This post will be part of an ongoing attempt to answer an important question raised by the old Akzo Nobel site - what type of project would the Rivertowns and Greenburgh say YIMBY (Yes in my back yard) to? To date, outside of the developers and a lone merchant (via a comment to a story in the online Westchester Business Journal) in the nearby Chauncey Square who undoubtedly would like to peddle his nutritional supplements and weight loss products to Jeffersonistas, no one else has come forward to say this project makes sense for the surrounding community. To the contrary, as evidenced by the unprecedented turnouts at the scoping sessions and the numerous orange NO TO JEFFERSON lawn signs all over Ardsley and parts of Dobbs Ferry, local opposition to the project is widespread.
The Town of Greenburgh’s 2015 Draft Comprehensive Plan’s discussion of the Lawrence Street site is itself an ambiguous muddle that suggests in a cursory manner that the area could be developed for “complementary” uses supportive of the adjacent Research and Development Cluster. As a result, the developers of The Jefferson have claimed their project is consistent with the Draft Comprehensive Plan. Of course, this is arguably a Texas sized stretch as complementary means “combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another.” How luxury rentals enhance or emphasize the qualities of a research and development cluster is puzzling.
Nearly 70 years ago, in the middle of the 20th Century, Ardsley itself was the site of a pioneering land use initiative led by young architects including Charles Bliss, Lionel Freedman, Fred Ginsbern, Martin Glaberson, Roy S. Johnson, Irving Rubin and Stanley Torkelson. Torkelson had been an associate in the office of leading modernist architect Edward D. Stone (the GM building at 767 5th Avenue in Manhattan and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. are two of his most well-known major commissions). Torkelson (along with Johnson and Bliss) became residents of their Frank Lloyd Wright styled homes located in the vicinity of Orlando and Park in Ardsley.
A 1997 New York Times article about Ardsley entitled “Nicked by Thruway, Solid in Amenities” in the real estate section contained the following: “In some sections of Ardsley today, the vegetation is still so lush and dense that it is more like the country than a bustling suburban community. One such area is referred to as the ''original 21 acres,'' a hilly swath of land developed by a group of architects and other professionals in 1946. ''We were looking for interesting terrain in a wooded area with natural boundaries and no through traffic,'' said Stanley Torkelsen, who is still a working architect and living in the house he and the group helped design. ''We came up with a module house, with a plank roof and exposed beams,'' Mr. Torkelsen said. They built 13 of the same houses, each on 1.33 acres. The result is one of the most unusual developments in Westchester. For the most part, low-slung wooden houses sit unobtrusively on heavily landscaped property. The houses practically disappear in the foliage. ''They were all the same style originally,'' Mr. Torkelsen said, ''but over the years, people made changes. Some still have the original character.''
While it is no longer 1950, and Lawrence Street is not the bucolic area where the twenty-one acres subdivision was built, the photograph below of the current site where the proposed Jefferson buildings are planned indicates its similar wooded landscape.
The mid-century homes designed by these architects are now highly prized and are discussed on a number of online forums. The renovation of one of Johnson’s homes by its current co-owners Carla and Niall Maher to restore the building to its original look) is the focus of their Instagram site “the wood house” https://www.instagram.com/the_wood_house/ as well as a companion article showing their collection of mid-century artifacts that complement the home. Maher renovation in Ardsley
As further noted in the online journal Remodelista.com Mid-Century renovation “Built into a hillside in the town of Ardsley, the four-bedroom, single-story ranch is set in a wooded enclave of midcentury dwellings designed by Roy S. Johnson and Stanley Torkleson: “Thirteen homes were built through a cooperative that consisted of architects, engineers, photographers, academics, and other professionals,” says Carla. “They pooled their resources to keep costs down and made sure each house had enough land and privacy.”
As described in an online biography of one of the founders of the twenty one acres development: “In 1946 a group of professionals decided to form a cooperative with the purpose of building affordable homes in an ideal environment for growing, young families.” By 1950 the project (as well as a companion undertaking further north in Mt. Pleasant called Usonia), was discussed in an article in the March 26, 1950 edition of The New York Times which bore the following headings and subheadings: “Westchester Gets Home Groups Using Cooperative Plans” “Ardsley Project Rising” “Joint-Ownership Idea Aids Veterans to Create Housing on Site of 21 Acres” which opens with the following sentence: “Two significant and pioneering ventures in the field of cooperative home ownership are taking form in the Westchester suburbs.”
It is perhaps fitting to note that one of the original owners (and believed to be the last original owner) of a Twenty One Acres home was esteemed psychiatrist Dr. Montague Ullman (1916-2008), an internationally recognized research pioneer in the Study of Dreams who lived in Ardsley for nearly sixty (60) years. Unfortunately, instead of being presented with a project to match these visionary dreamers of another era, today’s residents of Ardsley are instead confronted with the nightmare called The Jefferson at Saw Mill.
It should also not go unnoticed that, as reported in the current editions of the Rivertowns Enterprise and the Hudson Independent, in the nearby Village of Irvington, where another large assisted living facility was planned to be built by Brightview, once it became clear the project would not be endorsed by the Mayor (or in developerspeak, he would not appear in the photo-op of the groundbreaking ceremony), Brightview folded its tent and withdrew its project. Brightview withdraws application
It is hoped the developers of The Jefferson will read their own Mission Statement about the need to respect others and follow the example of leadership shown by the owners of Brightview.
