Amalgamated Dwellings is an early experiment in cooperative housing and the first built in Manhattan under the State Housing Law of 1926. Created for displaced clothing workers to stabilize and improve their living conditions and sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, it represents the first piece of Coop Village anchoring the east end of Grand Street.

Its distinctive Art-Deco architecture is defined by parabolic archways, expressive brick detailing, cast stone entranceways, stucco spandrels and bespoke metalwork enclosing a 70 x 173-foot courtyard and fountain.
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Shielded from the noise and bustle of Grand Street, shareholders enter by way of the garden rather than the street and are greeted by the original fountain, London Plane trees and verdant plantings. It simultaneously protects its residents and brings them together in the spirit of cooperative habitation.

A nursery, club rooms, a roof garden and auditorium were part of the original common amenities now standard in condominiums across New York City. To maximize sunlight and fresh air, there are windows in every room and extra large eat-in kitchens for gathering separated from bedrooms - ideal for working families.
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Architects Springsteen and Goldhammer based their design on the Karl Marx Hof in Vienna from 1919. Their project architect Roland Wank was living in Vienna before emigrating, and responsible for bringing this European housing model to the design. He was later recruited by the Tennessee Valley Authority as their chief architect.
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Amalgamated Dwellings replaced the R. Hoe & Co. Printing Press Manufacturer Co. which had occupied this entire block and blocks north since the late 1800s. At the time of its construction the neighborhood was sprinkled with crowded tenements, machine shops, factories, and lumber yards.
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This non-profit affordable housing epitomized the advantages of cooperation and was wildly successful. Within months of its completion, sites for additional units were procured east and west culminating in a single cooperative known as Coop Village.
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Those later additions were Hillman Housing Corporation (1947), East River Housing (1953), and Seward Park Housing Corporation (1957). It remained a unified non-profit cooperative across multiple buildings until about 1997 when reconstitution transformed Coop Village into individual cooperatives.
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Amalgamated Dwellings was awarded a medal from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1930 and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.