John C. Anderson Apartments Wins National Architecture Award

John C. Anderson Apartments during its grand-opening celebration last winter. | Photo by HughE Dillon

Philadelphia’s only senior LGBT housing center, the John C. Anderson Apartments, was just named one of 10 winners of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2015 Housing Awards. The awards recognize the best in housing design across the nation. More on the awards and their criteria from a release I received this afternoon:

Now in its 15th year, the Housing Awards program promotes the importance of good housing as a necessity of life. The winning projects are located across the country—from New England to the West Coast. The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing (none selected this year), Multifamily Housing and Special Housing. Importantly, several of this year’s honorees are affordable housing developments, like the John C. Anderson Apartments.

The John C. Anderson Apartments won in the Specialized Housing category, and is the only structure recognized in the state of Pennsylvania. Here’s what AIA had to say about it:

JCAA is a 56-unit affordable senior housing development located in Philadelphia’s historic Washington Square West neighborhood. A public/private partnership was forged between the DMH Fund (a not‐for‐profit organization focused on addressing needs of youth and seniors within the LGBT community) and a highly experienced affordable housing developer to turn their vision into reality. The involvement of DMH Fund provided the structure by which members of the community could remain active participants throughout the detailed design and construction phases and insured that the community would have a say in all major decisions made along the way. John C Anderson Apartments is the first “LGBT‐friendly” affordable senior housing project to be developed in the eastern United States with such direct community involvement. Its realization has been the source of great community pride.

See the full list of winners here.