100% AFFORDABLE · HARLEM RIVER · INWOOD
A neighborhood at the water's edge
Affordable homes for older adults, families, and individuals — with a restored waterfront park, built with Inwood on the banks of the Harlem River.
100% AFFORDABLE
Homes across a broad range of incomes, including supportive housing with on-site services.
THe Vision
A place that gives back to the river and the neighborhood
La Ostra reconnects Inwood to a waterfront it has long been cut off from. Two residential buildings, a restored public park, and spaces for learning and gathering — designed together with the community, for the community.
TWO BUILDINGS
SARA for older adults and ELLA for families and individuals — one connected community.
WATERFRONT PARK
A restored public park and promenade, opening the Harlem River shoreline back to the neighborhood.
Why "the Oyster"
A name rooted in the river's own history
For the Lenape people, oysters from these waters were a staple of daily life, and the Harlem River has shaped Inwood ever since. The oyster is also a keystone species — one that quietly cleans and rebuilds its ecosystem. It's a fitting symbol for a place built on regenerative design, and for a community being knit back together at the water's edge.
Façade tones echo the greys of oyster shells; view corridors are kept open to the water.
THE BUILDINGS
Two homes for one community
SARA
A dedicated building for older adults, with supportive services, shared amenities, and easy, dignified access to the park and river below.
Older adults
ELLA
Homes for families and individuals of many sizes and incomes, wrapped around shared courtyards and the oyster-marked entrance canopy.
Families & individuals
THE WATERFRONT PARK
Green space and shoreline, given back to Inwood
Promenades, planting, and gathering places along the river — a public park for a neighborhood with little waterfront access today.
LEARNING & PLAY
A Marine STEM Center and the Oyster Field House
Marine STEM Center
Hands-on science at the water — teaching the river's ecology and the story of its oysters to the next generation.
Oyster Field House
An indoor play and gathering space for the neighborhood's kids and families, open year-round beneath the oyster canopy.
BUILT WITH INWOOD
Shaped by the community, not dropped on top of it
La Ostra rises at 9th Avenue, between 218th and 220th Streets, at the northeastern edge of Inwood — the neighborhood where Manhattan meets the Harlem River. The roughly 93,700-square-foot site was once a parking lot, an empty stretch of waterfront long cut off from the people living beside it. La Ostra reopens that edge, placing two homes, a restored public park, and shared spaces for learning and play right at the water and woven back into the streets of the community that has always been here.
La Ostra grows out of a Community Visioning process — neighbors, residents, and local voices shaping what gets built and who it serves. This is a civic project with a soul, meant to last for the people who live here.
STAY CONNECTED
Follow along as La Ostra takes shape
Get updates on construction, community events, and how to learn more about the homes and the park.
GET IN TOUCH
Follow along as La Ostra takes shape
100% affordable · Inwood, Manhattan · Equal housing opportunity
Architecture by Magnusson Architecture and Planning · Park landscape by terrain-nyc
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