A new concept from the Regional Plan Association and Peterson Rich Office proposes renovating and expanding NYCHA buildings. | Courtesy Peterson Rich Office

Peterson Rich Office walks us through an idea, developed with the Regional Plan Association, that calls for adaptive reuse and infill on NYCHA campuses. Everyone can agree that something has to be done about the chronic problems facing public housing in New York, with its $32 billion maintenance backlog ? elevators out, heat and hot water out, toxic mold, pest and vermin infestations, and fiscal mismanagement, to start ? and, in a city where the working class is priced out of the market ? and a 160,000-person waiting list. But politicians, residents, and advocates don?t always see eye to eye on what to do about it. Now the Regional Plan Association (RPA), which for decades has developed big-think ideas for how to improve life in the New York area, has a few suggestions. For the past year, it has been working with the New York?based architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO), whose co-founders had been named the Richard Kaplan Chairs for Urban Design as part of a newly established fellowship position, to create design solutions for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

Infill proposals typically call for new freestanding buildings, but PRO and the RPA?s concept essentially adds wings to existing structures. Part of the reasoning is that expanding buildings outward could better integra...