page_title: Andrew J. Thomas
section_title: Garden Apartments
hierarchical_section_title: Andrew J. Thomas / Garden Apartments
caption_attribution_description: This photo is of Wikipedia Takes Manhattan location code 56, Dunbar Apartments.
context_page_description: Andrew Jackson Thomas was a self-taught American architect who was known for designing low-cost apartment complexes that included green areas in the first half of the twentieth century.
context_section_description: In 1919 Thomas was a member of the jury of a competition launched by New York State for a plan to rehabilitate a tenement block on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Thomas argued in favor of demolition and new construction, saying that the costs of rehabilitation were higher while the standards were lower. Others argued that it was not realistic to demolish 50,000 tenements that had been built under older construction standards, so ways had to be found to upgrade them. Starting in 1919, Thomas advocated construction of U-shaped tenement buildings surrounding interior gardens. The configuration maximized light and air, but kept construction cost to the minimum compared to other configurations.  A greater return on investment would be delivered compared to other configurations with less open space. Thus Thomas's entry to the 1921 tenement house competition, sponsored by the Phelps Stokes Fund, featured a large central court.   However, it was disqualified because the buildings only covered 60% of the lot.
  In a typical Thomas design, twelve U-shaped buildings would be arranged round the perimeter of a central open space. Thomas designed several clusters at Jackson Heights such as Linden Court and the Château as cooperatives for upper-middle income residents.Linden Court, built in 1919-1821 by the Queensboro Corporation to Thomas's design, is on 84th and 85th streets between 37th and Roosevelt avenues. The buildings in the complex are in attached pairs around the perimeter of a shared open space holding a landscaped garden, with gaps at regular intervals in the perimeter wall. The layout provides light and ventilation to the apartments, and fosters a sense of belonging to a community. Linden Court was the first development to include parking spaces, with single-story garages accessed via narrow driveways. The elegant Château cooperative apartment complex was built in French Renaissance style. The twelve buildings surround a large common garden.  They have slate mansard roofs pierced by dormer windows, and diaperwork brick walls.
  In 1919 the Corporation introduced the concept of cooperative ownership to strengthen this sense of community. Other examples of garden apartment blocks designed by Thomas around this time are the Chateau (1922) on 80th and 81st streets south of 34th avenue and the Towers (1923) on the block just north of the Chateau. New York legislation passed in 1922 let life insurance companies invest in housing projects. However, no more than $9 per month could be charged for a room. By 1924 the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company had funded a housing project designed by Thomas in Long Island City, Queens. Fifty-four buildings, using a modified version of his U prototype designed to minimize costs, provided accommodation for 2,125 low-income families.In 1924 the Queensboro Corporation started the Ivy  Court, Cedar Court, and Spanish Gardens projects, all designed by Thomas.
  The 1928 Thomas Garden Apartments project in the Bronx with 170 middle-income 5-story walk-up units was started by a union consortium and completed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  The sloping interior garden reflected Japanese concepts and included running water and bridges.  The Paul Lawrence Dunbar Apartments were completed in Harlem in 1928. Also built by Rockefeller, the cooperative was limited to blacks, while the Thomas Gardens had been limited to whites. It contained 511 well-lit and well-ventilated apartments around a large central space.  The many protrusions into the interior space created many corner rooms and double-exposure apartments. The structure could be seen as a defensive enclosure protected from the deteriorating external neighborhood. The apartments were named after the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Notable Harlem residents who moved to the complex included W. E. B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, Paul Robeson and Bill Robinson.
  Thomas's Dunolly Gardens (1939) on the block between 78th and 79th streets and 34th and 35th avenues are an atypical garden apartment complex where the architecture has a more modernistic appearance. The c
caption: Dunbar Apartments exterior
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