Co-op City Housing Cooperative

completed

Co-op City is the largest housing cooperative in the world, consisting of thirty-five identical brick high-rises over twenty stories tall, located just past the Bronx border in New York City. It was developed on a four-hundred-acre swamp site that previously hosted a failed amusement park. Residents buy shares in a corporation and pay monthly carrying charges covering mortgage and utilities, allowing them to renovate their apartments. The project was initiated by the United Housing Foundation under the Mitchell-Lama program to provide middle-class housing, involving significant urban renewal and displacement of previous residents. The mortgage ballooned from $235 million to $391 million during construction, leading to resident protests and eventual community control of the board.