New York City, New York story
A Vision for Chinatown
In the heart of Chinatown, a 44-story brown brick tower stands as a testament to community organizing. Completed in 1975, Confucius Plaza was the first major publicly funded housi…
Read the story
In the heart of Chinatown, a 44-story brown brick tower stands as a testament to community organizing. Completed in 1975, Confucius Plaza was the first major publicly funded housing project built almost exclusively for Chinese Americans. Organizers fought for years to secure support through the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program to ensure neighborhood residents had affordable homes.
At 433 feet tall, the complex is a local landmark of Chinatown history. If you look toward the intersection of the Bowery and Division Street, you'll find the statue of Confucius, sculpted by Liu Shih. It's a place where the scale of the architecture matches the scale of the aspirations of the community that built it.
Updated June 2026