Hurricane Sandy badly affected the Red Hook Houses, worsening the already uncomfortable living conditions for Red Hook’s 6,217 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents. Sandy and its associated floods destroyed boilers, damaged roofs beyond repair, and compromised playgrounds, lighting, underground conduits, fencing, and sidewalks.

Four years after the storm, a process is underway not only to repair the damage, but to improve Red Hook’s NYCHA development overall. NYCHA has received $3.2 billion from the federal government, mostly the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to repair the damage from Hurricane Sandy. Of this money, almost $440 million will be used for Red Hook Houses East and West.

The architects working on the design for the recovery effort are Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), a Manhattan-based firm that has worked on projects ranging from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC to the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea.

“Everybody here is very excited about the project,” says Jill Lerner, KPF’s principal for the Red Hook Houses design. “Everybody. We really take pride in developing some of the most vibrant urban centers around the world, and so why shouldn’t we do that in our own backyard for an area that really needs it?”