The Other "Green Way": Why Can't New York Build More Quality Affordable Housing?

Excerpts from Arch Daily:

Two years after the completion of Grimshaw and Dattner's acclaimed Via Verde ("Green Way"), no successors have even been proposed for this supposed model for the design and construction of new affordable housing. In this article, David Bench returns to the site, finding that the sustainable project's lack of impact is caused by a completely different type of "green."

Via Verde was intended to be a model project: a shining example of what the South Bronx could do with its abundance of vacant sites. And by any measure, it has been a success. The fully occupied building provides 222 affordable units and income diversity to the Melrose neighbourhood, with its 151 rental apartments for low-income tenants and 71 co-ops for purchase by middle-income households. The photovoltaic panels are working as intended: they collect enough solar energy to power the public spaces of the building, with production levels that are charted in the building lobby. And perhaps the most noteworthy feature is the occupiable green roofscape, which allows residents to move from the enclosed courtyard up along the stepped massing of the building to access greenroofs and raised planters. In its first year of operation, over 1000 pounds of food were produced by the community gardens – a remarkable demonstration of both active design and local food production.

So why do we not have more of these projects filling our neighbourhoods? Because the “Green Way” is green in another sense – the greenback one: it’s an expensive affordable housing project. So much so that city agencies are tired of hearing about its success – it is a model in every way except the one that would make it repeatable: financially. This is not to blame the building or the design, it is simply a fact that developers know all too well. In a city with limited space and high demand, quality building is expensive. And with that, we get luxury condos.

Perhaps the de Blasio administration could consider something more bold, like tying together the cause and effect of the housing crises and instituting a tax or surcharge on the sale of property used as second homes and pied-à-terres, similar to the “mansion tax” that has been proposed in London. That way we could actually afford to build more projects like Via Verde.