Trendy, brightly colored and well-tended, 37 buildings in Italian Village are designed to appeal to young professionals who are drawn to the Short North.

The one-, two- and threebedroom town house apartments hold their own against the newest offerings in the Arena District and Brewery District. Since New Village Place opened two years ago, there have been almost no vacancies among the 100 units.

This month, New Village won its third prize, the Columbus Landmarks Foundation’s James B. Recchie Award for urban design. In 2005, it was honored by the American Institute of Architects-Ohio and Builder magazine.

That’s not bad for a publichousing property, the scene of two murders in the 1990s, when it was a poster child for urban blight.

"Let’s call it a management challenge," Dennis Guest said of a 10-story tower demolished in 2001.

Guest is executive director of the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, whose experimental New Village combines market-rate town homes and public housing, without telling either group of renters about the other.

Twenty town houses scattered among six blocks on Summit Street are set aside for public housing, whose residents pay an average of $300 monthly. The units are identical to the market-rate units, priced between $750 and $1,275 a month, property manager Sharon Giles said.

Guest saw the wisdom of creating a hybrid New Village because of Italian Village’s strong appeal to professionals seeking an urban lifestyle. Similar combinations worked in Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco and elsewhere, he said, and he couldn’t be happier with the results here.

"You don’t often see public housing up for an architecture award," Guest said. "We’ve gotten nothing but compliments from the neighbors."

CMHA chose Lincoln Street Studio architects Frank Elmer and Ruth Gless because "they were creative and we wanted to do something different," Guest said.

"We really wanted to do the project because we live here," Gless said. "We wanted to make a contribution to our neighborhood."

They designed New Village to resemble the rest of the neighborhood, mostly two-unit town houses built close together on a grid of new city streets.

"We didn’t want it be a ‘project,’ " Elmer said. "We just wanted it to be part of the neighborhood."

Guest said the $15 million New Village required amenities beyond the typical CMHA project, including loft architecture, oversize windows and largerthan-normal units. New Village also includes three single-family houses.

The property manager, Affinity Management, also is new to CMHA. New Village is the only CMHA property managed by a private company.

"We don’t have experience with people who pay that kind of rent," Guest said of the market-rate tenants.

CMHA also set higher admissions criteria for public-housing recipients at New Village. They must have worked continually for two years. Property manager Giles said some have worked as long as 14 years.

Resident Scott Fulks, an Ohio Department of Transportation training supervisor, wanted to live in the Short North when he was transferred here from Marietta. He chose New Village 18 months ago because of its contemporary architecture and proximity to Downtown, High Street shops and Ohio State University.

"I am really thrilled with this place," he said. He lives in a building that resembles a factory that once stood on the site.

"On the patio any given evening, you might have an executive, a bartender and a starving artist," he said. As many as 20 residents gather outside each summer night to socialize. But he didn’t know any of them were on public assistance.

"I think it’s a good thing because I think the blend and mix works well," Fulks said. "If it inspires you to do better, I have no problem with that."

dgebolys@dispatch.com