Joe Kranz of Turner Construction in Haiti

From the March issue: New York City architecture and construction firms are heading to Haiti in an effort to help rebuild the devastated Caribbean nation, which was hit with a magnitude 7 earthquake in January. The interest from these firms comes as the international response is shifting from short-term assistance to long-term reconstruction. The process, which will likely mean rethinking the way the poverty-stricken country builds everything from homes to hospitals, could cost $14 billion, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, an organization that focuses on economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean. These New York firms plan to offer Haiti the latest technology so that more-secure buildings can rise out of the rubble.

From the June issue: Having transformed from blighted neighborhood to artists’ enclave,
Hunts Point in the South Bronx was poised to take the typical
four-decade route to gentrification that culminates in wine bars, Whole
Foods and an Apple store. But these are not typical times, as one
developer there has discovered. Taconic Investment Partners bought the
fortress-like American BankNote Building, a landmarked
400,000-square-foot, three-building commercial complex in Hunts Point,
for $35 million at the end of 2007, “in the good old days,” said
Taconic partner Douglas Winshall. [more]