NEW YORK CITY-A vacant stretch of land at Brook Avenue and East156^th Street once invoked images ofthe tumultuous “Bronx is burning” days of the late 1970s.Now, a 222-unit, $99 million sustainable affordable housing complexhas risen from the ashes.

Via Verde, the winning response to the city’sNew Housing New York Legacy competition sponsored by HPD,the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, theNew York State Energy Research and Development Authorityand the Enterprise Foundation, celebrated itsgrand opening today in the South Bronx – a project that has gainedfederal recognition and will serve as a national example forhigh-design “green” multifamily planning.

“Via Verde is a model for what affordable housing ought to be –a platform for opportunity, a source of stability, a building blockwith which we forge neighborhoods, put down roots and build thecommunities that are the engines of our nation’s economic growth,”said HUD secretary Shaun Donovan at a pressconference this morning. “The New Housing New York Legacy Projectand Via Verde represents architects re-engaging in the design ofaffordable housing, the best practices for environmentally friendlydesign as well as the wider concept of sustainability throughcommunity meetings where stakeholder voices were heard andlocally-driven planning efforts were used as a model.”