Sunnyside Gardens Queens

Sunnyside Gardens was constructed between 1924 and 1928, spanning roughly 16 blocks and comprising over 600 buildings. It features 12 courts, known as Carolin Gardens, Colonial Court, Hamilton Court, Hamilton Court Apartments, Harrison Place, Jefferson Court, Lincoln Court, Madison Court North and South, Monroe Court Apartments, Phipps Garden Apartments I, Phipps Garden Apartments II, Roosevelt Court, Washington Court, and Wilson Court. Situated in the northwestern part of Queens, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright served as the primary architects and planners for this development, with Frederick L. Ackerman designing some of the mews houses, and Marjorie Sewell Cautley as the landscape architect.

Sunnyside Gardens comprises one-, two-, and three-family homes, as well as a few apartment buildings, all constructed using Hudson brick. Each private residence features a small front garden facing the street and a private garden in the rear. Rental units in the two- and three-family houses enjoy private terraces overlooking the gardens. There are two configurations: the courtyard condition and the mews condition. Along the edges of the community, some homes simply line the street, with a common walkway running the length of the row. Homes in the courtyard blocks enclose an inner courtyard designated as common, landscaped but not used for recreation. Each homeowner owns, and pays taxes on, the part of the common in the block and lot, even if it is not used. The mews houses face a common front court and back on alleys; each mews house also has a private rear yard. This model allowed for denser residential development while providing ample open/green-space amenities.