Victoria, BC – Social housing building receives award for its impeccable design.
Pacifica is excited to announce that the City of Nanaimo has acknowledged Pacifica Housing’s Uplands Walk for its excellence in design. Uplands Walk opened its doors in February 2015 to 33 people experiencing significant barriers to securing and maintaining stable housing in the private market (such as cyclical homelessness, mental health issues, substance use, brain injury and generational poverty).
Uplands Walk was designed by Victoria based architects Low Hammond Rowe and is being recognized for its innovative and modern design which merges all aspects of the build into the surrounding community, contributing to the urban design of the neighbourhood.
“From the moment the project came to the advisory panel all the way to the finish product, it was a polished project, raising no concerns or recommendations,”said Kevin Krastel, Chair of the Design Advisory Panel in Nanaimo, BC, and home building designer of Krastel Design Group, “The team responsible for the build worked very well with the city staff and we knew that no part of the project was going to be sacrificed. The form and character of the building, how it was sited, the context and landscape, they hit on everything. In the end, none of us on the design panel were disappointed.”
“It is an incredible honour to work with such dedicated professionals to create the highest standard of living for some of our community’s most vulnerable people. We are thrilled that the City of Nanaimo has recognized Uplands Walk as a contribution to the local neighbourhood. We would like to congratulate Low Hammond Rowe for consistently delivering an incredible product into our community,” stated Dean Fortin, Executive Director of Pacifica Housing.
“Our work in the social housing sector is particularly rewarding as it necessitates creating nurturing environments that will last for generations,” says Paul Hammond, Principal, Low Hammond Rowe Architects. “These are often located on challenging sites within mature communities requiring a lasting image with minimal resources. We are thankful to have clients such as Pacifica Housing. They are as compassionate and understanding about the environments they build as they are about the people they support.”
