The Hillside North Building, a 14-story affordable housing development planned at 161-09 Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, has been selected for a Building of Excellence Award from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects and developed through a joint venture between Gilbane Development Company and MURAL Real Estate Partners, the structure will span 170,037 square feet and yield 173 affordable rental units. The project will also include approximately 12,000 square feet of community-serving retail space, interior bicycle storage, and a backup-powered cooling center for use during emergencies.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the award on September 25 as part of the sixth round of NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence Competition, which distributed more than $12 million across ten projects statewide. The Hillside North Building’s share totals $1.2 million, according to NYSERDA. The program recognizes multifamily projects that advance zero-emission, carbon-neutral-ready construction, and all ten sustainability features in the development team’s submission made the final design.
161-09 Hillside Avenue, via Google Maps.
Renderings credited to Curtis + Ginsberg Architects show the structure rising from a two-story base finished in light-toned paneling, with dark masonry above surrounding a regular grid of windows. Retail will front Hillside Avenue at grade. The building is designed to achieve PHI Classic Passive House certification, with triple-pane windows, R-40-plus walls, and R-55 to R-60 roof assemblies. Rooftop solar photovoltaic panels, blackwater source heat pumps for domestic hot water, rainwater harvesting integrated with a green roof, centralized energy recovery ventilation, and MERV-13 filtration round out the systems package. Ettinger Engineering Associates led the competition design effort.
The building forms the northern half of the 400-unit first phase of the Hillside redevelopment, which will also deliver a 13-story companion building and 17,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail in partnership with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the NYC Housing Development Corporation. A portion of the residential inventory will be reserved as supportive housing for formerly homeless households, with services provided by Queens-based nonprofit Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities, Inc. The property is currently occupied by a parking lot.
Substantial completion of the Hillside North Building is slated for June 2029, following a construction financing closing anticipated in December 2026, according to the development team.
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I would not hold my breath for the street trees. There are about 20 empty tree pits in my immediate area that have been vacant for nearly a decade. The Parks Dept. apparently lacks the resources to replace the removed dead trees.