This story is from Headway, an initiative from The New York Times exploring the world’s challenges through the lens of progress. “A beacon.”That was how Shaun Donovan, former commissioner of New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, heralded Via Verde, the South Bronx development, in 2011. Construction was nearly done at the time, and I chose Via Verde for the subject of my first column as The New York Times’s architecture critic. Most important, its goal was larger than itself: to reimagine subsidized housing for a new century. Engineers, solar experts, community groups, architectural organizations as well as the New York City Council pulled in unison.

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Persons: what’s, Shaun Donovan Organizations: The New York Times, New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation, Via Verde, Guggenheim, Bloomberg, . Engineers, New, New York City Council Locations: New, Via Verde, Bronx, York, Paris, New York, grumbled