Bronx jail designed to be "responsive to the neighborhood"

Architecture studio CetraRuddy and the New York City Department of Design and Construction have released conceptual renderings of a Bronx jail with stepped volumes clad in perforated metal screens and retail spaces on ground level.

Located on the site of a former hospital and New York City Police impound lot, the eleven-storey Bronx Detention Center will contain 1,040 beds within its cell units, "outdoor recreation" areas and public retail space in its podium.

The Bronx Detention Center will be located at 745 East 141st Street and is one of four new, smaller jails set to be built throughout New York City boroughs in place of the Rikers Island jail complex, which is set to close in the coming years.

Architecture studios CetraRuddy, Lumen Architects, Urbahn Architects and Transformative Reform Group are working on the Bronx project with the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC).

Images show a curved base clad in beige terracotta. A short tower above the base folds inwards along its sides, and is wrapped in a layered envelope made of perforated metal screen, metal mesh and aluminium fins.

Towards the building's back, the tower massing steps down. According to the team, the tiered volume was designed to respond to the surrounding site, which sits between the raised Bruckner Expressway highway and an industrial and residential area of the East Mott Haven neighbourhood.

"Our overall massing strategy aims to be equally responsive to the neighborhood," said the team in a document submitted for review in late April.

"By gradually stepping from West to East, the building minimizes height and massing toward the low-rise residential area on the Concord Avenure side of the site and maximises height and massing toward the large elevated Bruckner expressway and taller industrial buildings of Port Morris."

This also created space for "sustainably planted roof terraces" and photovoltaic panels, according to the team, which are also pictured in renderings.

An interior plan of the tower shows dayrooms, or common areas, cells and recreation spaces branching off a central circulation space. The dayrooms inhabit the majority of the building's arms, while rows of cells are located around them.

The recreation areas are located in the farthest points of the plan and create mesh-enclosed columns that extend up the building's wings.

Interior renderings show the jail's lobby clad in fluted walls, a light wood and a terrazzo floor.

During a design commission meeting, Cetraruddy co-founder John Cetra said that the public access points were important in an overall goal of making a more humane "community-based" facility, a departure from Rikers Island.

"It is a very important building for the community – we want them to be proud of it. We want to create this open, inviting experience as they come in to the lobby," said Cetra.

"This idea of dignity and respect for persons in custody, as well as all of the hundreds of people that work to make this system successful was very important, it was always the basis​ of which every single decision that we made was tied."

Cell renderings show a window, desk, bed, toilet and sink, with walls partially covered by a wooden unit.

The project also includes streetscape and landscape updates by New York-based studio Quennell Rothschild and Partners.

Currently, construction updates on the building detail indicate that the site is undergoing maintenance. As part of the overall project, a jail in Brooklyn is nearing completion, according to the DDC, while construction on the Queens detention centre is underway.

Also on the books is a "skyscraper jail" for Manhattan, which has received pushback from the community in New York's Chinatown neighbourhood.

Architecture studios working on these projects include Tutor Perini Corporation, HOK, and Michael Graves Architect.

Although Rikers Island was initially expected to close in 2027, significant delays have pushed the date back.

The DDC estimates the replacement jails will be completed by the 2030s. These facilities differ from prisons in that they are usually intended for people serving short sentences or those awaiting trial.

Recently, architects have discussed ways that architecture can positively improve the US prison system, populated by nearly two million people – one of the highest incarceration rates of any nation on earth.

DLR Group principals Lori Coppenrath and Marayca Lopez recently wrote that "design can immediately and practically reduce the number of people in custody" in a Dezeen opinion piece, while architect Deanna van Buren shared a similar sentiment in 2020.

The images are courtesy of the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

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