SUNSHINE STATE OF MIND

摘要

Set between an historic neighborhood of mostly single-family houses on one side and a busy thoroughfare on the other, the Dr. Kennedy Homes-a low-income housing project for both seniors and families-negotiates the differences between competing conditions and interests. Walking around the 8.5-acre site in Fort Lauderdale, you notice what ties the complex together rather than what might pull it apart: the balconies and outdoor walkways that offer residents views of their surroundings, the breezeways and shaded courtyards that connect indoors and out, and the rolling landscape that features more than 440 native trees. The 132-unit project replaced a public housing project from 1941 that consisted of nearly 50 one- and two-story buildings spread out evenly over a superblock, with minimal connections to the rest of the city. Built for whites only, the earlier complex was desegregated in 1968 by federal mandate. When the city Housing Authority proposed demolishing the old concrete-block structures in 2010, some people criticized the plan for ignoring the project's historic value, and others feared that poor residents would be moved out permanently.