LaGuardia Houses: A Legacy of Community and Resilience in Manhattan’s Lower East Side

The LaGuardia Houses, also known as Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Houses are located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The LaGuardia Houses are bordered by Madison Street, Montgomery Street, Cherry Street, and Rutgers Street.

LaGuardia Houses was completed in 1965 and was designed by Emanuel Turano. The development is named after Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the 99th Mayor of New York City who actually helped spearhead the push to create the New York City Housing Authority. LaGuardia Houses is composed of 13 buildings that are all 16 stories tall. The buildings have 1,093 apartments and house approximately 2,596 residents. It was the 75th NYCHA project.

The area surrounding the site is expansive. It is for this reason that this type of site is given the name, “Tower-in-the-Park.” Each building is surrounded by green grassy areas, and the site also includes multiple play areas housed between the buildings. The largest of these play areas, The Little Flower Playground, is located on the western block and takes up about one quarter of the western sites land area. The park’s facilities include swing sets, climbing structures, picnic areas, basketball and handball courts, spray showers, drinking fountains, and a large flower mosaic. The streets are lined with trees, making this another design detail in the “Tower-in-the-Park” plan.

Ninfa Segarra grew up in the LaGuardia Houses and she is now the last president of the New York City Board of Education. She served as President of the Board from 2000 to 2002 when the Board was abolished by the State of New York and power of the city schools was transferred to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.