AIA Award for Melrose Park Veteran Village

A SAFE HAVEN VETERAN VILLAGE AFFORDABLE HOUSING ARCHITECTURAL TEAM PROJECT WINS PRESTIGIOUS TOP DISTINGUISHED DESIGN AWARD!

Chicago, IL (October 13 2017) UrbanWorks received the 2017 American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter Distinguished Building Award Citation of Merit for Excellence in Architecture on behalf of A Safe Haven Veteran Village Affordable Housing in Melrose Park on Friday, October 13, 2017.  The ceremony took place at Designight, held at Navy Pier in the Grand Ballroom.  The Design Excellence Awards honors outstanding work from Chicago architecture firms for projects throughout the world.

“UrbanWorks is proud to have designed the A Safe Haven Affordable Veterans Housing in Melrose Park, Illinois. The project won an AIA Chicago Chapter Distinguished Building Award among hundreds of world-wide project submissions by Chicago architects. Great projects are the outcome of great clients!  A Safe Haven has shown true commitment to design excellence for all socio economic levels.” Patricia Saldana Natke, UrbanWorks Ltd, Design Principal.

“Congratulations to Pat and Robert Natke of UrbanWorks for winning the “Chicago Distinguished Building Award” from the prestigious American Institute of Architects for the A Safe Haven Veteran Village Affordable Housing development in beautiful Melrose Park, Illinois. It is a privilege to have served as the Real Estate Developer and work with all of our partners on this project to create a bold and contemporary design for veterans and families from the community to enjoy. I’d like to congratulate and also give a special thanks to the entire team which included Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico, Peter LaPorte of West Suburban Housing Development Corporation, IDHA, Skender Construction, West Lake Hospital, LISC, Cook County, MB Financial and all stakeholders in the community who worked together on a common vision to create and support building something incredibly special, to replace what was once vacant land. We are truly humbled and honored that this project was chosen to be recognized by the nation’s leading design professionals” said Neli Vazquez Rowland, President and Co-Founder of A Safe Haven Foundation. 

Bold, contemporary forms mark these 35 infill units of family housing in the Village of Melrose Park, Illinois. Each building design serves the specific needs of Veterans, with abundant daylight a key feature. A boxy brick, wood and glass front provides a contrast to an overall gabled form that relates to the predominant neighboring housing type. The dual forms of the exterior provide a theme for the overall composition of the house-defined and undefined spaces, visible and hidden security-all of which speak to the complex redefinition issues that returning Veterans face in American society.

Distinguished Building Awards