The outer-borough garden apartment became New York’s contribution to an international revolution in standards for urban multi-family housing. In Europe, the government-sponsored many of the most famous perimeter-block and garden-apartment projects, but in New York, the private sector took the lead.

Densely developed garden-apartment complexes built by the private sector powerfully influenced New York’s interwar housing market. Architect and reformer Andrew Thomas designed variations in Jackson Heights with large apartments and landscaped courtyards. Land coverage was lower than tenements (initially about 70 percent open space) and the people per acre in one early project was just 188.

Density later rose to over 300 people per acre with more closely packed and taller buildings, but the leafy courtyards and large units imbued a serenity of affluent family life. Versions of the courtyard type became a staple of neighborhoods along subway lines, yet few offered an equivalent quality of site planning to Jackson Heights. Nor were most high-quality apartments affordable to any but the middle classes or above.

Reformers dreamed that the working class might benefit from the burst of creative and healthful design made possible by decentralization. The result, in part, was Governor Al Smith’s Housing Act of 1926 that helped labor unions and other parties build garden apartment complexes for working-class people. The Amalgamated Houses (60 percent land coverage) on the Lower East Side pioneered a slum clearance project with Art Deco details and a cozy courtyard.

In the Bronx, the Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments offered families a great leap forward from tenements to garden apartments. Yet the Great Depression, limited funds, and lack of interest or development talent in the union sector limited the impact of the 1926 Act.

Garden apartments remained out of reach for most New Yorkers, particularly those in the worst tenements, but the model of spacious urban living they offered would become a goal for both housing advocates.

Many architects and politicians would overlook that, while the garden apartment land coverage and people per acre were low, the open spaces were defined by clear boundaries and enhanced by lush landscaping, making the “garden” as much a part of the design as the housing units.