In June, 2014, the New York State American Institute of Architects (AIA) presented SWBR with the 2014 Excelsior Award for its work on DePaul Halstead Square.
The Excelsior Award honors the best examples of public architecture, focusing on neighborhood transformation, urban revitalization, site planning, exterior and interior design, and sustainability. The design of the 2.4-acre DePaul Halstead Square addresses three distinct contexts: the commercial streetscape of Main Street, the residential character of Brown Street, and the historic campus of the former Saints Peter & Paul parish.
The project consisted of a new 55,000-square-foot, 75-unit single-room occupancy building for mental-health residents, a new 24-unit affordable apartment building, and a 14-unit Treatment Apartment Building (TAP) on one central site.
The central design theme for the project was to break from traditional mental-health care housing models and transform a former blighted area in the City of Rochester into a transformative and vibrant housing campus, enabling the owner to safely and effectively provide quality health care and treatment services to mental-health consumers.