Bronx Boomer

"Today, with the Bloomberg administration raining billions of public-private investment on the borough-a result of the South Bronx Initiative, an interagency effort launched in 2006 to encourage more housing, retail, and local jobs-there is no shortage of big-budget, star-quality projects. The new Yankee Stadium, a revamped Hunts Point Market, and the Gateway Center on the site of the former Bronx Terminal Market are all poised to make a dramatic impact on Bronx fortunes.

At the other end of the spectrum, smaller projects in the borough-receiving less media coverage and funding-have arguably undergirded much of this restoration, with impact far beyond their modest budgets. Be they green-roof entrepreneurs, supportive-housing visionaries, or boxing-gym designers, architects are transforming the borough one vacant lot or storefront at a time. Working alongside established architects such as Richard Dattner, whose 323-unit Courtlandt Corners is among the city's larger affordable housing developments, they have made the range and reach of community-driven Bronx development more vibrant than ever. And by engaging Bronx residents, they're connecting the dots between social, environmental, and economic sustainability."