"From Ruin to Renewal", Photos of Umbrella House, Its Residents and Urban Farm

Umbrella House: East Village Co-op Run by Former Squatters

On a recent Sunday, residents gathered for a garden work day on the roof of Umbrella House, where they tended to plants and tidied up.

Steven Ashmore, inside his apartment in Umbrella House, was one of a handful of squatters who used a sledgehammer to break into the building in 1988.

A sixth floor hallway, with remnants of the past.

Geanme Marin came to the building in its early days and joined a band of squatters who had broken in and were using “sweat equity” to make it habitable.

Tauno Biltsted began living in the East Village as a teenager when his family moved there, then later joined squatters inside 21-23 Avenue C, serving eventually as the building’s president.

Miguel Valderrama was the first person to buy an apartment at Umbrella House following an agreement with the city to legalize the building. He paid $45,000 for a 300-square-foot apartment in 2009.

Jean Paul Chatham, originally from Belize, inside the apartment that he shares with Steven Ashmore, an original homesteader.

Nanda Arias was among those who volunteered during a recent work day for the building’s roof garden.

Geanme Marin paused to chat with Tauno Biltsted as she carried a length of wood during a recent work day at Umbrella House’s rooftop garden.

On Avenue C between East 2nd and 3rd Streets sits the Umbrella House, a co-op apartment building operated like many others. However, what sets this co-op apart is its "more utopian and collectivist ethos" and the critical role it has played in the East Village’s rich and contentious history of squatting. In fact, many of the original squatters who lived there before its gradual 2002-2010 legalization still occupy the co-op and are active in its management and activities.

After years of progressive renovations and improvements since its original occupation in 1988, the building’s newest undertaking is a 820-square foot, entirely volunteer-run urban garden on its roof. This series, as part of a NYTimes profile on the co-op and its community, includes photos of the new rooftop garden, as well as of residents in their uniquely designed apartments. Umbrella House’s online history also contains over a dozen archival shots of the building shortly after its squatting.

The entire history of the collective’s founding and its changing relationships with the police, neighbors and ever-gentrifying surroundings is fascinating and worth a read.

via New York Times