A Home for the Community

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In the heart of Chinatown, there's a brown brick tower that stands four hundred and thirty-three feet tall. This is Confucius Plaza, but it's more than just a skyscraper. Completed in 1975, it was the first major publicly funded housing project built almost exclusively for Chinese Americans.

In the early seventies, community organizers fought for public support through the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program to ensure neighborhood residents had access to affordable living. With seven hundred and sixty-two apartments, the complex became a vital piece of urban planning designed specifically to support the needs of the Chinese-American community. Today, the tower is regarded as a significant landmark in Chinatown's history, proving that public subsidies can be used to anchor a community in its own neighborhood.

Updated June 2026