VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — The Virginia Beach Housing Resource Center has been awarded the 2019 American Public Works Association (APWA) Mid-Atlantic Chapter Project of the Year Award. The Virginia Beach Department of Public Works facility was honored in the category of structures between $25 million and $75 million. Waller, Todd & Sadler, a Woolpert Company, designed the $27-million, 63,000-square-foot site.
The new facility is one of the first of its type to use a consolidated campus-style approach to serve different housing groups within one building and provide multi-layered services to clients with coordinated assessment and case management on-site.
The Housing Resource Center, completed in 2018, was designed to support the efforts of the department of Virginia Beach Housing and Neighborhood Preservation by providing a one-stop shop of services, resources and training for at-risk individuals working toward permanent housing. The most vulnerable homeless families and individuals will be sheltered and housed at the facility and will have access to support services.
The three-story facility includes dormitories with 49 beds for singles needing emergency shelter, 40 beds in short-term motel-style rooms for families and 30 one-bedroom efficiency apartments for long-term residents. The Day Center provides services such as laundry, mail, showers and counseling services.
The Housing Resource Center provides multiple community resources for facility residents and city residents, including access to an independent health care clinic and the offices of the Virginia Department of Social Services. The clinic and the department have exterior entrances and access from within the facility to support the mission of the Housing Resource Center. Five dedicated entrances were required to provide access to the programs in the facility and to meet the design challenge to facilitate “integration while providing separation.”
“It was gratifying to be able to provide this beautiful, versatile and highly functional facility and support those in need of assistance, furthering the great work of the city,” said Maureen McElfresh, Waller, Todd & Sadler Project Manager.
This was the first collaborative project between Waller, Todd & Sadler and Woolpert, which acquired the firm in January 2019. Woolpert provided civil engineering services for the Housing Resource Center, while Waller, Todd & Sadler served as the architect of record. S.B. Ballard Construction Company was the contractor.
This project also is in the running for the national APWA award, to be presented in May.