors that influenced their construction
jerome park reservoir
the jerome park reservoir covers ninety-four acres of the northern bronx and measures two miles in circumference. it’s inaccessible to the public, registered in the national register of historic places, and contributes ten to thirty percent of new york city’s drinking water, per the city
according to the neighborhoods, a city guide by rob stephenson, the jerome park reservoir was never completed, leaving its undeveloped eastern portion up-for-grabs. important bronx institutions like the bronx high school, lehman college, and the tracey towers would later take advantage of this land
jerome yard
a crucial influence on the tracey towers’ final design is the jerome subway yard and its maintenance center, both of which service the four-train’s subway cars
essentially, the tracey towers utilizes the air rights — unused vertical real estate — it purchased above the yard as its foundation. to create this base, a platform was built over the subway tracks and subway repair shop with the original intention of having it be used for parking, townhouses, rec facilities, and a garden, according to rudolph himself. today, the platform is the space upon which one of the two towers is built, and it houses the parking garage and its entry/exit ramps, as well as the complex’s pedestrian pathways
while they were ultimately scrapped, the project’s original townhouses were meant to extend the tracey tower complex into the subway yard below through a plinth upon which they’d be built. students of columbia’s graduate architecture school reimagined them — and the site around the tracey towers — in fascinating projects
mosholu parkway, paul avenue, and jerome avenue
the complex is bordered by paul avenue on its north side, mosholu parkway on the east, and jerome avenue on the south
ramps connect the towers’ base to the streets below it. vehicular entry to the tracey towers is through mosholu parkway. a one-way route loops around itself before traversing the platform, where cars can head into or leave the one-level, five-hundred-thirty-five space parking garage before reaching the exit on paul avenue
there is no entry/exit point along jerome avenue; its intersection with mosholu parkway is where the ramp curves around itself
the architecture of the tracey towers
the tracey towers can be spotted from miles away. massive, monumental, and externally magnificent, mosholu parkway’s brutalist beacons break the otherwise banal building-line of the north bronx, a signal for all to come experience rudolph’s signature external architectural intricacies that blanket what is otherwise a rather simple build
exterior
the colossal, obelisk-like structures feature a curving exterior whose roundness becomes more and more apparent the closer you get to them
there’s nine curved components per tower that appear to guide the buildings upward as columns with no setbacks. however, they aren’t columns at all — they’re walls. in the architect’s own words, the walls are designed that way for “psychological reasons.” the curving nature of the towers extends beyond this; rudolph states that the buildings’ curves are there as dictated by the site, to emphasize their dimensionality, and to give the occupants of the residential skyscrapers a sense of security. the end result is the windowless, vertical shafts that appear to be structurally-important elements of the buildings but are merely decorative. the elements at the top of the towers all reach different heights in order to further lend the towers their futuristic appearance
the towers are made entirely out of concrete. thousands of precast concrete blocks make up the buildings’ exterior in a style that architectural critic fred bernstein calls “rudolph’s famed corduroy concrete.” a slab of white concrete delineates each of the towers’ floors — tower one has forty-one stories and tower two has thirty-eight
the corduroy concrete has been tested by time, giving the towers somewhat of a rugged — and dated — look. the concrete is rather dark, appearing brownish and murky at times depending on the light, almost as if they have a thin-but-perennial layer of mossy overgrowth on them
layout
the complexities of the towers’ surface design extends into their lobbies and outdoor spaces
the tower entrances are located at different heights given the fact that only one of them is built on the platform above the jerome yard, while the other rests on pre-existing land
the paths in the courtyard are maze-like, with many ramps creating directional confusion for residents. a foyer leads from the garage to the towers, complete with vaulted ceilings and semi-circular seating bays. bernstein states that the multi-level lobbies are “interconnected in ways that even an architecture writer can’t quite fathom” yet make for one of the “most striking interiors” of new york city
ultimately, however, the complex sits on a simple square plot
apartment units
there are a total of eight hundred and sixty nine apartments in the tracey towers
they radiate upward in the asterisk shape of the buildings around a central transportation core that also doubles as the buildings’ load bearing unit. this core houses six elevators per tower, which are notoriously prone to power outages
all of the intricacies of the exterior of the tracey towers are forsaken for the simplicity of square units, where curves make way for right angles. all of the windows seen on the tracey towers are those of the apartments. along with balconies, they are slotted in between the vertical, curved walls of the exterior and are fashioned in the same rectangular shape of the apartments
in the tracey towers, rudolph followed his signature approach to design, choosing an elaborate exterior to ornament a project that holds simplicity close to heart. yet, these towering buildings quite literally cement paul rudolph’s presence in the big apple
the towers are an intriguing contribution to new york city’s brutalist architecture, even if their impressive scale and futuristic appearance hide the many issues that are unfortunately common with public housing developments. away from the density and height of the other boroughs, these bastions of brutalism keep watch over the bronx as the city’s northernmost brutalist outpost
tracey towers: quick facts
completion date: 1972
use: housing
architect: paul rudolph
address: 20 & 40 west mosholu parkway south, bronx, ny 10468
tracey towers photos
click on each image to see an enlarged version
click on each image to see an enlarged version
