Confucius Plaza
3 Bowery | also 11 Bowery, 21 Bowery, 5 Bowery | Chinatown | built 1978
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1974
Asian American activists shut down the construction site over hiring bias
Activists charged that the contractor, the DeMatteis Organization, refused to hire Asian construction workers. On May 16, 1974, about 250 protesters led by Asian Americans for Equal Employment entered the site and stopped work, and more than 55 people were arrested. Several weeks later DeMatteis agreed to hire 27 minority workers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1975
Confucius Plaza opens as subsidized housing for Chinese American families
Built under the Mitchell-Lama housing program for about $38.4 million, the 44-story tower holds 762 apartments and opened in December 1975 where the Bowery, Division Street, and Doyers Street meet. Horowitz & Chun designed it and the DeMatteis Organization built it. It was the first major publicly funded housing project built for almost exclusively Chinese American residents.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
A 15-foot bronze statue of Confucius commemorates the U.S. bicentennial
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association presented a 15-foot bronze statue of Confucius, sculpted by Liu Shih, to mark the American bicentennial. It stands in front of the complex and is one of Chinatown's most visited landmarks. A Confucian proverb is inscribed at its base beside an American flag.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1978
A 1978 documentary finds Confucius Plaza sold out and mostly Chinese families
The 1978 documentary Chinatown, Inc. shows that every apartment at Confucius Plaza had been sold before construction finished. Reporter Linda Shin said about 85 percent of the family households were Chinese. When the complex was first completed in the mid-1970s, purchase prices ran from $2,000 to $3,000, with carrying charges of roughly $200 to $300.
“…all the apartments had been sold as indicated from a 1978 documentary "Chinatown, Inc.". The reporter Linda Shin had commented 85% of family households were Chinese.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
A short documentary has the superintendent recall why many neighbors hesitated to move in
In the 2025 short documentary The Superintendent, part of Chinatown Sequences, superintendent Thomas Lou looks back on the complex's early years. His family was among its first residents. He recalls that many local people initially hesitated to apply, because their cramped, substandard tenement apartments were still cheaper than the starting rents at the new development.
“…the complex's superintendent Thomas Lou (whose family was one of the complex's first residents) reflects on how many local residents initially hesitated to apply…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Confucius PlazaWikipedia
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