Art
In 1918, the Rothschild Foundation funded model tenements in New York City—affordable apartment buildings designed to prove that decent housing for working families didn't have to mean crowded, dark, disease-ridden slums. These homes became a test case for what American housing could be.
Art · Full story
You climb a narrow staircase into a sunlit hallway—a radical feature in tenement life. Windows line the walls. Air moves through. The apartment opens before you: separate rooms for sleeping, for cooking, for living. No more families breathing the same stale air in one dark chamber. Running water. A real toilet. These aren't luxuries; they're the difference between sickness and health.
Reflect
What features in your own home do you take for granted that might have seemed impossible a century ago?