55 Bethune St., New York, New York. County/parish: New York.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places December 08, 2009. NRIS 09001085.
4 contributing buildings. 1 contributing site.Also known as:
Westbeth Artists Housing is a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations in New York City. The complex comprises the full city block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington and Bank Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City; the complex is named for the streets West and Bethune.
It occupies the Bell Laboratories Buildings, which were the headquarters of Bell Telephone Laboratories 1898–1966, before being converted in 1968–1970. That conversion was overseen by architect Richard Meier. This low- to moderate-income rental housing and commercial real estate project, the largest in the world of its type, was developed with the assistance of the J.M. Kaplan Fund and federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Westbeth is owned and operated by Westbeth Corp. Housing Development Fund Corp. Inc., a New York not-for-profit corporation governed by an unpaid, volunteer board of directors. Housing Development Fund Corporations (HDFCs) are a New York City-specific model of cooperative low-equity homeownership. As of 2009, Westbeth has a very old population, including many original tenants – about 60% of tenants were over the age of 60 years, and about 30% were over the age of 70. It is thus a naturally occurring retirement community, and has an on-site social worker. Children of tenants are allowed to take over their parents' apartment, and thus there is a multi-generational community. Due to the 10–12-year waiting period for an apartment, Westbeth closed its residential waiting list in 2007. This changed on March 18, 2019, when the institution started accepting applications for an indefinite period of time.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320069