It was three years ago that a team composed of students and faculty from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy and Parsons The New School for Design, received first place in JPMorgan Chase’s 2006 Community Development Competition for its project “Strengthening the Community Fabric: Achieving a Triple Bottom Line in West Harlem.”

Partnering with the Fortune Society, an organization that advocates for incarcerated individuals, the team developed a multi-use building for the organization to be built in West Harlem. The first-place award of $25,000 helped the Fortune Society defray predevelopment costs associated with the proposal.

At the time, JoAnne Page, president and CEO of the Fortune Society said, “What the students presented exceeded my expectations. Thanks to their contributions, we should see something built in the next three years, and, whatever happens, their ideas will definitely play a role.”

Three years have passed. On February 19, 2009, the Fortune Society holds a groundbreaking ceremony for 114 units of green and affordable low-income housing and service space.

Professor Dennis Derryck, who initiated the 2006 project and led the Milano team, notes that entries to the Chase competition from the New School have a consistent record of being realized and this is just latest to be built.