The 'Unrepentant Commie' Architect Behind NYC's Co-op Housing Movement

You might not know Herman Jessor's name, but you'll certainly recognize the architect's work: Penn South, Co-op City, Rochdale Village, and Starrett City—monumental brick complexes with populations that rival small American cities. 

Throughout his 60-year career, Jessor (1894–1990) maintained tunnel-vision focus on one goal: building as much affordable housing as he possibly could. And he was remarkably successful, having worked on 17 limited-equity cooperative developments in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, which encompass 40,016 units in all. That's more than any other architect in the city, yet he remains relatively unknown today—despite how transformational his work was to the city's housing landscape, and how reviled he became to the Jane Jacobs brand of urbanism, which opposed large-scale redevelopment. Jacobs referred to the middle-income towers that were Jessor's bread and butter as "marvels of dullness and regimentation, sealed against any buoyancy or vitality of city life." But this outsider's view from the street isn't exactly accurate.

A new exhibition on Jessor's work wants to redeem his reputation. "JESSOR: The Architecture of Herman Jessor and the Limited Equity Cooperative Movement in New York (1925–1974)," on view through May 23 at Citygroup, a gallery and collective on the Lower East Side, introduces the architect and recontextualizes his immense body of work, which dramatically increased housing supply at prices working people could actually afford.