There was an impressive little ceremony Tuesday afternoon in Fields Corner.

The non-profit group Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (Viet-AID) has completed construction of a double three decker on Faulkner Street, in the shadow of the Fields Corner T station, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the units.

The six new homes replace a long-neglected vacant lot. The project was conceived by the non-profit when its leaders visited that street last year to review another abandoned lot which they hoped to convert into a community garden. From that visit came the inspiration to develope the larger lot for affordable housing. With financial assistance from the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development, the state's Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a loan from Boston Community Capital and about $4,000 in the non-profit's own funds, a handsome building now stands on Faulkner St., affordable homes for five local families and one formerly homeless family.

Especially striking is the way the building blends so well into the traditional appearance of Dorchester's working class homes. It's actually a double three-decker, similar to other older homes on the block. But architects Mostue and Associates of Somerville have modified the old six family concept by using an asymmetrical design. Instead of one main entrance with two apartments per floor off the main stairwell, the building has two entrances: one on Faulkner Street, serving five units, and a second on the left side fronting on Faulkner Court, serving one family. The six units are evenly divided between two and three bedroom units.

It's encouraging that the units blend comfortably into the neighborhood. Too often, low-income housing is designed not to look like other nearby homes. Some neighborhood residents worry that much low income housing often does not blend in, the newer buildings seem somehow stigmatized: poor people live here, the design shouts.

Not so on Faulkner Street.

The City's Department of Neighborhood Development, Viet-AID, architects Mostue & Associates, Mayor Menino and the others are to be congratulated for their work. The three decker long has been Dorchester's signature housing style. This development team seems to have improved on the style.

Nice work.

- Ed Forry