Situated on Bay Street, a former shopping arterial, the site is presently an underutilized city-owned parking lot. Working with the neighborhood senior citizens group, Magnusson Architecture and Planning designed a 4-1/2 story structure containing 105 units specifically for the senior community of Staten Island. Parking, open space, laundry and community rooms complement the program uses. All apartments will be offered as affordable market units. As this will be one of the largest new residential buildings in the neighborhood, careful design attention was given to presenting the building as a series of bays that are the size and scale of the smaller buildings along Bay Street. Awnings and projecting signage will animate the retail users, while large windows including small balconies on some units give architectural character to the residential units. A larger, corner element will anchor the building and give presence to a major new retail store at the main intersection of the two streets. This building serves as the prototype for the Phase II expansion envisioned to the south.