By Justin Creech
Staff writer
Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Belvoir Residential Community Initiative project was recognized last week with a number of design awards for their efforts at Woodlawn Village, the Wounded Warrior Homes and the overall project.

The Belvoir project won the Grand Award for Project of the Year at the National Multifamily Executive Conference, while the Woodlawn Village Neighborhood Center and Wounded Warrior Home received two design excellence awards from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

"Each award shows the national recognition, as well as the local recognition from Fairfax County, for the top quality designs we deliver for our military Families," said Casey Nolan, Clark Realty Capital, project director. "All the awards are significant, but the one we are most proud of is the project of the year that recognized all eight years of the project. It’s a national event, so we competed against lots of other projects."

The Woodlawn neighborhood center was recognized for it’s amenities including the pool, fitness center, dog park and community garden, while the Wounded Warrior Home was recognized for being a "game changer" for accessible housing.

The dog park and community garden were specifically designed to bring Woodlawn residents together, according to Nolan.

"Putting the dog park and the community garden in there enabled people to enjoy being outside," said Nolan. "One of the design principals was creating connections within neighborhoods which lead to Families getting to know each other and creating relationships."

Nolan added the design of the Wounded Warrior Home is not an innovation just for wounded Soldiers, but for civilians, too.

"We have an aging population of people who are going to need to be living in houses and can’t handle stairs," Nolan said. "That’s a great thing for the project to be recognized as being a thought leader."

The RCI project has won 42 awards since renovations began in 2003. According to Nolan, the vision when the project began was to create a world class community that reflects the best designs in the marketplace for military Families.

The Woodlawn Neighborhood Center and Wounded Warrior Home fit the vision because they offer residents services they can’t find outside Belvoir’s gates, according to Nolan.

"Having the neighborhood centers where you can have birthday parties, (game) nights and wedding receptions," said Nolan. "Those are the things that bring a neighborhood together."

Clarke Realty’s next project is renovating Dogue Creek Village houses to turn the two-bedroom homes into five-bedroom homes.

Nolan said they hope to begin by the end of this year.

"The whole interior of the homes will be gutted," said Nolan. "So, they will have new kitchens, counter tops, new bathrooms. The backyards will have a nice private fence with a new storage area and a larger place to have a barbecue and things like that."

Even though they’ve won many awards, Nolan said seeing Families enjoy the amenities and the innovations Clarke Realty has brought to Belvoir housing is the most satisfying.

"What we love about the project the most is seeing the Families live in the homes and we’ve helped make Belvoir a better place," said Nolan. "The awards are nice, but we are about building quality homes and communities."