Well-designed, affordable housing, a rarity in the modern American city, the award-winning Navy Yard Row houses were built for the bricklayers' union. William Rawn had developed a reputation in the field of affordable housing with his earlier Back of the Hill project near the hospital district of Mission Hill. Here he crafted a complex that pays homage both to the maritime past, in the cylindrical tower at the water's edge, and to the industrial context in the large gabled pavilion on First Avenue, inspired by the massing of nearby buildings. The brick detailing of this fifty-unit complex provides interest without becoming obsessive.