93 Bright St | Jorge Mastropietro

The urban development of cities proceeds at an extremely accelerated pace and in the context of full block projects, urban infill projects are highly important to the underlying character of the city. Small urban infill projects bring diversity, contrast, and scale to our city environments. As micro-developers, designers and builders, the challenge begins with the small lot, busy streets, zero setbacks from property lines and a lack of space for construction storage and scaffolding. By combining these roles, the development and construction are integrated into the architecture. The 25’ lot produces four single-family residences with the inherent urban quality of narrow, linear space. As Architects, the main goal is to maintain an interior-exterior connection while creating a spacious and quiet living environment in the city. This is achieved by constructing continuous spaces from property line to property line. Spatially, the residences offer a quiet respite within the city core. The project utilizes a variety of design strategies to elevate it above the more mundane infill developments typical of speculative housing. A significant attention has been focused on the exterior skin of the project and its appearance towards the surrounding historic neighborhood. Within the urban context, the wood frame structure receives floating exterior skins of cedar wood and glass. The interior and exterior skins are separated by an internal air chamber, providing thermal and acoustic insulation. Materially, the brick, glass and wood accentuate the diverse urban fabric of Jersey City.