Curated by the architect Brad Isnard<\/a>, photographer Zara Pfeifer<\/a>, and historian and journalist Daniel Jonas Roche<\/a>, the exhibition includes contemporary photographs of Jessor’s buildings, new drawings of their floor plans, and a documentary film about what day-to-day life is like living in these radical communities. “They’re kind of invisible if you don’t know about them,” Isnard told Hell Gate. “But they are thriving, vibrant places despite, or because of, their everyday architecture.”<\/p>\n As New York buckles under the weight of its worsening housing crisis, Jessor’s approach to designing massive quantities of affordable, good quality apartments outside of the speculative market serves as a critical historic touchstone and a possible way forward\u2014especially considering the political circumstances that gave rise to his buildings, like the state housing laws that regulated rents and created limited-dividend companies<\/a>, the Mitchell-Lama program<\/a> that funded the projects, and the nonprofit developers who constructed them.\u00a0<\/p>\n “People are always talking about this Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs dichotomy,” Roche said. “He’s almost like the third leg of the stool here and was opposed to both of them.”<\/p>\n Give us your email to read the full story<\/p>\n \n Sign up now for our free newsletters.\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Jessor-and-his-nephews--Richard-and-Howard--Courtesy-Kim-Jessor-.jpg\")
Jessor (center) and his nephews, Richard and Howard. (Courtesy Kim Jessor)<\/p>\n