YIMBY HOUSE- THE HYPER A.D.U.

Site: Jersey City, NJ
Program: Multi-Family Townhouses
Project Scope: New Construction and Gut Renovation
Competition Date: December 2025

Featured In: The New York Times, The Architect’s Newspaper, Elle Decor Italia, Taiwan Architect

YIMBY House emerges from a complex set of pressures shaping many American cities: high housing demand, restrictive zoning, preservation mandates, and vocal resistance to change. In Jersey City’s Heights district, Behin Ha transforms a stalled demolition into a collaborative model for urban densification. By restoring a nearly 150-year-old house and inserting three contemporary townhouses in its rear yard, the project nearly triples the site’s residential capacity while preserving the historic streetscape — turning a NIMBY impasse into a pragmatic, design driven YIMBY solution.

The scheme required multiple variances and approval by the Zoning Board. Through sustained engagement with city agencies, the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, and the local neighborhood association, the project evolved through several iterations before achieving consensus. The resulting development was perceived as a win-win solution: preservation at the front, growth at the back.

Working within a modest construction budget and under complex zoning constraints, Behin Ha developed a hybrid strategy. The historic structure was restored to its original footprint and use as a single-family home, preserving the public face of the street. Behind it, at the rear of the lot, a new three-story structure accommodates three contemporary townhouses, articulated as adjacent volumes whose vertical proportions and pitched rooflines abstract the language of Victorian domestic architecture.

The roof becomes a “fifth façade.” A sequence of clerestory windows introduces daylight deep into the threestory townhouses, compensating for their proximity to neighboring buildings. Pitched roof forms over the clerestories echo the vernacular silhouettes along the block, while the overall massing relates to older multi-family structures in the vicinity.

Organizing the new units as vertical townhouses rather than stacked apartments acknowledges community concerns about maintaining a single-family character. Each townhouse has its own entry sequence and vertical circulation, reinforcing the typological familiarity of individual homes while collectively increasing density.

At ground level, each townhouse is given a modest front yard defined by cedar fencing on two sides and glazed openings on the other two. This arrangement produces light-filled living areas with controlled views to the exterior, establishing a direct spatial relationship with outdoor space without sacrificing privacy or requiring first-floor window shades. The two upper levels each accommodate a bedroom and bathroom, along with a generous closet.

PROJECT TEAM:
Architect:  Behin Ha
Contractor: Eastern Shore Builders
Structural Engineer: LQ Benatg LLC
MEP Engineer: Ryan Soames Engineering

Photographs by StudioSZPhoto / Justin Szeremeta