Designed by Overland Partners Architects, the $60 million Haven for Hope is a one-stop homeless transformational campus that includes 300,000-SF and 998-beds within one campus

SAN ANTONIO, May 20, 2010 – Haven for Hope, a new 37-acre one-stop homeless transformational campus located near downtown San Antonio, has opened. Designed by San Antonio-based Overland Partners Architects in association with San Antonio-based O’Neill Conrad Oppelt Architects (OCO), the $60 million project includes approximately 300,000 square feet of space and 998 beds within one campus, as well as a courtyard area with the capacity to sleep 500 additional individuals. It is the largest and most comprehensive homeless facility in the United States and has already been visited by delegations from more than 190 cities, quickly becoming recognized as a new national model for homeless transformational centers.

Located adjacent to San Antonio’s Central Business District, Haven for Hope is comprised of newly-revitalized buildings that were previously abandoned as well as new buildings, all separated by landscaped courtyards creating communal spaces that serve all population types of homeless. The “single-multiservice-campus” setting will go far beyond providing only shelter for the homeless. Haven for Hope is the new home to more than 75 San Antonio-based agencies and organizations providing a central hub for various services to treat the root causes of homelessness. These services cover nearly 150 different types of functional assistance, including comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, vision and mental health), education, job training, legal, case management, public-run services and benefit programs, childcare and more. Many of these services are also available to the general community.

Other spaces within the campus include classrooms and conference rooms, a library and learning center, mail center, barbershop, exercise and recreational areas, a chapel, a childcare center with an after-school program, and even a pet shelter services center with a seeing-eye dog-training program.

“Our design goal for Haven for Hope was to create an inviting, secure and encouraging environment that inspires and enables the homeless to work through the root causes of homelessness,” said James Andrews, principal at Overland Partners Architects.

Using their best practice research, site visits to other nationally acclaimed homeless shelters throughout the nation, and the experiences gained from designing The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center in Dallas, Overland Partners was able to help identify the major issues and design goals for Haven for Hope.  Overland’s design goals for the project included:

• Benefit the City of San Antonio: The project serves as a revitalization effort to the surrounding neighborhood through the addition of high quality new buildings and the renovation of several abandoned buildings. It is also expected to save taxpayers millions of dollars over the long run by providing access to services for those who in the past have continuously cycled through the jail and local emergency rooms. According to the National New Markets Fund (which is providing tax credit financing for Haven for Hope), it is expected to save taxpayers more than $49 million annually.
• Sustainability: The design process employed environmentally-friendly construction and operational strategies that included adaptive reuse of existing facilities, Energy Star roofing, interior spaces that maximize natural daylight, raised floors, operational recycling programs and more;
• Security: The campus was designed to be considerate of the challenges of separating populations (men, women, family and children), as well as providing carefully sited common gathering spaces, which encourage Haven for Hope’s guests to interact with each other and redevelop social skills without compromising safety;
• Community Accessibility: Unlike many homeless shelters across the nation, Haven for Hope offers medical, vision, dental, childcare and more to the surrounding members of the community as well as to the homeless living on the campus.  These areas demanded accessibility to the surrounding community and homeless guests while maintaining the safe and comfortable environment that both groups require.

Haven for Hope is the second homeless project designed by Overland Partners Architects, a firm increasingly being sought out for its expertise in socially equitable design. “The Bridge” Homeless Assistance Center in downtown Dallas opened in May 2008, and has since received four prestigious national awards for its design, including the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2009 AIA National Housing Award, the AIA/Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Award, a 2009 National Excellence in Design Award from Environmental Design + Construction magazine, and a 2009 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum’s Museum of Architecture and Design. The Bridge is also the largest homeless shelter to achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“The recognition that both Haven for Hope and The Bridge have received demonstrate what we’ve said all along – homeless shelters and good design don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  With good design, homeless shelters can more effectively serve the needs of the less fortunate, while improving our communities,” said Andrews.

ABOUT OVERLAND PARTNERS

Overland Partners Architects, founded in 1987 in San Antonio, Texas, is a realization of a vision to bring together a wide range of talents in architecture and planning, in order to provide comprehensive and multi-disciplinary design service.  Sensitive to the environmental and aesthetic context in which we are asked to design, the firm thoughtfully integrates technology, art, and craft through highly sustainable solutions.  Overland Partners Architects offers its clients the ultimate goal of creating a beautiful, functional and enduring design through a process that inspires long-term relationships and is rewarding to the entire project team.  For more information, visit www.overlandpartners.com.

# # #

Interviews and high-resolution renderings available upon request